In a Recruitment Marketing Magazine exclusive, we interviewed Karuna Dimelow, Chief Operating Officer for end-to-end property business Coronis who shared how they help their “Coronians” achieve their goals, in their careers and in life.
If you live in South-East Queensland, you’ll be familiar with those eye-catching black and yellow C’s. Coronis is Australia’s first end-to-end property business, and their goal is to create clients for life by making buying renting, selling, purchasing, conveyancing and everything in the property industry easier for everyone.
We spoke with their Chief Operating Officer, Karuna Dimelow who has been with Coronis for 15 years, starting her journey in the sales division and experiencing a number of areas in the business since. Dimelow’s goal is to take the company to the next level through forward thinking and investing in their people (a.k.a their Coronians).
“Our people are everything. We can’t have the business without them which is why we focus on them. When people are engaged and happy, they’re productive. They want to be here. They’re passionate about coming to work, excited about their growth path and know they can use Coronis to get there.”
A high-performance culture
Coronis has a reputation for being a fun, high-performance, high energy and a productive place to work. And rightly so.
“Our people work really hard but they also play hard. We want them to build a better life for themselves, not just by having a great career, but by ensuring they achieve their personal goals too. Whether that be spending time with family, going on holidays or buying homes, we want to assist them in that journey and ensure they can create a better life from being at Coronis.”
For Coronis, building a strong culture is all about engagement and inclusivity, and they extend this to their people’s family too. For example, they recently hosted “Coronis on the Green”, an inclusive event gave their people an opportunity to invite their partners and children.
“They’re part of a successful business too. It’s important to us that they feel they’re on the journey with us.”
Health and wellness
Understandably, with high-performance cultures comes stress and pressure.
“Whether our people are in property management, sales, or finance, there are stressful days. We know physical exercise helps reduce stress and mental strain, and we want to create healthy team members who are mentally strong. If they’re physically strong and looking after themselves, they’re able to be more productive and stay driven to produce results. ”
Dimelow believes in the importance of their people being active in their passions, whether that be sport or healthy eating.
“Some of our people compete in the Noosa Triathlon each year and raise funds for the Mater Foundation. Others compete in Tough Mudder. We promote health challenges where we meet in the park and people get in shape and feel good about themselves. There’s so much that we do that promotes an active lifestyle and healthy mindset to create better work-life balance.”
Tour de Office in particular is an event that has helped them achieve massive success, not only through promoting their healthy culture, but through corporate philanthropy too.
“Tour de Office has been especially good because everyone commits to a ride. Teams obtain sponsorships and create their own fun, dressing up and supporting each other. The event adds to a bigger picture. When individuals and teams participate, it makes them feel accomplished by their ability to add value to the community through the funds they’ve raised.”
Tour de office is an interoffice cycling event where employees participate in 30-minute intervals and raise funds for charity. So far, Coronis has supported Diabetes Queensland and Smiling for Smiddy.
“Our teams decided on our charities of choice, as they’re causes that are close to their hearts and have impacted their lives. When you create events that your teams can buy into, it creates this great culture where they’re giving back and feeling proud. They’re adding value to peoples’ lives and making a difference.”
“When you’re driving that in the business, allowing people to have that time to attend the office with the bike, it shows that we value them. It aligns our values with team values. It creates camaraderie and fun.”
“It aligns our values with team values. It creates camaraderie and fun.”
The teams share photos of themselves on their networks, with their families, friends and peers. It’s a way for them to demonstrate their contribution to the community through fundraising.
For Dimelow, it definitely gets her out of her comfort zone!
“I’m not a cyclist like some of the other directors, but I’ve done it for the past four years,” said Dimelow. “I even did an off-the-cuff rap on the bike to raise more donations!” she added.
“It pushes people and I know they feel proud to achieve something. It shows your team that you’re true to your word, and your team can be proud to have a member who does what they say they will do. It builds that foundation of support.”
Tour de Office is an event that promotes “healthy, wealthy and wise”. While the event involves people exercising on a stationary bike, it’s part of a bigger picture and their overall culture.
Culture as talent attraction
Coronis leverages these initiatives to showcase their culture to prospective talent.
“We’re a big believer in showing true Coronians. We want people to know what our work is like on a daily basis, our customers and clients, and show how authentic our people are.”
“People want authenticity. They want to see what people are like on a daily basis through events, photos or video. Whether it’s an anniversary or someone’s birthday, we want to show our clients, community, and new recruits what it’s like at Coronis and encourage them to want to be involved.”
As part of this transparency, Coronis has an open Facebook group called “Coronians”. It consists of their team members who have the option to invite their partners too, as well as their alumni. (Are you staying in touch with your alumni? If not, you should! Read our article about boomerang candidates.)
“We publish posts every day and celebrate milestones. We want these things out there so people can see the true picture.”
Tour de Office is also an opportunity for gratitude and self-reflection.
“Being involved in charitable work exposes us to understand the perspectives of people in different situations who are perhaps less fortunate. It’s an opportunity to express gratitude for the blessings and opportunities that we do have. Everyone makes a contribution to the bigger picture. It’s about giving back.”
What ways does your organisation foster its people and culture? Share a comment below.