Diversity

Agency commitment to workplace diversity

Employees continue to agree that agencies are committed to workplace diversity. This year, 69% of employees agreed that their organisation is committed to creating a diverse workforce. This is similar to last year’s result and compares favourably with results in State jurisdiction employee surveys. In South Australia, 59% of respondents agreed that their organisation was supportive of a diverse workforce, as did 65% of Tasmanian respondents, and 60% of Western Australian respondents.³ Internationally, 57% of respondents agreed to a similar question in the 2006 Federal Human Capital Survey in the USA.⁴

Women and the SES were more likely to agree that their agencies are committed to workplace diversity. In the 45 agencies with individual agency-specific results, agreement levels that organisations are committed to creating a diverse workforce ranged widely from 43% to 86%, indicating room for a greater commitment in some agencies.

The employee survey also asked respondents whether agencies actively encourage the recruitment and employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disability, and people from non-English speaking backgrounds. Employees believed that agencies are more likely to actively encourage the employment of people from non-English speaking backgrounds than they are to encourage people with disability or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (77%, compared with 58% and 60% respectively). There has been a decline in levels of employee agreement for all three groups (82%, 61% and 64% respectively) since last year, with a greater proportion of employees responding neutrally but no change in those who disagreed.

The Diversity factor grouped together similar responses to questions covering employees’ views on workplace diversity.⁵ Two-thirds of employees (66%) were satisfied against the factor. Indigenous employees and young employees were more likely to be satisfied than other diversity groups.

3 The jurisdictional comparison data from surveys conducted in 2005–06 and 2006–07 was provided to the Australian Public Service Commission by the Department of Premier and Cabinet, South Australia, on behalf of the Commissioner for Public Employment (Workplace Perspectives Survey 2006); Tasmania (State Service Employee Survey 2005); and the Office of the Public Standards Commissioner, Western Australia (Climate Survey 2006–07). The South Australian survey covers all employees employed under the Public Sector Management Act 1995 and the Tasmanian survey covered all employees employed under the State Service Act 2000. The Western Australian Climate Survey involved 14 separate agencies in 2006–07. Each year 10–15 agencies are surveyed with each agency being surveyed approximately once every five years.

4 Office of Personnel Management (USA), Federal Human Capital Survey, 2006, <http//:www.fhcs2006.opm.gov> The exact wording of the question was: ‘Policies and programs promote diversity in the workplace (for example, recruiting minorities and women, training in awareness of diversity issues, mentoring)’.

5 Full details of the factor analysis, including details of the methodology and questions used, are set out in Appendix 4.