2007 Winners

2007 Winners

In a spectacular event on 1st November, organisations and individuals from across Australia have been recognised for their outstanding commitment to championing diversity within their workplace.

Almost 650 people celebrated wonderful diversity and inclusion initiatives, sharing success stories and strategies at the annual Diversity@work Awards Gala Dinner.

Prizes were awarded in the following areas:

Diversity@Work was delighted to celebrate the wonderful initiatives of all the nominees on the night...however would like to make special mention of RMIT and Vicdeaf who, unfortunately, were not mentioned on the program due to an administrative oversight.

Photo by Georgia Metaxas

Employment & inclusion of People with a Disability

BEST Community Development (Medium)

The initiative is Cafe BEST, a Gourmet Café and Catering enterprise which is a business unit of BEST Community Development. It has been established to provide quality training and worthwhile employment
opportunities for the target group of people with disability in the Ballarat regional area. The Cafe staff work within an environment that is supportive, inclusive and encourages them to reach their full potential. The objective of this business concept is to integrate staff with special needs into open employment following successful completion of their training and development, thereby creating further opportunities for additional disadvantaged community members in hospitality. There are 18 people directly employed at the Café; two chefs, two supervisors and an administration officer, working with 13 staff members who have a wide range of disabilities including total deafness, Down's syndrome, within the Autism spectrum, epilepsy and the associated language and literacy problems that frequently accompany these and other disabilities. Cafe BEST is not a supported employment option, but a viable gourmet cafe and catering business that depends on financial sustainability to ensure on-going success and benefit. In order to achieve this we provide great service and delicious food at a competitive price in a wonderful atmosphere.

Lark & Creese (Small)

Lark & Creese is a small business employing six people. In the seven years since the business started it has grown significantly. To increase employment opportunities for people with disability, Lark & Creese has adopted a work training programme. This programme allows the person with disability to gain the necessary skills, confidence and worker attributes required to manage paid employment. During the three to five week programme, owner Nick Creese provides technical induction and trains the potential employee on-the-job to ensure they are coping with the transition back to work. The work training allows the trainee to trial their skills in the work environment, determine if the work is challenging enough and determine if they could physically manage the different components of the duties over time. To ensure the best chance of trainees successfully completing the programme, Lark & Creese has developed two strategies: regular workplace assessments to identify and remove any possible barriers, and ongoing contact with vocational rehabilitation specialist CRS Australia, to ensure trainees have the necessary support and feedback.
In the last 18 months, two trainees have successfully completed the programme and are now employed by the business.

Lend Lease ICT (Large)

Lend Lease ICT has found that IT work is suitable to the physical
ability of many people with disability. However, they have also found that it is difficult for people with disability to compete for IT positions if they do not have relevant and recent experience in the field. To confront this issue, over the past two and a half years, Lend Lease ICT has worked with CRS Australia to develop an on-the-job training and mentoring programme for people with disability who have IT career goals. To ensure that trainees with disability successfully complete the programme, the training sessions have been developed so as to be tailored to individual needs. The programme also involves each trainee having a mentor who can provide individual support and assist the
trainee to gain confidence and feel welcome within the organisation.
Trainees with a range of physical and psychological disabilities, for example people with restricted movement, visual impairment, osteoarthritis and mental health conditions have successfully completed the on-the-job training and mentoring programme and are valuable employees of the Lend Lease ICT team.

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Employment & inclusion of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Australians (CALD)

AMES Social Enterprise (Medium)

AMES Social Enterprises is a program that develops and designs small businesses for recently arrived migrants and refugees who have found significant barriers to entering the mainstream job market. The initial Social Enterprise was The United Wood Cooperative (UWC) which was established in 2002 by nine African Australians living in Melbourne. They produced small household items using recycled timber and sold them at markets. As the enterprise grew, the founding members shared their success and skills by welcoming additional members to join the cooperative. These initiatives employ migrants who have skills or interests that can contribute to a small business model within their local communities. The AMES Community Unit provides the infrastructure and seed funding through partnerships with government and community organisations to support the start up and establishment of these small businesses. Once established, these businesses provide training environments that can facilitate employment and training pathways for new groups from CALD backgrounds. The initiative has a focus on issues of economic participation for those new arrivals for whom mainstream training and employment pathways are inaccessible.

