CURRENT RESEARCH UNDERWAY: Help us understand the experiences of culturally diverse LGBTIQ+ people at work. Survey closes 2 October 2019.
Culture & Faith
Today's workforce comprises of people from all manner of cultural, ethnic, religious and national backgrounds and identities.
Cultural diversity, cultural capability, and global experience in senior executive ranks are increasingly being recognised as valuable, sought after assets. A culturally diverse and capable leadership team can assist an organisation to broaden its strategic perspective, identify and enter new local and global markets, innovate, achieve business goals in culturally diverse business settings, and generate high performing multi-national and multicultural teams.
DCA defines cultural diversity as:
The variation between people in terms of how they identify on a range of dimensions including ancestry, ethnicity, ethno-religiosity, language, national origin, race, and/or religion.
Employers can do a lot to make the most of the talents of a culturally diverse workforce.
In this section you will find information about:
DCA Research
Change At Work
For well over thirty years, initiatives designed to improve diversity and inclusion (D&I) have been a priority for organisations – but are the plethora of D&I initiatives actually creating the organisational change they aspire to?
Cracking the Glass-Cultural Ceiling
DCA's latest report explores why so few culturally diverse females reach top leadership positions in Australia and what organisations can do to better recognise the skill and ambition of culturally diverse female talent.
Inclusion@Work Index
The DCA-Suncorp Inclusion@Work Index 2017-2018 is a landmark study, providing the first-ever national benchmarks for Australian workplaces in regards to the age, cultural background, disability status, gender, Indigenous background, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity of workers.
Capitalising on Culture and Gender in ASX leadership
In this landmark research, Diversity Council Australia and Deakin University, with the financial support of CPA Australia, tracked the extent of cultural diversity among women in leadership in ASX companies from 2004 to 2015.
Leading in the Asian Century: A National Scorecard of Australia’s Workforce Asia Capability
In ground breaking research, DCA has generated the first ever National Scorecard of Australia’s Workforce Asia Capability.
WordsAtWork - Building inclusion through the power of language
DCA has developed a new Words At Work campaign for workplaces to show how inclusive language can improve workplace culture and drive productivity.
Capitalising on Culture - ASX Directors 2004-2013
Diversity Council Australia partnered with Deakin University on Australian first research to investigate cultural diversity in ASX Boards over the past decade.
Capitalising on Culture
In an Australian first, DCA's new research called Capitalising on Culture: A Study of the Cultural Origins of ASX 200 Business Leaders and released on 23 October 2013, reveals the cultural origins of board members and senior executives in our major listed companies.
Cracking the Cultural Ceiling
People from Asian backgrounds are well represented in entry level and mid-level jobs in Australian business, yet they are significantly under-represented in leadership roles, representing an enormous waste of talent, according to DCA's research launched August 2014.
Capitalising on Culture Pilot Survey
Capitalising on Culture showed an encouraging depth and breadth of cultural and linguistic diversity at the most senior levels and in the leadership pipeline, but also revealed a need to capitalise more on talent who possess a non-English speaking cultural identity.
Other Research
Stronger Together: the impact of family separation on refugees and humanitarian migrants in Australia
This report from Oxfam Australia looks at the long-term economic benefits Australia stands to gain by increasing the intake of refugees.
Making the most of the skills and experience of migrants and refugees
This report explores the economic and social imperative for better utilisation of skills and experience of migrants and refugees in Queensland, what is getting in our way, and how we might move forward to reap the benefits.
Birthplaces, languages, ancestries and religions of Australian CEOs
Why do men born in the USA, UK or Canada have a greater chance of becoming an Australian CEO than those who are locally born?
Beyond the Pale: Cultural Diversity on ASX 100 Boards
This report presents a qualitative study of the cultural diversity of Australian boardrooms.
Mckinsey (2017) Delivering through diversity
This report from McKinsey research reinforces the link between diversity and company financial performance—and suggests how organizations can craft better inclusion strategies for a competitive edge.
Intersectionality Matters: Guide to engaging immigrant and refugee communities to prevent violence against women
The Intersectionality Matters Guide aims to help people and organisations develop violence prevention approaches, strategies and activities in a way that meaningfully engages immigrant and refugee communities.
News
Proposed Religious Freedom Laws will be impossible for Employers
Media releases
02 Oct 2019
Navigating faith at work: Let’s aspire to inclusion, not just accommodation
Media releases
14 Aug 2019
DCA has today released a new resource to help workplaces move away from simply ‘accommodating’ the needs of their multi-faith employees, towards making workplaces inclusive for everyone in Australia’s increasingly religiously diverse workplaces.
New report shows how to make D&I change initiatives that stick
Media releases
22 Jul 2019
DCA with Deloitte and Google have released a new report which sets out an innovative framework to make diversity and inclusion change that works.
Perspectives
Submission in response to the Exposure draft Religious Freedom Bills
Submissions
16 Oct 2019
While DCA strongly supports protections against discrimination on the basis of faith, this submission argues that proposed new laws would be problematic for business.
Religious inclusion: why it’s important and how to get it
Blog
10 Sep 2019
DCA CEO Lisa Annese reflects on our multi-faith guidelines
Israel Folau: why words matter
Blog
03 Jul 2019
The ongoing Israel Folau debate shows how powerful language is, especially at work.
Coming events
29 Oct 2019
Is backlash good for diversity and inclusion? This is the question moderator Tony Jones will be posing at this year's DCA & MLC LIfe Insurance Annual Diversity Debate.
Webcasts from past events
Sponsored by Gilbert + Tobin
24 Sep 2019
At this Diversity Leadership Program, we looked at DCA’s new Counting Culture guide to show how organisations can map the cultural diversity of its workforce .
22 Jul 2019
How effective are D&I initiatives in achieving change? We found out at the launch of Change At Work.