We are members of the Diversity Council of Australia and are focusing efforts on creating an inclusive workplace as part of our People Strategy. Joining CEOs for Gender Equity is an extension of this work as gender is one of our key focus areas for inclusion. Contributing to and supporting organisations that are progressing a diversity and inclusion agenda is an important element of our strategy. The work we do in the community enables us to impact more than just our workforce and building tolerance and curiosity in communities benefits everyone.

We recognise that creating equity has many broad and diverse perspectives. We believe that every person has inherent dignity and value. We will not discriminate against people and will actively support and welcome individual differences in line with our organisational values. We will actively encourage our employees, volunteers, contractors, consumers and their families to embrace diversity and the broader perspective that it brings. Creating an environment where everyone is seen, heard and valued is the core of our Employee Value Proposition.

Our workforce is diverse in many ways, but we are underrepresented in male employees who only make up 15% of our workforce. Finding ways to attract, retain and elevate the voices of our male employees is a key focus for an inclusive employee experience, balanced decision making and ensuring our services are representative of our consumers, many of whom are male. Increasing the participation of males in middle management roles will create balance which creates better outcomes.

Equity across all groups is important so any forum that brings that conversation to those who run our organisations is important. Southern Cross Care (WA) is a female dominated workforce operating in a female dominated industry which brings its challenges. The Fair Work Commission has recently taken steps to address wage rates in female dominated industries which has meant wage and funding increases for our front-line staff which I hope helps build a more diverse workforce over time. Creating consideration for Aged Care as a career option as well as the caring professions is an important step in investment in a sector that is so important to older Australians and their families.

We have completed our first Diversity and Inclusion survey to understand the differences in employee experience between genders, amongst other diversity characteristics. It tells us that the experience is different, and we are now focused on elevating male voices, particularly in middle management where our representation is low. The survey allows us to focus on areas that are important to our people which include gender, age, neurodiversity and disability.


We have established a Diversity & Inclusion Advisory group which represents both the diversity in our workforce but also the diversity of services that we offer. Diversity & Inclusion also form part of our new leadership program which is designed for front-line leaders.

I am keen to contribute to conversations that create equity across genders, particularly where our challenge is different to many other industries. It is also important that we also start to have inclusion conversations that are broader than gender. People are for more than just their gender.

It is only when we have solutions that do not exclude or diminish any one group that can we have true inclusion.