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Optimising Our Economic Engine

Writer's picture: Dorenda BrittenDorenda Britten

Updated: Nov 8, 2024


Digital technology being "unlocked".


The National Business Review on the 15th of January raised their concern that our new government optimise our economic engine.


I have been dwelling on that question as that same concern is reflected in our start-up, recently renamed Unlock Innovation Limited.


Unlock Innovation seeks to appreciate the latent talent that we already have in New Zealand and make it available to the high growth technology sector.


Our goal is to address the internal culture of technology companies, enabling them to identify and support their dyslexic employees.


I can imagine the immediate reaction of my readers might be that you don’t have dyslexic employees in your organisation. However, the stats tell us 1 in 5 new Zealanders can be deemed as dyslexic. Meaning 1 in 5 of your employees is potentially hiding something.


Give or take, that amounts to one million New Zealanders. The 'work arounds' dyslexic employees perform are often nothing short of brilliant.


When we embarked on our initial research for Unlock Innovation, we imagined that recruiting dyslexic people would fill the skills shortfall in the tech sector. However, research with, not for, dyslexic employees and HR professionals revealed that recruiting into unaware environments leads to retention issues.


Patience and understanding is required by organisations to prepare for success. Patience in New Zealand is in short supply. Large expenditures on international recruiting is hitting limitations in that the world is short of technology skills. The sector also tells us, tertiary graduates are often challenged by the need for upskilling to align with technology developments.


So where do we find quick, willing, and adaptive learners?


The World Economic Forum has identified the skills needed for the 21st century. They form an almost perfect match found amongst the dyslexic community - given a chance to shine.


So optimising the economic engine.


If we desire to grow the technology sector as subsequent governments have indicated, then we need to populate it with supported home-grown talent.


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