Niki Thompson

Niki’s career has given her a front-row seat to almost every kind of organisational change. After around a decade in HR across the hospitality sector, she moved into telecommunications with Orcon and spent the next 14 years within a business that changed ownership, structure and scale multiple times. During that period, she supported acquisitions, restructures and significant workforce change, including moving contact centre operations offshore and later bringing them back to New Zealand. Since then, Niki has worked across organisations including SolarZero, HEG, Allevia Health and THL, often stepping into businesses during periods of change or when additional People & Culture capability was needed. That breadth has made her highly adaptable and quick to understand what is happening within an organisation and where she can make the greatest difference.

Niki is particularly good at making sense of situations that feel complicated, listening closely to the different threads in a conversation, identifying what sits underneath them and reflecting the situation back in a way that creates clarity. She brings alternative perspectives and asks questions that help people think differently, with the experience to recognise when a leader needs space to reach their own answer and when clear advice will help them move forward. This is especially valuable in employment relations and change, where Niki helps leaders find a way forward that is fair, practical and grounded in what the organisation needs.

At Vocus, Niki helped rethink the organisation’s approach to workplace mental health after employee feedback highlighted a need for greater support. She worked with specialist providers to introduce training and build manager capability, helping leaders become more confident having difficult conversations directly with their people. Over time, this shifted the role of HR from taking issues away from managers towards supporting them to build the confidence and skills to manage those situations themselves. It is the kind of impact Niki values most: solving the immediate challenge while leaving people better equipped for the next one.

Niki is motivated by seeing people and organisations grow, particularly when she can contribute to someone developing their own capability or help an organisation find a more sustainable way forward. She sees her role as creating the clarity and perspective that helps others make progress, while recognising that lasting growth comes from people being willing to do the work themselves.

Calm, considered and pragmatic, Niki takes the time to understand what is really going on before deciding what the situation needs. Her style sits naturally between coaching and practical problem solving, helping people think when they need space and providing clear direction when that will be more useful. Above all, she brings the judgement that comes from having seen organisations and people through significant change, and an ability to make complex situations feel manageable.