A new company in Brisbane is helping pave the way for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander small businesses and organisations to create better management systems, training and retain government funding.
NN Consulting was created when owner and Koori woman Natalie Nona took a voluntary redundancy from the Queensland State Government from her position in human resource management.
“After having some conversations with (my husband) about the difficulties that happen in organisations, one of the conversations that kept coming up was that we get really disheartened when Indigenous organisations lose their funding,” Natalie says.
“With the community organisations in particular, their staff are doing quite a difficult job in the community. They’re looking after health or housing and they’re in constant demand so if we have really robust HR systems working in the background then they’ll be able to perform better at the coal face.”
Natalie has a long list of qualifications in the area of business management and plans to undertake more study. So far she has completed a Bachelor of Business Management and Leadership degree, her Training and Assessment certificate and is a registered workplace rehabilitation and return to work co-ordinator.
“My aim is to skill people up who are in management roles that they’re having difficulties with for example, managing staff or performance management, or communication skills,” Natalie says.
She hopes that through NN Consulting there will be more opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and that Aboriginal business will play a larger role in the economy.
“We want to see a stronger Indigenous business in the economy and particularly want to see more Indigenous engagement in the corporate sector,” Natalie says.
“We’ve got a big push for it at the moment, and mines for example take on a lot of Indigenous employees, but what we’re constantly seeing is that these Indigenous employees are truck drivers.”
She hopes that in the future Australia will see more Indigenous people in higher roles in companies through the training and support that NN Consulting offers.
“It’s not just about empowering, it’s about making sure organisations and businesses are very well supported so that they can get down to business.”
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