LA Times story on lessons learnt from Christchurch earthquakes

Rong-Gong Lin, a reporter who has worked on earthquake news at the Los Angeles Times for nearly a decade, recently visited Christchurch and spoke to a number of people, including Tracy Hatton, to learn more about the lessons California can learn from Christchurch.  As he notes in his story, Christchurch bears a distinct resemblance to California cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, sharing similar building codes, architectural styles and proximity to major faults and can help educate Californians on what we might to expect when the next earthquake hits one of their cities.

Ron wrote three stories featured in the paper.

• This is what a devastating earthquake in California would look like — Christchurch, New Zealand, shattered by a 2011 earthquake, offers an urgent lesson for California.
• Mental health: When the Big One hits, emotional scars will last for years. Just ask New Zealand quake survivors
• Lessons learned: I went to New Zealand to understand what a huge California earthquake would look like

EQC Biennial Grant funding for new project

We are excited to have been awarded a grant under the New Zealand EQC Biennial Grants programme.

Tracy Hatton will be leading a team of researchers looking at how organisations perceive their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and what they actually do to reduce earthquake impacts on their organisation and employees. The project will also look at identifying ways in which policy and legislation can be better leveraged to encourage behaviour change to improve New Zealand’s resilience to disaster.

Read the full press release from EQC.

Research Consultant vacancy

We are looking for a driven, open-minded person to join our team as a Research Consultant. This is a unique opportunity to join a growing business. You will be involved in a diverse range of research and consulting projects while contributing to the vision, strategy, and development of the business and pursuing your own resilience related projects.

About Us

Resilient Organisations is a niche research and consulting company that helps organisations, industries, and economies thrive in any environment. We specialise in developing and administering tools and strategies for decision making, resilience assessment, and education. As a social enterprise, we aim to maximise the positive social impact of our work.

What we do

Resilient Organisations provides a broad range of resilience consulting services to organisations as well as conducting resilience-related research. Please see our website www.resorgs.org.nz to find out more.

How we do it

We are a small team who believe work should be fun. We operate a flexible working environment to promote wellbeing inside and outside of work. Our values are key to the way we operate. We work collaboratively within our team, and with our partners, clients, and funders to produce high quality, evidence-based outputs that make a difference.

The role

The main tasks will involve:

• Co-creating innovative approaches to client and research problems
• Liaising with clients and other stakeholders
• Reading, analysing, and accurately synthesising complex material
• Collecting data through interviews, surveys, and other means
• Writing reports and articles for publication.

Skills and experience

You will need the ability to:

• Present ideas clearly and concisely both verbally and in writing
• Switch readily between working independently and collaboratively
• Ask for help when needed and be comfortable contributing to group discussions
• Switch readily between leading projects and supporting others
• Demonstrate proficiency in managing your own time to ensure projects are completed on time
• Effectively plan and maintain interest in long-term projects.

You will ideally possess:

• A Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., business, engineering, sociology, geography) and post-graduate qualification at the Masters or higher level from an accredited institution
• A high level of proficiency in Word, Excel, Outlook
• Some familiarity with statistical analysis software (SPSS, R etc)
• An ability to identify and select pragmatic solutions within constrained timeframes
• Self-motivation and a positive ‘can-do’ attitude.

To apply for this role, please email your CV and covering letter to [email protected] by 20 January 2019.

If you would like further information about the position or Resilient Organisations, contact Tracy Hatton on +64 (0) 21 160 7707.