Page 17 - Food&Drink Magazine October 2018

THOUGHT LEADER
✷ HANDS ON
community; and having integrity in all we do.”
According to Wiley, once the values had been defined, demonstrating those values was also important.
“I needed to lead the drive with the culture and set the example. Unless culture starts with the leader of the business, I just can’t see how it would ever work - you can’t delegate the journey we have been
on so far - you have to live
it together.
“I have had a strong interest in personal development and improving self-awareness over the past few years. This has resulted in unbelievable individual growth, as well as the empowerment of many at
Wiley, and this is now becoming embedded across the company through our actions and behaviours, in our successes and even the way we manage failure,” Wiley says.
“Our leaders uphold our values and demonstrate our behaviours, and I also hope everyone at Wiley feels empowered to do the same up, down and across.”
A CULTURAL EXPERIENCE
The culture of the company is considered so important to the success of the business that Wiley has created a specific website – culture. wiley.com.au – just for this purpose, and it is embedded in
culture website. We then share the link.”
“More and more we are including a reference to this website in all our business documentation and content. We also have a culture awards program that we run annually,” Wiley says.
STAFF BONUS
When it comes to hiring, the company specifically seeks out diversity.
“The more varied the experience and backgrounds that make up our teams, the better the results, in my experience.
“And I know this helps the business grow because my
BUILDING
COMMUNITY
Wiley has partnered with FareShare to build a high-capacity charity kitchen in Brisbane's Morningside.
Believed to be the country's largest kitchen of its kind, the facility is being delivered by Wiley, which is providing its services at cost.
The production kitchen will be opened in October 2018, with the aim of cooking 1.25 million meals in the first year of operation.
Wiley has been onsite with FareShare since the end of May and has been working closely with the charity since late last year. Last month, a group of its employees helped to install STOMMPY bollards and safety protection equipment to help keep hundreds of volunteers safe in the facility and ensures the facility is protected.
FareShare rescues food that would otherwise go to waste and cooks it into free, nutritious meals for people in crisis, and the kitchen will have the capacity to cook five million meals a year.
FareShare is duplicating its capacity to cook rescued food at scale from Melbourne to Queensland, where surplus food is available and community needs are acute.
Wiley project manager Lauren Ellis said many suppliers have chipped in to offer services at a greatly discounted rate.
The kitchen will be powered by local volunteers and supplied with quality ingredients by Foodbank Queensland, which will also distribute the nutritious cooked meals through its existing network of charities.
“ We are a big believer in leading with values – and when I say values, I mean real values, not marketing values.”
Tom Wiley and some of the Wiley Team (Ben Najman,
Dan Brown and
Ade Ariantika) after a volunteer installation of STOMMPY safety security systems at FareShare’s new Brisbane charity kitchen.
the organisation and also available externally.
“Anyone can contribute to our culture website – whether they are internal or external, and if there is a better way to do something, it is always embraced!
“And when job seekers are applying or checking out availability to work with us, one of the first things they’ll discover is a link to our culture website instead of the primary website. We believe in employing on a cultural fit before skills,” Wiley says.
Also unusual is the use of Facebook as a primary form of communication at Wiley. The use of secure Facebook groups started many years ago and was premised on the belief that if one person asks a question and it is answered, everyone benefits from that answer, Wiley says.
“When someone does something that resonates with our culture, we add this to the
friends and clients ask me what we feed our staff, and this always makes me smile,” Wiley says.
“Some of our staff have worked with us across multiple generations too, some at the same time as my grandfather, father and myself. We also have kids of current and past staff working with us.
“Over the last 30 years, we have gone from a small tribe
of people to a larger tribe of people. Like all businesses
we have evolved across the generations from an autocratic to an empowered team-based culture,” Wiley says.
“What has stayed the same, though, is that thing that often goes unspoken but is always there when you need it – a deep caring for each other.
“We expect everyone to stand on their own two feet, but we are all there for each other when the big challenges in life happen.” ✷
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