ANZ (Large)

Cultural Week began as a local event at Enterprise Operations (formerly Payments, ANZ) at 570 Church Street Richmond to celebrate the cultural diversity of our people. It is a week-long celebration of festivals, dance, art, music, food and language from around the world at our Australian sites, as well as in India and Europe. Each year, a theme is decided on by the Cultural Week organising committee (made up of representatives from all sites) and a program of activities is organised, including workshops, gallery, dance displays, tours, a Parade, Opening and Closing ceremonies, food and work area displays (which are co-ordinated by teams). The theme for 2007 chosen by our people and is Culture, Festivals and the Arts. Cultural Week brings together the staff and management of Enterprise Operations and Institutional Operations, both business units from within ANZ.

Sun Laundry Services (Small)

Owner and Manager, Ron Taylor, and his wife, established the business with the promise to each other of operating in a highly ethical manner - towards the client base, employees and suppliers. Ron says his business has become known as the place to come if you want an opportunity. "We do our best by people". Sun Laundry employs staff from a wide range of nationalities, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. At the present time, there are 19 different nationalities employed at Sun Laundry including Indigenous Australians, Burmese,
Egyptian, Malaysian, Indian, Peruvian and Croatian, as well as several employees with disabilities.

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Employment & inclusion of Mature Age Workers

Astro Alloys (Small)

Astro Alloys have actively implement initiatives to retain mature age staff, and encourage them to remain in employment. They can reduce the impact of skill shortages, and ensure that they have a workforce appropriate to meet their needs by retaining the talent, experience and skills of their mature age staff. The objective of their strategy is to attract mature age employees and encourage the ongoing employment of mature age workers with Astro Alloys.

IPA Integrated Solutions (Medium)

Last year, IPA (both a "traditional" recruiter and a Job Network Member) established a new division called Integrated Solutions which specializes in employment programs for people from diverse backgrounds and those who are looking to return to work. During the past 12 months, the Division has helped over 150 people gain employment, a third of these were mature-aged candidates. IPA is committed to continuing working with their customers and encourage the thought that future employees can come from all walks of life, whether that be mature age, Indigenous, youth, parents returning to work, people with disabilities or culturally and linguistically diverse individuals. Through their work transition program candidates have the opportunity to be selected on their competence to perform the role and not on their recent or relevant experience, they then enter a period of transition in which they "up-skill" ultimately seeing their return to sustainable employment.

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Employment & inclusion of Indigenous Australians

Campbell Page (Medium)

In 2004 Campbell Page initiated an innovative Indigenous Employment, Training and Service Delivery Strategy. The objective of the initiative was to ensure that Australian Indigenous people are better represented in employment and training outcomes across their organisation and, ultimately across the region given that the Indigenous community represented 4.2% of the total population. The continuing strategy has 4 main objectives: increasing the number of Australian Indigenous people employed by Campbell Page; Internally increasing employee awareness of Australian Indigenous cultural and social issues; Maintaining the employment of Australian Indigenous employees across all sectors of Campbell Page; Modelling these strategies to other employers with a view to increasing broader outcomes in the community.

Sinclair Knight Merz (Large)

Indigenous Australians have been recognised as significant stakeholders by Sinclair Knight Merz and its clients in Australia. This has led to SKM embarking on a number of initiatives that are focussed on Aboriginal communities and involve: corporate commitment; pro bono input on technology-related projects; education/training and employment initiatives; partnerships with the Beacon Foundation; partnerships with clients and Indigenous communities; engagement with industry organisations and Government agencies; and raising employee-awareness of Aboriginal issues and culture.

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Work/Life Balance

BT Customer Relations (Medium)

Over the past two years BT Customer Relations has delivered several programs as part of an initiative to promote healthy work-life balance for their Contact Centre employees. Programs include: Home-shoring program where contact-centre staff work from home; flexi-shifts offering staff the option to work their full-time hours over four days; voluntary time-off offered to all staff on days of "over capacity".

Swinburne University (Large)

One of the key strategies for providing Swinburne employees family and work-life balance provisions is to give staff options to be able to manage and balance their work and life commitments. Swinburne recognises that with the changing workforce demographic, the importance to care for their staff with increasing needs of staff to access more family friendly and work-life balance provisions, for eg., carer's leave for elderly or sick dependants, parental, partner leave and child rearing leave, life style choices according to generation, and to provide employees greater choice in the way they work. To be sustainable and competitive in an environment of looming skills shortages, employers need to offer attractive incentives to attract and retain the best employees.

