As 2025 draws to a close, we’re taking a moment to reflect on a year of meaningful progress and share with you some of our plans for 2026, highlighting opportunities and resources that will deliver even more value to DCA members.
A bold new brand to mark 40 years of impact
This year, DCA unveiled a bold new brand identity, strengthening our position as a future-focused leader in workplace diversity and inclusion (D&I). This coincided with a milestone anniversary for DCA, marking 40 years of championing inclusive workplaces across Australia.
To celebrate, we launched a Founding Member Spotlight Series, honouring the organisations that laid the groundwork for what DCA has become. A new historical timeline also charted DCA’s evolution and our longstanding commitment to advancing workplace inclusion.
Another major milestone was welcoming Catherine Hunter as DCA’s new CEO, who brings a powerful combination of strategic business expertise and a commitment to diversity and social impact.
Throughout the year, DCA has developed a refreshed strategy to continue enhancing how we work with our members toward our common goal: fairer, safer, and more equitable workplaces where everyone can thrive. We’ll share more in the new year on our strategy for driving inclusion at work.
Evidence-led research to support better practice
In 2025, we released new resources to help organisations strengthen their D&I capability, including: our landmark Class Inclusion at Work report and D&I Data at Work, Applying Intersectionality at Work.
We also launched new resource hubs on Class – providing guidance on building class inclusion at work, Caring – exploring how to support employees with caring responsibilities across the full spectrum of care; and ESG – addressing the link between ESG and D&I.
Events that connected, informed and inspired
DCA delivered 36 events with nearly 18,000 registrations. Feedback showed our events remain impactful: 81% of attendees said they were ‘likely or very likely’ to do something differently as a result of attending.
Highlights included our 40th anniversary celebration at Admiralty House and the 2025 Anna McPhee Memorial Oration delivered by our Patron, Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Supporting and strengthening our member community
This year, we welcomed 140 new and returning members to the DCA community. Through Member Key Contact forums, CEO Roundtables, and numerous personalised conversations, we empowered DCA members to fully leverage the benefits of their membership.
RISE: Advancing intersectional and anti-racist change
In partnership with Settlement Services International (SSI) and Chief Executive Women (CEW), the RISE Project made significant progress in 2025.
All 25 participating organisations completed the ASSESS to RISE Tool and began implementing priority actions, representing a significant milestone for the project. Our project partner SSI expanded access to mentoring and leadership initiatives for more than 300 CARM women and delivered two major in-person networking events in Sydney and Melbourne to cultivate peer support and cross-organisational learning, in addition to online networking events throughout the year.
The DCA team also began disseminating key insights from RISE so far, presenting at major national and international gatherings such as CSW69, the SAGE 2025 conference, and contributing to national and international scholarship on gendered racism, intersectionality, and workplace racial equity.
Expanding learning opportunities for our members
This year DCA delivered more than 200 education programs and speaking engagements, making it our biggest year on record. An outstanding 95% of participants agreed that our programs were informative and educational.
We also launched our new Anti-Racism Fundamentals knowledge program.
Advocating for systemic change
Our advocacy efforts continued to be wide-ranging and impactful, including submissions to the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment, the Economic Reform Roundtable Consultation and the Victorian Government’s plan to introduce working from home legislation.
Celebrating workplace inclusion
Over 500 organisations took part in DCA’s Inclusion at Work Week in 2025, which also saw the announcement of the 2025–2026 Inclusive Employers, recognising over 80 organisations for their commitment to creating inclusive workplaces.
Research and tools coming in 2026
- Inclusion@Work Index 2025–2026: The fifth iteration of the Inclusion@Work Index research series, offering a national snapshot of workplace inclusion.
- Neurodiversity Data at Work: In partnership with Amaze, this resource will give organisations evidence-based guidance on capturing workforce neurodiversity data.
- Sexual Harassment and Inclusion@Work: this report will explore the link between inclusion and sexual harassment, showing workplace inclusion as a protective factor against sexual harassment.
- Inclusion Across the Employee Lifecycle Toolkit: a practical guide for embedding inclusion at every stage of employment, from recruitment and onboarding to exiting and offboarding.
- Participate in DCA’s 2026-2027 Inclusive Employer Index: Organisations can take part to assess, benchmark, and showcase their commitment to diversity and inclusion. This is a great opportunity to be recognised as a leader in fostering inclusive workplaces!
Events and engagement
In 2026, we’ll continue to provide our members with opportunities to connect and join the conversation with an expanded calendar of both online, in-person and hybrid events, including:
- DCA’s Chief People Officer Roundtables – an exciting new event series to be hosted across multiple states
- a thought-provoking program of regular webinars covering topics like the ‘movable middle’, mental health, productivity, reimagining merit, the ageing workforce, and more.
We will also continue to build on our D&I Days and Dates Calendar, making it more interactive and directly connected to our resource library.
Strengthening member engagement, education, and impact
In 2026, DCA will strengthen member engagement by offering personalised one-on-one meetings, tailored communications and more opportunities for peer learning, networking, and member-only online forums.
The RISE team at DCA will be shifting their focus to consolidating impact and strengthening organisational capability, while sharing the project’s significant contributions to intersectional change. This includes supporting participating organisations with final-stage Action Plan implementation, supporting project partner CEW to launch an executive leadership program for CARM women and launching a landmark RISE report, while SSI wrap up participants’ support programs.
We are also exploring new education programs, formats and learning pathways, including:
- an Inclusive Leadership Program
- expanded eLearning content
- an Inclusive Employee Lifecycle Program
- new delivery methods and formats to suit evolving member needs.
Thank you for an impactful and transformative year
Thank you to our members, partners and supporters for engaging with us, sharing your insights and for your commitment to building more inclusive workplaces.
Together, our work is helping to foster more diverse and inclusive workplaces across Australia, where everyone can feel safe, respected, and thrive.
We look forward to collaborating with you in 2026 as we continue this work and explore new opportunities to create lasting change.