Workplace Culture Consultant Melbourne

The person you meet does the work

Mari Ruiz-Matthyssen delivers every engagement herself. She is a regular speaker on industry panels, especially on the new psychosocial regulations, and her work has been recognised with two national awards. See Mari’s awards.

AHRI HR Leader of the Year 2017

CEO Magazine HR Executive of the Year 2017

35+ years experience

50+ organisations served

95% client satisfaction

Signs your culture needs attention

Culture problems rarely announce themselves. They show up in the numbers and in the hallway first.

Good people are leaving and exit interviews don’t explain why. Check your turnover rate.

Change programs start well and then quietly stall.

The values on the wall don’t match how decisions actually get made.

Your leadership team pulls in different directions.

Complaints, conflict or reports of psychological injury are rising.

Engagement survey results come back, and nothing changes.

Workplace Culture Consulting

Building intentional cultural systems that align your people, values, and business objectives into a cohesive force.

Organisational culture is the shared set of values, habits and unwritten rules that shape how people behave at work: how decisions get made, how people treat each other, and what gets rewarded. Every organisation has one, whether it was designed or not. Our culture architecture work makes it deliberate.

Culture diagnostics and listening sessions
Values, behaviours and rituals designed with your people
Systems that reinforce the culture: hiring, recognition and performance

When it helps: your values are on the wall but not in the decisions, good people are leaving, or two teams (or two merged businesses) work in very different ways. We start by measuring your culture as it is, not as the handbook describes it.

In-house Leadership Development Programs

Equipping leaders with the emotional intelligence and strategic acumen to inspire high-performing teams.

Leadership assessments and one-on-one coaching
Programs that build emotional intelligence and strategic thinking
Support for new and emerging leaders

When it helps: you have promoted strong performers into management and they need support to lead, or your senior team needs to pull in the same direction. Each leadership development program is built around the real challenges your leaders face, and runs inside your organisation, with your people, in Melbourne or on site with your team.

Change Management Consulting

Guiding organisations through transformation with clarity, empathy, and a structured approach to lasting change.

Change impact and readiness assessments
Communication and engagement plans
Hands-on support until the change sticks

When it helps: you are restructuring, merging, bringing in new systems or changing how work gets done. Change usually stalls when people are left out of it, so we plan the people side from the first day. Poorly managed change is also a recognised psychosocial hazard.

Innovation Strategy

Designing forward-thinking frameworks that position your organisation at the forefront of industry evolution.

Future-of-work and capability scans
Strategy workshops with your leadership team
A roadmap that links people strategy to business goals

When it helps: your business strategy has moved on and your people strategy has not, or you need to plan for the skills you will need in three years, as well as the roles you are hiring for today.

How a culture engagement runs

Every engagement follows the same framework: Discover, Design, Deliver. Here is what each stage involves and what you have at the end of it.

Discover

Interviews, listening sessions and a culture diagnostic with people at every level, plus the people data you already hold. You end with a clear picture of how your culture works today, and where it helps or holds back your goals.

Design

Together with your leaders, we set the culture you need and the steps to get there: values, behaviours, leadership expectations and the systems that support them. You end with a practical plan your team can act on.

Deliver

We work alongside your team to put the plan in place: coaching leaders, updating how you hire, recognise and manage performance, and tracking progress. You end with change that holds after we step back.

Culture is now a safety obligation

Since 1 December 2025, Victorian employers have had a specific legal duty to identify and control psychosocial hazards at work, such as high job demands, poor support, poorly managed change, and bullying. Regulators in Victoria, NSW and Queensland expect these risks to be controlled through how work is designed and managed. Training alone is not enough.

That is culture work. How leaders set workloads, handle change and respond to complaints is now part of how you meet your safety duties. Read our guide to what Victoria’s psychological health regulations require.

We are workplace culture consultants, not lawyers. For advice on your legal obligations, speak to a qualified employment or WHS lawyer.

Common questions

What does a workplace culture consultant do, and how is that different from HR consulting?

A workplace culture consultant helps you understand how work really gets done in your organisation, and then changes it on purpose. That means the leadership habits, decisions and systems that shape behaviour every day. HR consulting usually focuses on the people function itself: policies, contracts and HR processes. Culture work covers the whole organisation, with HR as one part of it.

How do you assess our culture?

We go beyond a single survey. We combine interviews and listening sessions with people at every level, a culture diagnostic, and the data you already hold, such as turnover, exit interviews and engagement results. For a quick first read, try our free Culture Architecture Evaluator.

Do you help with psychosocial hazards and the positive duty?

Yes. Much psychosocial risk sits in how work is designed and led, which is the same ground culture work covers. We help you find the hazards and build the controls and leadership practices that manage them. We are not lawyers, so we do not give legal advice. Read our guide to psychosocial hazards in the workplace.

What happens after the workshops?

We implement alongside your team. The Deliver stage embeds new behaviours and systems, such as how you hire, recognise and manage performance, and checks progress against the goals agreed at the start.

Who will do the work?

Mari Ruiz-Matthyssen, every time. The person you meet at the start is the person who does the work.

Do you work outside Melbourne?

Yes. Neni Consulting is based in Melbourne and works with clients in Sydney, Brisbane and across Australia.

We don't know where to start. Can you help?

Yes. Start with the free Culture Architecture Evaluator for a quick read of how aligned your team is, or get in touch to talk it through with Mari.

Workplace culture consulting for Australian organisations.