Women in engineering

An Aotearoa where women are empowered to thrive.

It’s no secret that our CEO is a woman, and that she comes with a personal drive to see female representation in engineering roles increase! The good news is, that our team is 100% behind her giving tautoko (support) to this mission. In fact, women are fast evening up the numbers within our own team too!

We’re also doing all we can to actively support and create pathways for women to enter, develop, and lead in engineering, ensuring our industry is inclusive, innovative, and reflective of Aotearoa’s diverse society. Some initiatives include our Whanake Scholarship, which has a focus to support wāhine Māori, and thought leadership in publications and speaker events. Our CEO regularly supports and speaks at events for groups such as: NAWIC and WIN

By fostering an environment where wahine Māori and all women feel valued and supported, we are building a stronger, more dynamic engineering sector for the future.

Youth in engineering

Empowering the next generation of engineers.

Giving tautoko to tauira (students) is a focus we work hard to foster. We are committed to providing scholarships to aspiring engineers and fund a range of student awards for final year projects with key universities such as AUT, University of Auckland, University of Canterbury and the University of Waikato. We also have a student membership category to connect with our future engineers and tautoko them in their early career pathway.

We proudly sponsor a range of MECHA events such as their speed interviews to help students practise and prepare for real life interview scenario’s and their wellness day which advocates for mental health awareness during exams. We also host the Rotary forum on a yearly basis as a way to help inspire science and technology students.

The Wonder Project is another area where we are actively supporting rangatahi in collaboration with Engineering New Zealand’s not-for-profit, free programme for schools, designed to inspire young Kiwis in STEMM. We do this in conjunction with another program we tautoko with the House of Science NZ (Te Whare Pūtaiao) to help raise awareness of material circularity. This has been a great way for HERA to not only empower teachers to raise STEMM literacy, but to inspire our tamariki to be more curious in this space from an early age.

At HERA, we’re also pleased to offer internships, providing students with valuable work experience and insight into the engineering industry – we’re building a brighter future for Aotearoa, one student at a time.

Māori in engineering

Bringing mātauranga Māori into the every day.

Our team continues our journey to deepen our understanding of mātauranga Māori and build a genuine relationship with Māori which honours our commitments to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

We’ve partnered with the Puhoro STEMM Academy to deliver weekly te reo Maori and tikanga Maori lessons to strengthen our understanding so we can lead by example in fostering te ao Māori in engineering. Where we can, we sprinkle Māori into our everyday communications such as email signatures, our website and of course our annual report! A key focus of our communications has been to raise the mana of mātauranga Māori as a science and advocate for increased diversity through more Māori in engineering. We of course, have committed to driving a range of projects with a focus on mātauranga Māori as well.

Advocating for human rights

Why the ‘iti’ things matter.

We advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion as an important human right and business focus through inclusive language and behaviours across all cultures, abilities, ages, ethnicities, religious beliefs, sex, genders, gender identities and sexual orientations.

As such, we also strive for a team that reflects the diverse communities we serve, and have policy and procedures in place that reject harassment, bullying and discrimination and also advocate for cultural safety and inclusion.

One way we hold space, is the use of pronouns in our email signatures. In doing this, we ensure our organisation can be as strong as possible by working to include everyone on the journey. Sometimes these need to be nui (big), bold, and resounding actions. At other times it’s the iti (small) changes that count.

In fact, we believe it’s the iti signs of respect that help deliver a real sense of belonging in the workplace.