Cultural identity

We’re committed to fostering a culturally safe, diverse and inclusive workplace. We continue to employ people from many different cultural backgrounds while promoting harmony and respect in the workplace.

People currently working in our Australia Business have told us they were born across approximately 85 countries. A majority were born in Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Iran, South Africa and the Philippines.

Asylum seekers and refugees

GHD is a founding partner of CareerSeekers – a non-profit organisation which creates employment opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees, many of whom have held professional careers in their country of origin. The CareerSeekers internship program is similar to our existing partnership with sister organisation CareerTrackers, which focuses on Indigenous Australians.

Since 2016 we have welcomed more than 67 CareerSeekers interns across our offices in Australia from high, mid, graduate and student career levels. Internships are initially three months long and can often lead to permanent professional opportunities within or outside of GHD. We currently have 34 employees who commenced through the CareerSeekers Program across Australia.

The interns, originally from Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, Rwanda, Syria and Yemen, have contributed to our Engineering (Transport, Water, Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical), Project Management, Environmental Science, Geology, Business Services (Finance, Administration, Information Technology, Marketing) and Data Analysis teams.

On a global scale, GHD is one of the only organisations to be involved with all the CareerSeekers and CareerTrackers sister organisations: InRoads (USA and Canada), CareerTrackers PNG (Papua New Guinea) and TupaToa (New Zealand).

Work Readiness Training Program

We hosted 30 CareerSeekers for one week of the CareerSeekers Work Readiness Training in August in Melbourne and Sydney. All CareerSeekers interns are required to undertake this training before they undertake internships with employer partners. The Work Readiness Training provides participants with practical insights into what to expect while working in Australia, exploring cultural differences and workshopping real life work scenarios and facilitating mock interviews to help prepare participants for their internships and set them up for success. As part of this, 22 GHD volunteers completed 70 volunteering hours in 2022 supporting mock interviews for both mid-career professionals and students and presenting and assisting with the workshops.

67 CareerSeekers interns since 2016 50% are still part of GHD today

Food Festival in Queensland

Our South Queensland region held a ‘Food Festival’ week which allowed our people to share their cultural food and heritage with their colleagues by bringing in a variety of dishes such as South African Milk Tart, Maltese Pastizzis and Aish Al-Seraya Arabic dessert. It was a fun opportunity for our people to learn about foods from a number of diverse cultures.

Kinda’s story of identity, survival and resilience

After escaping war torn Syria, Kinda Assayegh had to start a new life in a new country. In a piece she wrote, Kinda reflects on her life in Syria, her arrival in Australia and the support she gained from GHD and the CareerSeekers program. → Read Kinda's story here.

Happy Eid! Eid Mubarak! (‘Have a blessed feast’)

This year, people from our three Sydney offices joined our 2022 Eid celebrations in early May. Eid is an annual Muslim festival that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the completion of fasting from dusk until dawn. The word Eid means ‘festival’ or ‘feast’ in Arabic and is about ‘giving thanks to God for all our blessings’.

Sydney Wellbeing Champion, Fatima Tuj Jahura says the holiday serves as a great reminder to share with those around us, including the less fortunate.

“It was wonderful to see so many GHD people from different cultural backgrounds join in the spirit of friendship and gratitude. We are thankful that we can share this important holiday with our colleagues,” says Fatima.

Pictured top right during Eid celebrations: Wasif Hassan , Rory Waddell and Fatima Jahura Pictured right: Fatima Jahura and Emily Ray

“Fleeing Iraq and seeking refuge in a strange new country was a challenging experience. When I came to Australia, it was important to me to stay connected to the civil engineering field.

Through the CareerSeekers program, I joined GHD’s Sydney Roads team as an engineer. I will always be grateful to GHD for being so supportive and inclusive, especially to mid-career professionals from refugee and humanitarian backgrounds like myself.”