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Recognising Today's Youth as The Future of Tomorrow

Mercy Health & Aged Care (Large)

The Werribee Mercy Hospital Education Unit devised a program where the entire hospital would focus on secondary school work experience for two weeks of the year. Staff were included in planning the structured one week program, which would include rotations at a variety of units, a fun theoretical component, debriefing and peer support. The student would always be "buddied" with a supportive and enthusiastic health professional. They would be exposed to all aspects of hospital life. Patients were to be asked for verbal consent before having a student present, and the importance of confidentiality and appropriate behaviour would be stressed. Information sessions were provided for parents and students prior to their commencement. It was refreshing for all of us to observe the wonder and awe of the 16 year olds observing childbirth, surgery, emergency services and psychiatric care. Evaluations continue to be overwhelmingly positive and plans are underway to expand the program to other Mercy Health & Aged Care facilities.

YouthJet (Small)

YouthJET is only a baby organisation in terms of size, but moreso the time it has been operating, at only 18 months. But since its humble beginnings late 2005 - early 2006; YouthJET has been committed to the initiative that the organisation is Youth Facilitated, Youth Focused and Youth Friendly. YouthJET has been committed to the philosophy that youth ‘employees' should be more involved in working with youth and youth issues. Additionally, the entire staff represents a diverse background and there is equal number of woman in the office holding high positions, such as the Pathways Manager. Our workers represent a multitude of cultures and who have different religions, sexuality and race backgrounds.

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Women in Leadership

Housing Resource and Support Service Inc (Small)

For 16 of the last 20 years the organisation has been run by female managers. Other senior positions in the organisation, such as team leaders and finance manager, have also been held by women, and the employment of women with disability and/or from culturally and linguistically diverse communities (including Indigenous and refugees) has been another positive factor. HR&SS was represented on the Office of Housing Policy on Women's Housing committee for several years, and the proactive support for women has been part of HR&SS policy and literature. We also sat on the steering group of the DVIRC (Domestic Violence and Incest Resource Centre) and on its development of a paper in terms of women with disability accessing the women's refuge system. At present women make up 52% of Victoria's population, 55% of the HR&SS consumers, 67% of the employees, and 75% of the Committee of Management. The key positions within the organisation - the Chairperson, the Secretary, the Treasurer, the Managing Director, and the Finance Manager - are all presently held by women.

Langham Hotel Melbourne (Medium)

The Langham Hotel, Melbourne has implemented a strict 'no-tolerance' policy regarding discrimination, emphasising that selection criteria for a position are in direct relation to the position, and in no way screens out individuals on the basis of their race, colour, sex, religion, nationality, age, disability of sexual orientation. Langham has a progressive approach to business, including advancing women. A female mentoring program has been pioneered, providing a feedback mechanism for all levels of management, leading to the development of a number of high potential training programmes and other specific networking opportunities,
Then Langham Hotel also provides valuable opportunities for female networking, both formal and informal.

University of Western Australia (Large)

The Leadership Development for Women program (LDW) is an exemplary staff development strategy, successfully run at The University of Western Australia for the past thirteen years. The LDW program has a dual agenda, to: Enable women staff to develop the leadership skills and knowledge required to increase their participation in the University's decision making processes and to facilitate their leadership at all levels; and contribute to a culture change in the University that encourages and welcomes women's involvement in leadership and decision making matters. The LDW cohort program is open to all levels and categories of staff. Four hundred and fifty women have participated so far in this year-long program.

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Diversity Champion

Coralie Nichols - Hornsby Shire Council

Coralie Nichols has changed the way that Sydney's Hornsby Council approaches diversity at a policy level, management level, event level, committee level and community level. Nominated by one of her co-workers, Nichols has actively sought diversity in the ecruitment process of the community services department. Her department has 22 staff members with a sociological breakdown including two staff with physical disabilities, six with mental illnesses, two permanent Aboriginal staff and one casual part-time staff member, five staff from cultural backgrounds in countries other than Australia, one staff member working part time to ease into retirement, two female staff members working part time to balance work and family life, five gay or lesbian staff members, women occupying four of the six supervisory positions within the department and two young women being groomed and grown for greater responsibility. Nominator David Johnston said Nichols had also undertaken significant policy development around the issue of diversity within the council and helped the council form strong ties with groups in the community. "She has, through her leadership, changed the face of Hornsby Council's community service delivery and the way in which all divisions of council now approach community consultation and engagement."

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