Recognising BMD Group

A national group of companies engaged in engineering, design, construction and land development, the BMD Group services clients and partners in the urban development, transport, infrastructure, resources and energy sectors. Cross Cultural Consultants is proud to have the BMD Group as one of our return clients, and would like to take a moment to commend them on their dedication to ensuring their staff have access to the broad range cross cultural training we offer.

The BMD Group operates five companies, including BMD Constructions, BMD Urban, Empower Engineers & Project Managers, JMac Constructions and Urbex. Across these companies are some 1,700 staff at all levels. The BMD Group has always prided themselves on seeing the strengths of their staff, encouraging high quality and genuine relationships with all their clients and stakeholders. This is embodied in their company motto: “Our Business is Our People”. This mind set is something that the team at Cross Cultural Consultants have seen clearly during our time working with the BMD Group, and that people-focused approach has served them well in their cross cultural training endeavours.

While some large companies become caught up in the day-to-day management of business, CCC feels the BMD Group has always tried to go further, with a future-focused attitude on matters of cultural importance. They have a strong vision for reconciliation in their ranks, aiming to “create a diverse and inclusive workforce that is respectful of differences, recognizing that reconciliation forms part of our past and future”. It is heartening as an Indigenous business, to see the passion with which the BMD Group has approached reconciliation, and how they are aspiring to “create a culture that values and utilises the contributions of people from different backgrounds”. They have a genuine and honest commitment to the delivery of positive outcomes for their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, clients and communities, they recognise the power that they have as a larger company to drive opportunity, and seek every chance to do so.

Cross Cultural Consultants have worked extensively with the BMD Group in these goals, and have been a part of the process of the company rolling out cultural awareness training at a national level. We recognise, as they do, that this kind of training has an enormous impact on helping the company to achieve their goal of improving opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, both within their project and corporate workforces. Our own role in this has been, over the last 18 months, providing the BMD Group with over 45 courses delivered across Australia that have involved more than 1,000 of their workforce. The incredible success and positive impact of these courses has left the team at Cross Cultural Consultants more than eager to see what 2019 will for our two companies in continuing to work together to build a future of improved outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Thank you BMD Group for choosing Cross Cultural Consultants as your cross cultural training partner!

Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash

Celebrating Our Work With CareFlight

As we approach our milestone of 30 years in operation, Cross Cultural Consultants has realised that there are some things worth celebrating in the world of business. One of these is good relationships, which is why we’re taking a moment to talk about CareFlight today.
You may already know that CareFlight has been a key player in Australia’s aeromedical services industry for more than three decades, including more than 10 years operating in the Northern Territory. What you might not know is that CareFlight is also a key client of Cross Cultural Consultants and has been an important part of our journey in the last few years.
Cross Cultural Consultants have worked with CareFlight for several years, delivering cross cultural training to CareFlight employees at all levels of their organisation. CareFlight has been entirely committed during this time to learning how to effectively engage and work with Aboriginal people in a meaningful and mindful way, particularly involving patients in need of emergency flights to access medical attention. They operate in in some of the most remote locations in the Northern Territory, across all situations and encountering a variety of day-to-day challenges.
Working cross cultural is always a complex undertaking, as anyone who has operated in this space can confirm. CareFlight deals with this at a further level again as their staff often deal with patients in a state of distress and high emotion, struggling to make rational decisions. In these situations, there is a higher risk to both patients and staff, which is why it is so important to target potential increases to risk where possible. CareFlight have dedicated themselves to this in their commitment to cross cultural training, which is universally recognised as one of the core foundations in transforming how services are delivered by cultural outsiders into often minimally understood cultural environments.
There are confronting issues of Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory, as in many parts of Australia, despite continued efforts by governments on all sides to ‘Close the Gap’. It is a constant challenge for service providers working in these fields to recognise the unique nature of Aboriginal culture,and acknowledge the connections and strength that Aboriginal people can bring when it comes to solving their own health problems.
As a cross cultural training provider, and as an Aboriginal business, we are proud to have worked with CareFlight, and hope to continue to do so into the future. Their extended commitment to embracing cross cultural ways of working should be commended, along with their dedication to working with Aboriginal businesses like Cross Cultural Consultants to offer authentic and informed cross cultural training programs to all of their staff.

Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash