Uno Loco Group is taking its brand strategy, design, connection and experience making expertise to a new audience: to people on the inside of businesses and organisations.
Tor White will lead Uno Loco Group’s new Experience and Culture offering as General Manager.
“Every client and business leader we talk to is feeling the seismic shifts and disruption to ‘normal’ work,” says White.
“Not only are we in the midst of a tremendously challenging economic environment; but at the same time, employee expectations, needs and our ways of working continue to change. We’re asking our teams to upskill and cross-skill faster, to master disruptive technology and changing working models. Not to mention the pressures of just being human in 2024.”
This is not about re-inventing new HR or P&C processes, rather the team will be dedicated to re-imagining the employee experience and informing culture, by designing change-making moments throughout the employee journey. This will happen from onboarding through to rewards & recognition; L&D and upskilling, ways-of-working transformation, through to cultural activations.
“It’s time to focus on how we can create healthy, nurturing and productive workplace cultures that support the changing needs of the humans within them”, says White.
According to CEO Blair Glubb, Uno Loco has increasingly been asked to deliver work focused on transforming how people think, feel and take action.
“Our clients trust us to combine everything we understand about people, with strategy and physical activation as one seamless, incredibly effective programme”.
The work has already delivered behaviour change programs with best-ever engagement and performance for Air New Zealand, and an onboarding programme for One New Zealand that completely rethought the way staff were brought on board and aligned with the company’s brand.
“What does this look like? Working through our lens of people and energy first, with strategy, design, storytelling and theatre as some of our tools, we will focus on (made-for-humans and contextually relevant) moments where swift and impactful shifts can be made in the employee journey, from onboarding through to rewards & recognition programmes; L&D and upskilling, ways-of-working transformation, and cultural activation. We work in sprints and often as an extension to people and culture teams, ensuring we deliver work that is empowering to those teams, and can be then carried on by them.
“Personally, this is exciting, as I’ve always seen the internal brand and soul of a business in the same light, and with the same importance, as the outside product/service. People are on the outside, people are on the inside – and it feels really timely to weave all this together.”
White’s new role means that founder and Director Craig Muller will be joined by long term Executive Producer Cassandra Muller as co-GM’s of event agency Uno Loco.
Glubb says, “Craig and Cass have been core to the success and delivery of the work that’s established us as New Zealand’s leading business event producers. It’s wonderful to acknowledge this by bringing them together as leaders of this business.”