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The Whitefox culture – Walking the walk on DEI
We’ve all reflected on the paths we’ve walked and envisioned the one ahead of us. These paths might look long and winding, spanning countries and careers, scattered with speed bumps and sometimes potholes. As people, we want a business to truly see what we’ve gathered along the way to make us ‘us’. At Whitefox, that’s exactly what we set out to do.
Looking towards our own future, we couldn’t be more excited about the direction our recently recruited Head of People and Culture, Samuel Cushing, will take us in. “Humans grow in so many different ways, there isn’t a single ‘best-set’ route for defining success. Tapping into that individual growth journey, encouraging a broad spectrum of approaches to achieving, and then bringing those minds together collectively is a wonderful cocktail!” Sam said.
We caught up with Sam to discuss Whitefox’s internal culture, and how we thrive in our approach to diversity.
What does it mean to be ‘Head of People and Culture’?
As a brand new role for us at Whitefox, we’re excited to see just how Sam makes it his own. “The job title means different things to different organisations. There is no one pre-defined description that captures it in its entirety, or one set of skills that deem you’ll be successful. To me, the role is about facilitation – bringing amazing people together, to do amazing things.
The biggest thing that attracted me to the position at Whitefox was the opportunity to part of something making a significant impact on renewables energy industry and our planet. To be part of an organisation with a strong core values ethos and focus placed on doing the right thing every day. As per our blueprint, it spans the humans within the business, our customers, with our ways of working, communication styles, and everything we do. I love that.
I’m responsible for creating platforms that enable people to bring their best version of themself to work, and ensuring that the culture is threaded together between the different locations we’re in. Ultimately, I’m responsible for making sure everyone enjoys coming to work here!”
Sam is passionate about forming relationships and truly understanding employees, finding out what their personal interests are, where their aspirations and inspirations come from, what motivates them, and in turn, aligning and applying structured development plans to fuel that purpose. .
By helping people understand just what it means to be ‘A Whitefoxer’, Sam takes a personal approach to establishing how each individual contributes to our mission within their role at Whitefox. This is designed in a way which supports both the growth of the person and solidifies the purpose we are collectively working towards. “It’s about working to identify what their strengths are, how they love contributing to the business and promoting those elements into our world, as opposed to cutting and refining people into a shape to fit us.”
As ever, innovation is at the heart of Whitefox
We want to be agile, we want to be innovative, we want to be disruptive. Our drive and ambition for innovation is weaved through every single part of Whitefox, we strive to be and create forward-thinking industry leaders who maximise their strengths and personalise their roles – as Sam puts it “we don’t want to create robots”. We look to both hire and harness these skills within our team to enhance our entire business, bringing diversity in perspectives and problem-solving approaches.
In order to bring new solutions to the market, we want people who are solutions-oriented and able to ask – ‘how can I achieve that?’. We at Whitefox look to encourage people to step outside their comfort zones, and feel safe and supported in doing so. Whether it’s speaking up at group meetings, weighing into company plans, putting proposals forward or having ideation sessions with different groups across the business around designing initiatives, we believe only this inclusivity can drive innovation. This culture of empowerment and innovation underpins everything we do, creates passion and purpose and transcends into our ambition to delight our customers.
“The Whitefox system installation for us has been a dream come true”
Carl Sitzmann, E Energy Adams
Within the inclusivity is a lack of judgement – we give people the confidence and freedom to explore ideas, make mistakes and learn from them, building a progressive culture that grows increasingly informed and resilient. Having this flow of energy within our company is infectious, we respect one another and help one another grow as individuals and professionals. Being driven by the same purpose creates a collective alignment and organisational rhythm that if sustained, generates incredible impact for our customers.
What does working for Whitefox mean?
Working for Whitefox is an opportunity to work for a purpose-driven company and have a role that’s bigger than just a job – you get excited about making a distinct impact, which is increasingly motivating. We are here to make waves in our industry and act as a flag-bearer for diversity, equity and inclusion within engineering. As a fundamental component of our strategy, we are looking to break gender and generation barriers that currently exist within the industry as a whole, and through this, enrich our capabilities across our field.
“The breadth of experience & opportunity on offer at Whitefox, in a progressive and disruptive industry, is like nothing I’ve ever worked on. I want to facilitate and enhance that even further through my role” Sam explains. “As a working culture, Whitefox is collaborative, open, and ideas-driven”. Currently, we’re recruiting on a bigger scale than ever before, looking to increasingly diversify our workforce and strengthen our culture towards our shared vision.
You can find our full range of vacancies here.
About Whitefox Technologies Limited
Whitefox Technologies, with 22 years of industrial experience, is a leading solutions provider for fuel ethanol and other alcohol production processes. Specializing in technology development and process integration based on proprietary membrane solutions, its efficient designs reduce energy and water consumption in fuel ethanol and other renewable fuel and chemical production processes. Whitefox provides solutions for alcohol producers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and South America.