BSBDIV501A DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE PRESENTATION 2

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

• Diversity Best Practice

• Diversity Policy

• Reducing barriers to diversity

• Work-Life balance

DIVERSITY BEST PRACTICEIt is important to manage

diversity effectively to

reap its benefits.

Embracing everyone’s

differences, whilst

creating a common team

culture takes a conscious

decision and a

commitment to

maintaining focus on non-

discriminatory actions.

Poorly managed diversity

Well managed diversity

Misunderstandings and Conflict

Not listening or sharing

No common goals

No self reflection and

improvement

Respect and non

judgmental behaviour

Insight and education

Innovation and Creativity

DIVERSITY BEST PRACTICE

Understanding discrimination is crucial to Diversity Best Practice.

Discrimination can be overt or covert. Neither are acceptable.

• Overt Discrimination: clear, direct discrimination on the grounds

of race, sex, parental status etc.

• Covert discrimination: more subtle and difficult to spot. Basing

employment decisions on:

• Characteristics of some members of disadvantaged groups

• Characteristics that are incorrectly or unfairly associated with

people of a particular group (stereotyping)

DIVERSITY BEST PRACTICE

Direct Discrimination

Under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 direct discrimination occurs if

a person treats, or proposes to treat, someone unfavourably because

of a personal characteristic that is protected by law

Direct discrimination can be either overt or covert

• Over direct discrimination: a clear statement of refusal to hire

from a disadvantaged group

• Covert direct discrimination: a consistent failure to hire from a

disadvantaged group

DIVERSITY BEST PRACTICEIndirect Discrimination

• Under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 Indirect discrimination will occur

where a person imposes, or proposes to impose, a requirement,

condition or practice that has, or is likely to have, the effect of

disadvantaging people with a protected attribute, and that is not

reasonable.

• Indirect discrimination occurs when policies or practices appear on the

surface to be neutral, but when applied in the work environment have

an adverse effect on a disadvantaged group

Indirect discrimination is often less obvious

• Sometimes a policy, rule or practice seems fair because it applies to

everyone equally, but a closer look shows that some people are being

treated unfairly, some people or groups of people, are unable or less

able to comply with the rule or are disadvantaged because of it

DIVERSITY BEST PRACTICE

Systemic Discrimination

• Is left behind when the obvious types of discrimination have been

removed from policies and procedures

• The longstanding direct and indirect discrimination embedded in

the culture of the organisation

• Needs to be identified and removed by individual managers by

applying policies fairly

• Involves a pattern or practice, policy, or class case where the

alleged discrimination has a broad impact on the industry,

profession, company or geographic area

REDUCING BARRIERS TO DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

Training

•Provide ongoing diversity training to existing staff

• Identify strategies to assist whole organisation with ongoing cultural training and development

•Create a workplace culture where everyone recognises and values the differences between and the contributions of the employees, customers and suppliers

•Training strategies are important to creating enhanced diversity, Consider Mentoring, Coaching and Shadowing

Policies and Procedures – Diversity

•Develop a Diversity Policy and explain these policies to staff

• Implement continuous improvement of diversity strategies

•Promote diversity through displaying of policy documents and related community events on staff noticeboards

Performance Management

•Deal quickly and firmly with anyone who does not treat fellow employees, customers or suppliers fairly and respectfully

•Reinforce key diversity messages in meetings and during performance appraisals

•Conduct internal and external forums that promote, educate and value diversity in the workplace

•Personal prejudices need to be recognised and support given where needed to overcome these

Policies and Procedures – recruitment, selection

and induction

•Aim for diversity in staff recruitment and selection

•Provide diversity training at the time of induction

•Abide by Equal Opportunity legislation, Anti-discrimination legislation

•Advertise and promote your EEO status

•Recruitment and selection policies and procedures with fair and equitable processes for all candidates regardless of any diversity

•Provide training for recruitment and selection personnel as to the benefits of a diverse workforce from a financial, social and professional standpoint

REDUCING BARRIERS TO DIVERSITY ExampleWomen The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 covers 4.8 million women in paid employment (almost 50% of the Australian workforce)Despite this legislation there are considerable differences between employment conditions for men and for women in Australia:

• Women earn 15% less than men

• Male graduates have median starting salary $2000 greater than female graduates

• Women hold only 7% of top earner positions in ASX200 companies

• Female top earners are 58% of their male counterparts

• Female CFO and COO’s earn half male CFO/COO’s

• Female Chief Executive Officers earn 2/3 that of male CEOs

There are several possible reasons for this pay gap:

• More women working part time

• Occupation and industry segregation and undervaluation of women’s work

• Sex discrimination and sexual harassment

• Women having less access to overtime and over-aware payments

• Women’s responsibility for unpaid caring and other non-paid work

DIVERSITY POLICY

• A Diversity Policy is an important document

• It provides the framework for managing diversity and making

diversity based decisions,

• Expresses the stated value of diversity the organisation holds

• To make intelligent applications of the workplace diversity policy a

person needs to have effective analytical skills

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Part of a productive workforce -

works in conjunction with the

Diversity policy

• Work-life harmony policies

benefit organisations as well

• Organization's that practice

work-life with employees show

a tendency towards reduced

absenteeism, attrition and

increase motivation and

productivity

• Commonly implemented

flexible working options

include:

• Career break opportunities• Flexible hours• Job sharing• Part-time working

• Phased retirement• Telecommuting• School term working• Work-based childcare

the organisation

the individual

Feel understood

More cooperative and committed to the organisation

Employer of choice ensures a good

range of candidates applying for jobs

with your organisation

contributes to retention of skilled

people and motivation to

perform in the job

PRESENTATION SUMMARY

Now that you have completed this presentation you will know about:

• Diversity Best Practice

• Diversity Policy

• Reducing barriers to diversity

• Work-Life balance