Chapter 8: Workplace diversity
Conclusions
Diversity planning is an important contributor to broader workforce planning for business outcomes.
Trends in representation of different EEO groups have varied over the last decade. While total APS employment has declined by 15.2% since 1994, the employment of people with a disability has declined by 45.3%. The representation of NESB1 employees has also declined disproportionately, but not as dramatically as for people with a disability, with NESB1 numbers falling by 33.4% since 1994. Trends in representation of NESB2 employees have been more stable, with this group’s numbers falling by 17.9%, close to the fall in total APS employment. In contrast, numbers of Indigenous employees have fallen by only 10.4%. Between 1994 and 1998 there was a gradual increase in the representation of Indigenous employees in the APS from 2.3% to 2.7%. However, since 1999 growth in representation has clearly stalled.
The large fall in the representation of people with a disability is a particular concern, as is the fall in the representation of NESB 1 employees, and the stalling of improvements in the representation of Indigenous employment. Agency assurances about measures to address employment disadvantage, particularly for people with a disability, are not reflected in outcomes, or in the experiences and opinions of employees as recorded in the employee survey.
Consistent with Organisational Renewal,19 agencies need to engage in more systematic workforce planning and to understand their own workforce demographics, paying particular attention to factors such as age. There are structural issues that agencies need to examine further, particularly in relation to the attraction, career development and retention of valued mature-aged employees. Flexible working provisions are one way of addressing the needs of employees and providing a competitive advantage.
The employee survey results on the proportion of employees who have experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment are worrying. More attention may need to be given to the development of managers’ skills in such areas as performance appraisal and feedback, to the efficacy of review mechanisms, and more generally to cultivating and sustaining good working relationships.
With the exception of women, the provision of data for EEO groups remains less systematic than could be wished. All agencies need to make sure that they have systems in place to provide quality data to APSED to ensure a sound basis for analysis, and to ensure that they have the data that they need for their own workforce planning purposes.
19 Management Advisory Committee Report 3, Organisational Renewal, 2003