Welcome to an exciting year for diversity thinking and practice. The year has only just begun and already there has been public debate about racism and multiculturalism in Australia; a proposal for constitutional reform to recognise Indigenous rights that has had significant input from business; and the handing down of an historic decision that further embeds pay equity concepts in Australian employment legal frameworks.
Diversity Council Australia strongly believes that public awareness of, and debate about, diversity issues impacting Australian society, business and individuals will continue to grow and therefore present DCA and its members with a unique opportunity to lead current thinking on diversity issues impacting Australia.
Consistent with DCA’s mission to lead public debate, our key themes for 2012 are:
- Mainstreaming flexibility in contemporary Australian workplaces
- Capitalising on cultural diversity
- The ‘bamboo ceiling’ in the Australian business context
- The impact of Reconciliation Action Plans on Australian diversity culture
- Grey Matters revisited – Engaging mature-age workers five years on.
We are excited to be able to offer DCA members the opportunity to partner with us to roll out a series of landmark diversity research projects based around these key themes. These projects will further our innovative diversity research agenda in the Australian context, and in so doing will lead public debate around workplace diversity in the business and general community arenas.
Alec Bashinsky, DCA Director and National Partner, People & Performance at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu explains why his organisation chose to partner with DCA on the landmark research project, Capitalising on Culture:
“When Deloitte commenced its cultural diversity strategy, we looked in Australia and overseas at what best practice was in this space but struggled to find an organisation who understood the meaning and impact of cultural diversity. I came across DCA who not only understood the value of diversity but were actively developing policies, frameworks and metrics to support diversity in Australia.
“They are the only organisation in my mind who proactively work to understand today’s diversity issues in the workplace but, more importantly, how they might help organisations adapt their leadership and strategies to educate their people more effectively.”
Chris Lamb, DCA Director and Head of Human Resources at Lend Lease agrees:
“In the past 15 years, the gap between companies who truly embrace diversity and those who haven’t has widened. DCA is uniquely placed to help companies at both ends of the spectrum because they understand business and they understand that the path to greater diversity is different for everyone. With access to the best thinkers, the best practitioners and the best research they have the experience, the skills and the voice to help all Australian organisations perform better by becoming more diverse and inclusive places to work.”
DCA is also building an exciting calendar of events around DCA’s key themes that includes a selection of face to face events, teleconferences, ‘hot topic’ updates and research briefings – all designed to ensure that our members have access to cutting edge diversity thinking with commercial application that can be readily applied in your workplaces to drive business performance.
For more information on opportunities for corporate sponsorship of DCA’s research projects or Diversity Leadership Program, please contact us on (02) 9035 2852 or Sydney@dca.org.au. Become a DCA member today!
