Mediaworks’ head of people and culture resigns as second high-level departure

The resignation comes a week after the release of a scathing review into the company's culture.

The head of people and culture at Mediaworks has resigned - the second high-level departure in a week. 

MediaWorks has confirmed Alex Nicholson will be leaving the company at the end of November.

In a statement, a spokesperson said she will step away from the people & culture director role for the remainder of her time with MediaWorks, in order to focus on a plan to address the recommendations from the independent workplace review into the company’s culture conducted by Maria Dew QC. 

"Alex has been key in setting up the strategic framework to deliver on the recommendations and considers it necessary to have new leadership in P&C to execute the plan over the next two to three years," the spokesperson said.

Dew received feedback from more than 600 current and former MediaWorks staff as part of her review which sparked six separate employment investigations and uncovered serious concerns including several allegations of sexual assault along with cases of bullying, racism and pay inequity.

Dew also found that failings by the people and culture department to properly deal with complaints was "one of the most significant and consistent themes to come out of this review."

"Many participants who had raised misconduct complaints over the past three years stated that they felt their complaint had been poorly handled by the P&C team. Some even reported being warned off raising any complaints and that members of the P&C team had expressed powerlessness in their role. As a result, front line staff and many managers report being wary of taking any concerns to the team, and they regard the whistle blower policy as ineffective," Dew said.

Nicholson's resignation comes after MediaWorks board chair Jack Matthews announced his immediate resignation last Friday, a departure a former Mediaworks executive told 1 NEWS was "the right move”.

“There’s a real catalyst of change we’re starting to see which should enable [current CEO] Cam Wallace to really adopt and implement changes," they said.

MediaWorks says work is already underway to address many of the 32 recommendations that were made in the review to help improve the company culture. 

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