Growing Legacy
Thirty-six years after Dave and Chris Macdonald followed a vineyard dream to Marlborough, and 28 years after they named a wine label for their children Blair and Deni, the family is devoted to Bladen, says Deni Hopkins
"For genuine change to happen, we need to recognise that each person has different circumstances, and we need to allocate resource and opportunities to ensure we reach equal outcomes."
Lion, which includes Wither Hills Winery in Marlborough, has a suite of policies and initiatives to ensure that happens, including inclusive hiring practices that "counteract the risk of unconscious bias", a zero-tolerance commitment to gender-based harassment, discrimination and bullying, and a Team Gender Target of both men and women making up a minimum of 40% in all teams that are greater than five. Women make up 38% of the company's leadership positions and inclusion ratings through annual people surveys have never been higher, Sarah says. "We have seen that a more diverse team results in a better outcome than when we have a team where everyone thinks, feels and looks the same. We will continue to strive for more diverse teams as we continue to innovate and grow."
There's also a commitment to ensuring fairness in pay for "like for like" roles, via annual competitive pay reviews, she says. "This is a commitment that we made in 2017 when we undertook our first gender pay gap analysis. At that time, we became one of the first companies to ban questions to job candidates about their salary history, in an effort to tackle the gender pay gap."
Six years on, the company has continued to maintain less than 1% difference to pay competitiveness in like for like roles, Sarah says. "We continue to monitor this annually and make corrective action when necessary." The work is about being fair, and "doing the right thing for the long term," she adds. "We encourage other organisations to undertake your own gender pay gap analysis. The results might surprise you."
