Creating sustainable indigenous tourism businesses through effective and culturally appropriate workforce planning and development

I would like to acknowledge the traditional people, the elders past and present of the Huronne - Wendat Nation,and thank you for welcoming me to your country.

I had the privilege of attending and speaking at the 3rd IATC in Whistler last year. I met many wonderful people and learnt unbelievable amounts about so many cultures, and through the many experiences and friendships have enhanced my respect for, and of others, and their cultures. So to be attending again in 2015 for me is a significant privilege.

In Australia, Tourism is proving to be the future for regional and remote communities, both economically and socially.

This is no less so for indigenous communities.

Tourism and hospitality services not only allow us to share our culture with others, increasing understanding, empathy and respect for culture, but in the case of indigenous tourism also provides a vehicle through which to connect and re-connect community members with their culture.

In my work this is proving to have a profound positive influence upon a community’s persona.

“Workforce planning is a business-driven and business-owned process. It’s aboutknowing your organisation’s business and using this knowledge to position yourorganisation’s workforce to best deliver your business outcomes and manageworkforce-related risks.” (Australian Public Service Commission APS Workforce Planning Guide, December 2011)

The average indigenous owned/operated tourism business in Australia turnsover staff at the rate of 1 employee every 3 months. So the financial cost to a business of lowretention rates and high staff turnover rates is at the very least equivalent to 1 person’s wages for the year.

Strategically planning your workforce to respond to cultural imperatives and to createemployment opportunities and career pathways is a highly responsive and effectivemechanism by which to empower both individuals and groups.

Slide 4

So, workforce planning for indigenous tourism businesses.

What does this mean?

Remember, no matter how much technology and how cloud-based your business is without people you do not have a business. Your employees and your customers are people. You simply cannot avoid this fact.

You are French Canadian and run a tourism business.

You are First Nation Canadian and run a tourism business.

You are Anglo Australian and run a tourism business.

You are Aboriginal Australian and run a tourism business.

You run a tourism business but you do not run the same tourism business.

You may have the same products and services, but you do not run the same tourism business.

Even if you deliver the same tourism products and services you do not run the same tourism business.

Why?

The answer is in your defining culture. Your values, beliefs, traditions, rites are not the same. Even at the broad Canadian or Australian cultural level it is not the same. How you view the world is determined by who you are – your past, your present, and your relationship to and with the earth, the sea and the sky. These variables are key drivers in how you live your life and how you engage with others. They also influence how you do business. So they should also influence the way in which you plan for your business.

Let us take this a step further,

You are an Indigenous Australian and your run a tourism business delivering indigenous products and services to tourists.

And now a step further,

You are an Indigenous Australian and you run a tourism business delivering indigenous products and services to “visitors to country” and only employ indigenous people.

And a step further, you belong to the Yjolongu people and run a business sharing Yjolongu culture with “visitors to country” and only employ Yjolongu people.

It is this specificity that needs to be considered when planning for your business – placing people and culture first.

Slide 10

There are cultural imperatives that influence and impact upon your daily life as an Indigenous person. These have to be front and centre of how you staff your business and define the roles of your staff and how your staff interact with your “visitors to country”.

On a contemporary level in Australia we have a system of government that provides structure and support for businesses. This is principally done through Industrial legislation, including remuneration awards and industry agreements along with other forms of legislation and regulation.

And this is “good” as it creates a mechanism by which to protect businesses and their employees.

But it is also “not good” in that it only considers modern, western, capitalist consumer business models and cultural values. It does not take into consideration divergent cultural values, beliefs and practices.

As an example, it provides for 20 days annual leave and 10 days personal leave. It allows you to take a single day’s paid leave to attend a funeral.

So what does this mean for a business when its staff are also local elders who are required to mourn for 14 days when someone from their community passes away? What does it mean when cultural activities and responsibilities require your staff to be away from work for several weeks per year?

This is where culturally relevant workforce planning comes into play.

Planning for such things as job roles and staffing levels around cultural imperatives is critical to your businesses success. It is also imperative in ensuring the visitor experience is positive – seamless, sensitive, respectful and rewarding.

If staff are required to spend extensive periods of time each year away from work attending to cultural responsibilities then maybe you can structure your staff remuneration to reflect this (i.e. pro rata pay to ensure cash flow for your staff rather than extensive periods without pay). Or possibly you can employ more staff but on a part-time basis and broaden the skills base of your employees so that you can cover for staff absences.

The tourism industry is great at planning its activity around seasonality (i.e. when the weather does not permit trade or when conditions are attractive).

But it is not good in planning business operations around culture.

It is important that you ask such questions as:

What cultural events need to be prioritised for your staff?

And what does this mean for your business from a trading perspective?

Are there better times to trade than others?

Maybe you can look at partnering with businesses in other sectors such that your staff can be employed year round? And maybe this work could have a cultural relationship to your business and/or its staff?

Slide 16

I had the privilege of working with an Aboriginal organisation located in Australia’s tropical north. Here, the indigenous communityestablished 2 businesses that operate in opposite seasons. The businesses are complimentary in that they both connect directly to culture; one is delivering guided tours the other is remediating and conserving the environment. These 2 businesses are integrated to the extent that they employ the same staff but in differing roles. Conservationists and horticulturalists during one season become rangers and guides during another season. The knowledge acquired as a conservationist informs and determines the knowledge shared with visitors when guiding.

Workforce planning and development principles were used to identify a sustainable business model which not only addressed labour and skills issues, including continuity of employment. By developing an integrated business model that connects conservation and tourism it creates both employment opportunity that is respectful of culture and even more importantly it provides a pathway through which young people were able to be reconnected to culture developing an understanding of the importance of sky, land and water. It also opened the door to allowing cultural obligations to become part of an employee’s job role and even part of the businesses general activities and strategic goals.

This particular community happens to have significant social issues including some of the highest rates of suicide, unemployment, drug and alcohol addiction, and youth pregnancy anywhere in the world. The community has become welfare dependent. It has lost its focus and there is an entire generation who have been lost to their culture as a consequence of the social issues. The average life expectancy is 54 years for women and 48 years for men.

So it became an imperative that community centric social outcomes were achieved as a business outcome.

Close with slides 17-18

By creating a culturally relevant, culturally respectfulsustainable business model a number of outcomes are achieved.

  • It brings revenue to the community that is connected to and a direct outcome of cultural activities. This revenue can be reinvested in the community funding support programs and other socially responsible initiatives.
  • It provides culturally relevant skills development that links directly to employment outcomes.
  • It connects people to culture; re-establishing beliefs, traditions and pride.
  • It also connects visitors to the culture providing an opportunity to break down myths and misunderstandings.

Through the development of sustainable indigenous owned and operated tourism businesses within and adjacent to indigenous communities provides several critical outcomes.

  • It providesincreased employment opportunities for local people with locally owned businesses (i.e. reduces the historical dependence upon non-indigenous owned businesses for jobs) - this in turn offers a pathway to empowerment.
  • It allows the community to identify aspects and elements of their culture that can responsibly and respectfully provide a range of business opportunities along with the necessary means of control over this.