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Back to SearchIn the last 10 years I’ve seen a dramatic increase in industry recognition of the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. For a while I was concerned that the rhetoric was greater than the reality, but pleasingly and quite rightly, thanks to the efforts of many passionate individuals, industry associations and organisations, policy initiatives and strong research, the issue has attracted widespread commentary and public attention. We are now seeing great programs and activities that really do make a difference to an organisation.
An abundance of data demonstrates the benefits of inclusion, to the point where poor performance in this area has been shown to have a significant impact on profitability and employee engagement and retention
For example, McKinsey reports that companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/cultural diversity are nearly 30 per cent less likely to achieve above-average profitability than other companies.
It’s also well documented that creating a diverse and inclusive environment where people feel comfortable to share all aspects of themselves, helps cultivate diversity of thinking, which in turn enhances an organisation’s potential for creativity and innovation. In my family for example, I have two recent high school graduates and
they have both discussed purpose with me. Purpose in terms of what they will study but also purpose in their part time work and social activity; they speak about legacy and impact, and inclusion is at the forefront of this.
Genuine inclusion has been proven to deliver greater productivity, creativity and diversity from deeper pools of talent and fairer processes for all.
The firm I work for, GHD, recognises this and its response aligns closely with its stated purpose — to create lasting community benefit. The projects we deliver, such as water treatment systems, transport linkages and social infrastructure, are a daily reminder of the positive impact we can make on communities.
While we have by no means addressed all the challenges or completed our journey, I’m proud to say that at GHD we have embraced thoughtful and deliberate discussion, trialled some programs and partnerships and taken action to cultivate an inclusive environment.
From a recruitment perspective we understand that by meeting candidates’ diversity and inclusion expectations we get stronger applicants and better employees. Good practices don’t just bring employees in the door, they encourage them to stay.
A study of Australian employees conducted by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission in partnership with Deloitte found that employees in inclusive environments were 83 percent more productive than those in monocultural environments. The study found that employee innovation levels increased by 83 per cent when employees felt included in the workplace.
And from a client perspective, the same report also indicates that when diversity is recognised and employees feel included, they have a better responsiveness to changing customer needs.
The why for me
While it’s great to reflect on such data, personal stories and experience are even more important. So I’d like to share my story.
I am a non-engineer who started my working life in a technical engineering organisation where my qualifications and ways of thinking were not the norm and I was one of very few females. I was fortunate that my ‘differences’ were appreciated and I was listened to. It did make me think and focus on difference and inclusion in the workplace early in my career.
As I went about working with engineers, scientists and planners on infrastructure projects across Australia I realised that there was much to do in ensuring that the infrastructure was not only understood by communities but also that it reflected the needs of the ultimate end users.
I reflected on my time at Griffith High School, in south western NSW, where cultural diversity was the norm and social disadvantage for members of the Aboriginal community was stark. I knew in my early teens that the opportunities I would have, particularly in education, would not be afforded to the Aboriginal girl in my highlevel English class.
Fast forward to my career and I understood how important infrastructure provision is to positive social and economic outcomes and how it could be better if the diverse groups of people that make up a community were involved in the concept, design, construction and operation. I hoped that social disadvantage could over time be improved through education and employment opportunities and through authentic inclusion. I knew that GHD would be a better place and the work we do would be better if we were more inclusive.
For many years I have sought to learn more about diversity and inclusion. I have found organisations that GHD could partner with and together we have built lasting relationships that have grown over time and we have learned from each other. In particular, through GHD I’ve formed close relationships with CareerTrackers, the GO Foundation and CareerSeekers, and we continue to work closely together.
I think it’s important too as individuals to look for opportunities to contribute and contribute. In early 2018, I was privileged to join Bridge Housing Limited as a nonexecutive director. Bridge is an organisation that puts inclusion at the forefront. The community housing sector has an important role to play in our community. Being able to work with Bridge to support their Indigenous employment program and partnership with CareerTrackers and its Reconciliation Action Plan and other education and employment initiatives is important and rewarding to me.
To briefly summarise our approach at GHD, we've formalised our diversity and inclusion strategy which includes: enhancing gender equality, cultural diversity, LGBTI inclusion, generational workers, reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and flexible working arrangements for our people.
Our approach has involved many conversations with our board who have listened attentively, been curious, willing to be challenged and influenced. From my perspective, our board has been bold and embraced inclusion and the benefits it brings to GHD. I’m proud to say that our board members have sought active involvement in the programs and initiatives that we have in place.
To achieve a more diverse workforce, we needed to do the foundational work to create the right environment for change. This includes process elements such as policies, procedures and frameworks to enable diversity initiatives, and complex elements of communicating objectives and building understanding within the organisation.
We’re incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made to date, which includes:
- Increasing female representation in leadership positions. Women comprise 36 per cent and 44 per cent of our Australian leadership team and board respectively.
- Cultural acceptance of flexible working. We’re proud to see a shift in the acceptance of men and women working flexibly as a way to balance work and life commitments. We are seeing more people who work part-time and flexibly apply for leadership roles. And as a single parent of four, I am one of them!
- Commitment to Indigenous Australians. Our continuing relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reached a new milestone in 2017 with the launch of GHD’s Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and in November 2018 we launched our Innovate RAP.
- A successful partnership with CareerSeekers, which creates employment opportunities for asylum seekers and refuges, many of whom have held professional careers in their country of origin.
On the last point, establishing partnerships and relationships with other organisations is critical. For example, through GHD’s partnership with CareerTrackers and the GO Foundation we are able to mentor and guide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university and high school students.
Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are keen to give back to their community, but very few have thought of doing that through STEM. But that is possible when they know more about the infrastructure and utilities that they use every day. Through our partnerships with CareerTrackers and GO they can have a pathway, they can be supported and enabled. With the right partners, organisations like GHD can have a collaborative impact. We can’t do it on our own but with others we can.
In closing this article, I’ll deliberately avoid providing a checklist approach to encouraging inclusion. Every organisation is different, as is every board. However, I will share a couple of lessons gleaned over the course of my career.
First, it is very clear to me that it is tremendously powerful for the executive management to reflect the diversity sought. Inclusivity happens organically when you demonstrate diversity at the leadership level.
Second, making progress in this space is about much more than policy. We all know policy is important but it’s daily actions, unconscious and conscious, that help cultivate the everyday experience for employees.
It’s also about listening and asking questions. It’s about acknowledging what you don’t know and simply asking. Look for opportunities to foster open discussions and solicit input and feedback. In simple terms, be inclusive.
This article first appeared in:
Jill Hannaford, 2019, “The Power of Inclusion: Unlocking the value of doing the right thing”, Australian Governance Summit 2019 Reader, Australian Institute of Company Directors, March, p 123.
It appears here with permission of AICD.
Jill Hannaford
Technical Services Leader, Australia