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Employees from non-English speaking backgrounds

As indicated earlier in this chapter, the term ‘NESB’, representing people from a non-English speaking background, is used in APSED to capture information about employment disadvantage experienced by employees on the basis of race or ethnicity. The analysis in this section concentrates on the category of NESB1, which includes people born overseas whose first language was not English. NESB2 data, which includes children of certain migrants, has not been included as there is little evidence of employment disadvantage having occurred for this group.

The proportion of APS employees who identified themselves as being from a non-English speaking background rose slightly this year to 5.8%, up from 5.7% at June 2006. Representation for this group has been quite stable over the past decade, varying by no more than half of one percentage point over the period.

Although not directly comparable, the representation of employees from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB1) in the APS appears to be significantly lower than representation in the Australian community (13.7%), and is also lower than that of the broader Australian workforce, in which 14.3% of Australian workers identified themselves as being from non-English speaking countries.¹² The comparison is similar when analysis is restricted to people employed in APS equivalent occupations in the broader Australian workforce, where representation from non-English speaking countries is 14.8%.¹³

The proportion of employee survey respondents identifying themselves as from a non-English speaking background, defined as being born outside of Australia and not speaking English as a first language, was 14%—a result closer to the combined figures for NESB1 and NESB2 (13%) from APSED. This higher level of reporting in the employee survey has been consistent over a number of years. It is likely that this result reflects some definitional confusion among respondents, but the extent of this cannot be assessed. It is also possible that some under-reporting is occurring on APSED. Given the disparity in results, the employee survey results in relation to employees from non-English speaking backgrounds should be treated with some caution.

Excluding those born in Oceania, the largest group of NESB1 employees were born in North-West Europe (36.2% of those who have provided their country of birth), followed by South-East Asia (16.9%) and Southern and Central Asia (14.2%). The five most common first languages spoken by APS employees, other than English, beginning with the most common, were: Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin); Italian; Greek; Vietnamese; and German.

The representation of employees from a non-English speaking background by classification has remained steady over the past 10 years, except for the graduate and trainee classifications where representation has varied from 6.8% in 2000 to 3.0% in 2002—at June 2007 it was 4.9%. Employees from a non-English speaking background are slightly over-represented at APS 1–6 levels—77.4% of employees from a non-English speaking background are at the APS 1–6 levels compared with 73.4% of the overall APS. They are slightly under-represented in the EL classifications—21.1% of employees from a non-English speaking background are ELs compared with 23.7%, and substantially under-represented in the SES—0.6% of employees from a non-English speaking background are SES employees compared with 1.7% of the overall APS.

Employees from a non-English speaking background are much more likely to have graduate qualifications than are other employees—at June 2007, almost three-quarters (74.7%) of employees from a non-English speaking background had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with the APS average of 53.0%.¹⁴

Agencies with high representation of employees from a non-English speaking background include the Royal Australian Mint (26.9% of all ongoing employees), NLA (16.2%) and IP Australia (15.5%). Figure 5.6 shows representation of employees from a non-English speaking background in those agencies with more than 1,000 ongoing employees. Agencies with the highest representation are DIAC, DITR and Medicare Australia. Agencies with the lowest representation are DEW, AGD and Defence.

Figure 5.6: Representation of NESB1 employees in agencies with more than 1000 ongoing employees, June 2007

Figure 5.6 shows representation of ongoing NESB1 employees in agencies with more than 1000 ongoing employees, at June 2007. Representation varied from 12.2% in DIAC to 1.7% in DEW.

Source: APSED

Employee perceptions of agency support

As indicated earlier, employees were substantially more likely to agree that their agency actively encourages the recruitment and employment of people from all cultural backgrounds than other diversity groups (77% agreeing). Although a positive result, this is slightly lower than last year’s result of 82%.

Women, young people (those aged under 25 years) and the SES were more likely to agree that agencies actively encourage the recruitment and employment of people from all cultural backgrounds, as were employees in small and large agencies. In the 45 agencies with individual agency-specific results, the proportion of employees agreeing ranged from a low of 52% to a high of 93%.

Employee engagement and job satisfaction

Employees from non-English speaking backgrounds were slightly more likely to report that, on average, they were satisfied with the workplace attributes that were important to them (83% compared to 81% for other employees). This result is an improvement on last year’s, when this group was slightly less positive than the overall APS.

Figure 5.7 shows results for employees from non-English speaking backgrounds against each of the employee engagement factors. There were no clear trends, with employees from non-English speaking backgrounds being more satisfied on some factors and less satisfied on others. Employees from non-English speaking backgrounds were least satisfied with the factor Merit, and this was the factor that had the largest difference between employees from non-English speaking backgrounds and other employees. There was also a large difference for the factor Work-Life Balance, with employees from non-English speaking backgrounds being more satisfied with this factor than those not in this group.

Four out of the top five workplace attributes that impact on how satisfied employees from non-English speaking backgrounds are with their jobs are the same as for those not in this group (see Table 5.11). Employees from non-English speaking backgrounds were slightly more likely to select opportunity to develop their skills than a good manager.

Employees from non-English speaking backgrounds had higher rates of satisfaction with flexible working arrangements and opportunities to utilise their skills, but lower rates of satisfaction with salary. There was also room for improvement in their satisfaction with opportunities to develop their skills. Satisfaction with the other attributes was similar or slightly higher than satisfaction for other employees.

As for Indigenous employees, relatively low satisfaction levels with opportunities for skills development, coupled with lower satisfaction for the Learning and Development factor (shown in Figure 5.7) suggests that this is a particular area requiring attention.

Figure 5.7: Employee satisfaction with factors identified through factor analysis—employees from non-English speaking backgrounds and employees not from non-English speaking backgrounds, 2006–07

Figure 5.7 shows employee satisfaction with factors identified through factor analysis for employees from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB1) and those not in this group in 2006–07. There was no clear trend for employees from non-English speaking backgrounds—they were more satisfied on some factors and less satisfied on others. There were large differences for Merit (less satisfied) and Work-Life Balance (more satisfied).

Source: Employee survey

12 ABS, Census of Population and Housing 2006, ABS, Canberra. People born overseas, excluding those born in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, United States of America, New Zealand and Cananda.

13 A sub-set of occupations from the ANZSCO that is similar to the type of work undertaken in the APS.

14 The method used to calculate the proportion of employees with graduate or tertiary qualifications includes those with qualifications at bachelor’s degree level and above. It excludes from the denominator those for whom no data was provided by agencies, and those who chose not to provide details of their highest qualification.