Creating a Diverse Workplace - Top Tips

Achieving diversity in the workplace is an important aspect for all companies, says the Chief Executive at Diversity Council Australia, Nareen Young, who shares her top tips to create a diverse and inclusive workplace.

• Take stock of your workplace to see how diverse and inclusive it really is and what issues need to be addressed.
• Understand and articulate the business case to your people to engage them on the diversity journey.
• Address any bias in recruitment, retention and promotion that may be preventing women, people with a disability, Indigenous Australians, mature-age workers, people from culturally diverse backgrounds or same sex-attracted people from joining or staying at your organisation.
• Value employees with language skills, knowledge of overseas markets, or international experience that may help you broaden your markets, either locally or overseas.
• Ensure flexible work options are available to men and women, and at all levels of the organisation. Put in place comprehensive parental leave policies.
• Provide women with opportunities to gain operational or ’profit-loss’ responsibility experience and career paths.
• Pay respect to the traditional peoples of Australia.
• Make your managers accountable for diversity.
• Prevent discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace

Achieving gender equality in the workplace is an important aspect for all companies today, Young says.

“Across the demographics it's 17.5% between men and women in Australia right now, recent DCA research has shown us it's 37% for women 45 and over.”

Young says that this research highlights that men are getting the highest salaries compared with women, with a greater weighting in senior positions within an organisation.

“That's obviously not good enough and clearly that would indicate a couple of things; there are not enough women in senior and executive positions in the employment market, but also that remuneration processes are clearly still very gendered.

The current environment around culture diversity and immigration in particular, is detrimental to harmonious relations between groups in workplaces.

“Diversity needs to be viewed as a key business strategy and it needs to work across organisations in all areas and aspects of business.”