\u201c… the review will include a focus on how issues are reported and responded to, ensuring our team members feel safe and supported should they witness or experience any inappropriate behaviour,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
OneRoof\u2019s head of national sales Nicholas Hammond left NZME on December 19 last year after a real estate agent alleged he made a sexually explicit remark to her on a client trip, the Herald understands. <\/p>\n
Hammond declined to comment when approached by the Herald. <\/p>\n
OneRoof\u2019s head of national sales Nicholas Hammond left NZME in December. <\/p>\n
Former ZM radio boss Ross Flahive departed NZME in mid-December following an investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct, which the Herald understands related to messages to staff. <\/p>\n
Flahive said at the time: \u201cI left NZME after acknowledging that my conduct fell short of the standards expected of me. I take full responsibility for my actions and apologise for the distress I caused.\u201d <\/p>\n
Former ZM content director Ross Flahive. <\/p>\n
NZME chief executive Michael Boggs told staff about the review in a company-wide message on Monday. <\/p>\n
Wellington lawyer and workplace investigator Andrew Scott Howman will lead the review. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe reviewer has been asked to consider whether there are any lessons that can be applied across NZME more broadly. The board has also invited anyone from across the company who may have concerns to contribute to the review,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect the review to take up to six weeks. Once completed, we will share key findings and resulting actions with our teams, while maintaining appropriate confidentiality for all participants.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Herald understands Hammond left his role after NZME was notified of an alleged incident during a OneRoof client trip in May last year at Fiji\u2019s Sheraton Denarau Resort. The event was a getaway for select real estate agents who work with OneRoof. <\/p>\n
Sources claim some in the group had been drinking before the alleged incident occurred. <\/p>\n
The Herald understands members of the group were in and around the pool when Hammond allegedly approached a female real estate agent. She alleged Hammond made a sexually explicit remark. <\/p>\n
Sources say she told him to \u201cbugger off\u201d. <\/p>\n
The agent is understood to have complained to an NZME manager while they were still in Fiji and was allegedly reassured the matter would be addressed. <\/p>\n
It is understood that manager \u2013 who has also since left the business – met the complainant when she returned to Auckland and again reassured her the matter would be dealt with. <\/p>\n
The Herald understands the woman received no further contact from NZME at the time. <\/p>\n
When it emerged Hammond had applied for a more senior OneRoof role in November, a person connected to the complainant contacted NZME. <\/p>\n
An HR representative visited the woman on December 17 and apologised to her, saying the company had no prior knowledge of any complaint, the Herald understands. <\/p>\n
Hammond left NZME two days later. On the morning of his exit, a source says Boggs told the OneRoof team it was effective immediately. <\/p>\n
Hammond, who is a marriage celebrant, declined to answer the Herald\u2019s questions about his departure from NZME. <\/p>\n
NZME board chair Steven Joyce. Photo \/ Dean Purcell. <\/p>\n
Joyce said \u201c… we can\u2019t comment on specific employment matters. However, I can confirm that matters regarding these managers were addressed promptly as soon as NZME\u2019s senior management were made aware of them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Asked if the board or management thought NZME had a culture problem, Joyce said: <\/p>\n
\u201cNZME conducts regular engagement and health and wellbeing surveys across the company for employees to share their feedback on NZME as a workplace. The company is proud to have an employee net promoter score [in engagement surveys] in the top 5% of media companies globally. This means the vast majority of our employees would recommend NZME as a place to work. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs mentioned … the board has invited anyone from across the company who has concerns to engage confidentially with the independent review. The review will also consider whether there are any lessons from these recent events which could apply to NZME more widely.\u201d <\/p>\n
Former OneRoof head Greg Hornblow left NZME in November last year. At the time, in announcing to staff Hornblow\u2019s departure, Boggs said his exit was effective immediately. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c… the review will include a focus on how issues are reported and responded to, ensuring our team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[148228,34506,74,1656,34749,3544,42,21556,1743,101,13102,1073,43,26263,1118,762,5843,1529,61,40,38,41,39,17708],"class_list":["post-268323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-abrupt","tag-abruptly","tag-after","tag-company","tag-conduct","tag-exits","tag-headlines","tag-independent","tag-launched","tag-left","tag-managers","tag-media","tag-news","tag-nzme","tag-of","tag-review","tag-senior","tag-three","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-workplace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}