Aurora Expeditions' people leader on uniting remote staff and ship-based contractors across continents through shared purpose and values
Video calls have solved the problem of distance for global employers, but building a genuine global workforce culture requires a deliberate focus on connection, purpose and values, according to Carolyn Wiseman, global head of people and culture at expedition cruise company Aurora Expeditions.
Wiseman oversees a workforce spread from South America to North America, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, alongside the expedition teams who work aboard the company's three ships. Her goal is to bring these groups together under what she calls "one workforce".
"It solves this problem of distance, but what it doesn't solve, and this is the journey I'm trying to work on, is the problem of that connection," Wiseman told HRD.
The challenge is becoming more common. Remote's 2025 Global Workforce Report found that more than half of respondents expected to increase their international hiring within the next year, as HRD reported in its look at the secrets of running remote HR at scale across 30 countries.
Purpose as the anchor for a global workforce
Aurora Expeditions is a Certified B Corporation (B Corp), a status awarded by the non-profit B Lab to businesses that meet its standards for social and environmental performance. B Lab's directory lists the company as certified since January 2024, with an overall assessment score of 87.5, above the qualifying threshold of 80.
Wiseman said that certification gives the business a shared reference point that works across every location.
"What I'm trying to do is look at building that connection by really reinforcing our purpose as a company," she said.
She has written a section on sustainability and the company's B Corp commitments into every job description, making purpose part of each role rather than a marketing message.
The company's expedition team members, who deliver voyages on board, are contractors. Wiseman said drawing them into the same culture as permanent staff is central to her strategy.
"And the one way of doing it is if you have one purpose, one set of values, you know, that everyone can draw from," she said.
For passengers, the employment arrangement is invisible. "They don't care if you're a contractor. They don't care if you're a staff member. They don't care," Wiseman said.
To support this, she has restructured the people and culture function, creating a new role that will support both the ship-based contractors and the global staff. Aurora also has a policy that allows employees, after about two years, to join a voyage and spend time with the expedition team.
Building a communications framework that transcends borders
Isolation is a real risk when an employee may be the only company representative in their country. Aurora has no offices in North America or the UK, so everyone in those regions works from home.
Wiseman's response has been a communications framework designed to work across borders. The senior management team meets monthly and passes information on to each department through a consistent schedule.
"I'm trying to get a really good cadence of communication so that everyone, doesn't matter where they are, they are receiving the same information and the same communication," she said.
"There's no one that's sitting there isolated that shouldn't know what's going on because we're dispersing it through the framework."
She is also training leaders to explain the reasoning behind their decisions. "Not just sort of communicating decisions, but providing what's behind that as well," she said.
Time zones remain a practical hurdle. The company's contact centre is its most geographically dispersed team, and scheduling its weekly meeting takes care. "Trying to find those times that everyone can join that's not at 2 in the morning is the thing," Wiseman said.
That team also runs small competitions and asks colleagues to share things like their favourite songs. "They're trying to engage on that more personal level rather than just communicating out information," she said.
Consistent principles, flexible application
Wiseman said leaders who once managed people in front of them now need to build trust across distance and cultural difference. She noted that colleagues in South America communicate differently to those in North America, and said cultural nuance training is an area she wants to expand.
"It's about being consistent in what matters and our principles and our purpose and being flexible in how they're applied in different regions," she said.
Listening is part of that balance. Aurora's staff engagement survey is anonymous, but it asks respondents which region they work in, so Wiseman can see where policies need adjusting.
Hiring for values across a global workforce
Wiseman said the foundation is recruitment. Aurora describes itself as a values-led company, and that focus shapes how roles are advertised and filled.
"It doesn't matter where people are, you can find people with the same values," she said. "If you get this right, then everything else you can manage on top of that."
Her approach mirrors how other businesses are thinking about distributed teams, including how Deel retains a global culture despite being fully remote. It also bears on the broader question of whether Australian employers are ready for a global workforce.
For Wiseman, the aim is one consistent experience. "It's about creating that one Aurora experience," she said.
