Funded by the Queensland Government’s Growing Workforce Participation Fund, QCOSS’ Supporting diverse workforces project is a sector strengthening program of work, supporting community services organisations in Queensland to develop their human resources capability.
Workplace diversity is crucial – especially in the social services sector – and yet many organisations struggle to attract and retain diverse candidates.
With sector workforce shortages at crisis point, it’s a critical time to re-evaluate and reform your human resources strategy to make sure it promotes genuinely diverse and inclusive hiring and workplaces.
This program will give you the tools you need to build a stable and diverse employee base and communicate your organisation’s value to talented jobseekers.
2024 workshops and resources
Held: Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Critical to maintaining employee wellbeing, satisfaction, and ultimately retention, is ensuring you have policy and practice in place through which employees feel included and heard.
Implementing a diversity and inclusion workforce strategy is a step to achieve this, as it is a formal commitment outlining what your organisation will do to create a more inclusive and diverse workforce. However, diversity and inclusion strategies need to align to an organisation’s goals and strategic direction for them to be effective.
This session established the importance of diversity and inclusion workforce strategies for an organisation, its employees, and service users. Panellists share their own experiences in relation to implementing diversity and inclusion strategies into their organisations, highlighting the key factors that lead to success.
Session resources
Held: Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Australia is experiencing a skills and labour shortage: 31% of national organisations state that they cannot find people to fill roles, yet three million people nationally are actively looking for work (DCA, 2022).
The way a position description and accompanying job advertisement is written can make a significant difference to who pays attention to it and who applies for the position. This session will highlight the ways in which you can communicate your organisation’s values to talented jobseekers and incorporate inclusive strategies into this process to attract diverse candidates.
Panellists will share practical tips on the best way to write a position description and how to accurately ‘sell’ the role you are hiring for.
QCOSS invites those responsible for recruitment in their organisation to attend this session and be guided through the inclusive ways to attract the right candidate for your position.
Additional resources
Held: Tuesday, 23 April 2024
Writing an effective job advertisement is a great first step, but knowing the right channels to advertise your position will help to widen your applicant base and attract diverse candidates.
We often hear about organisations who want to employ a more diverse team but struggle to retain candidates through the whole recruitment process.
In this session, we will explore ways you can build a diverse workforce by using a variety of channels to advertise your role and attract the right candidates. Panellists will share tips for inclusive recruitment methods to help your organisation make practical changes in how you recruit. By adopting inclusive recruitment methods you will ensure a positive experience for candidates, keeping them engaged and assured of your organisation’s commitment to supporting their employment with you.
QCOSS invites those responsible for recruitment in their organisation to join us for this practical session.
Additional resources
Held: Thursday 30 May 2024
Supporting employee wellbeing is one of the ways to ensure your team remains satisfied and brings their best to the role. How satisfied and supported your team feels when they come to work can significantly influence your internal culture, and impacts the quality of service delivered to your community.
In this session, we will be diving into the practical ways managers can support their teams, particularly employees who may have diverse needs.
QCOSS encourages team leaders, managers, and those who are actively supervising employees to join this discussion reviewing employee wellbeing and satisfaction.
Additional resources
Held: Thursday, 27 June 2024
Performance management is one of the most challenging aspects of workplace supervision, and too often is a reactive process. The way you manage the performance of your team will contribute to how respected and supported your team feels within your organisation. Embracing diversity and being open to different ways of fulfilling performance review processes is key to creating an inclusive environment at work.
In this session, we speak to panellists about the various ways to approach performance management in a way that navigates culture, ability and workplace expectations.
QCOSS invites team leaders, managers, and those who are actively supervising employees to join us for this final “Supporting Diverse Workforces” event.
Additional resources
Shortcuts to success
In this short video series we share a few handy tips and tricks to enhance your organisation’s status as an employer of choice.
On-demand webinars and additional resources to get started
This webinar establishes the tremendous value of a genuine workforce diversity and inclusion program for an organisation, its employees and its clients, and the roll current and aspiring organisational leaders, managers, supervisors, and HR practitioners play in shaping a healthy work culture.
Topics covered included:
- The difference between diversity and inclusion, and the impact of both
- Understanding the value chain benefits of diverse workplaces to community, organisations, leaders, workers, and stakeholders
- Developing the HR capabilities required for a diverse and inclusive organisation
- Driving innovation and increasing productivity, workforce participation, reducing absenteeism and retaining talent
- Developing safe, inclusive, and pragmatic workplace policies
- Developing management resources and practices to support diversity and inclusion.
Session resources
This session examines the methodology behind an HR strategy that integrates diversity and inclusion rather than one that uses a “bolt-on” approach. It steps through how to develop an HR strategy that addresses the needs of a range of potential employees and is championed at all levels of leadership.
Topics covered included:
- How to develop a HR strategy
- Ensuring diversity and inclusion is at the centre of your HR program
- Building the capacity of employees to drive a genuinely inclusive HR strategy
- Ensuring the HR strategy is championed and remains front-of-mind at the executive and management levels
- Understanding modern Hybrid and Flexible work practices and the pivotal role they play in crafting HR strategies for the future
- Building workforce capabilities to deliver on strategic objectives.
Resources
This session teaches you how to implement your newly developed HR strategy and make sure it remains current. We also examine different approaches to managing and balancing performance measures while upholding the needs of all employees.
Topics covered will include:
- Practically implementing and maintaining a robust HR plan, including keeping it current
- Designing performance indicators that drive the HR strategy
- Capturing workforce data and analytics that reflect your strategic goals
- Managing people, performance, and practices in an inclusive and balanced way
- Supporting employee participation and strategic goal ownership
- Fostering and celebrate a culture of diversity and inclusivity
- Developing tools and resources to support employees.
Resources
In a market that favours jobseekers, employers are increasingly competing for talented people. In this session, you will learn how to position yourself as an employer of choice, attract a broad pool of candidates and retain skillful employees.
Topics covered will include:
- Attracting diverse applicants
- Avoiding the pitfalls of outdated and exclusionary recruitment methods
- Marketing your organisation as an employer of choice
- Conducting interviews with flexibility, inclusion, and strengths in mind.
- Offering interview alternatives and exploring different selection methods
- Ensuring your entire employee lifecycle and experience (recruitment through to exit) is aligned with diversity and inclusion principles, and organisational values.
Resources
Stories from the sector
Many organisations struggle to attract and retain diverse candidates. We spoke with three leading experts from across the Queensland social services sector to get their insights and tips on inclusive hiring.
Karni Liddell
NDIS Ambassador, Paralympian, diversity trainer and clinical social worker
Christine Mudavanhu
Founder and Principal Consultant,
Utano Consulting
Lachlan Anderson
Commercial Partnerships and Program Manager, Indigenous Workstars
Project lead:
Sarah Walker
Sector Development Lead (Workforce)
Sector Workforce Planning and Development
Email: [email protected]