The Culturally Intelligent Safety Professional
The Culturally Intelligent Safety Professional
Podcast Description
In today’s multi-cultural organisations, cultural intelligence capabilities will be critical to enable health and safety practitioners and professionals to build interpersonal trust with members of the workforce. This podcast provides a platform whereby Safety Professionals can develop a pathway to enhance their cultural intelligence capability, helping them to function effectively when working in a multi-cultural situation.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores themes such as cultural intelligence, effective communication, and adaptive leadership with episodes dedicated to specific cultural perspectives like Māori and Pacifica communities. For instance, Episode 4 dives into the significance of Māori values in safety practices, while Episode 8 discusses storytelling as a vital tool for engaging with Pacific communities, and Episode 12 covers Mission Orientated Research in farming environments.
In today’s multi-cultural organisations, cultural intelligence capabilities will be critical to enable health and safety practitioners and professionals to build interpersonal trust with members of the workforce.
This podcast provides a platform whereby Safety Professionals can develop a pathway to enhance their cultural intelligence capability, helping them to function effectively when working in a multi-cultural situation.
What a though provoking conversation with Dr Hend Zaki, we covered a lot of ground from hijab and handshakes to halal food and prayer rooms and how these realities impact Muslims at work every single day. What’s clear is that workplaces can’t just rely on general diversity policies. To ensure people feel seen and supported, organisations need to embed inclusion into their systems, their leadership, and their everyday interactions.
What stood out most to me in this conversation was just how much inclusion depends on curiosity the kind that moves beyond surface-level gestures and into real cultural understanding. Hend’s experiences and research highlight that meaningful inclusion for Muslim professionals doesn’t just happen by accident it requires intention, humility, and structure.
Here are five key lessons and actions for health and safety professionals and workplace leaders looking to build more inclusive environments for Muslim colleagues:
Five Key Lessons + Actions for Inclusive Workplaces
1. Belonging Doesn’t Come from Appearance — It Comes from Acceptance
Action: Build real connection by getting to know your team personally. Inclusion is felt when people are treated as whole individuals, not stereotypes.
2. Visibility of Difference Must Not Lead to Isolation
Action: Educate staff on the diversity within Islam and avoid assumptions. Foster curiosity over judgment — especially around topics like hijab, prayer, and gender dynamics.
3. Support Cultural Needs Through Systems, Not Just Goodwill
Action: Formalize accommodations in onboarding kits and HR policies — e.g., prayer spaces, flexibility during Ramadan, halal food at events. Don't rely on employees having to ask.
4. Respect Goes Beyond Handshakes
Action: Normalize alternative greetings. Teach teams that gestures like placing a hand on the heart are respectful and rooted in religious values — not a sign of disengagement.
5. Psychological Safety Requires Cultural Intelligence
Action: Train leaders to recognize unconscious bias and ingroup/outgroup dynamics. Understand how stereotypes and media narratives may silently shape workplace behavior.
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