In a 1993 episode of the hit TV sit-com Seinfeld, an eavesdropping college reporter prints the mistaken story that Jerry and George are longtime intimate companions, resulting in many protestations by Jerry and George they weren’t gay; ”Not that’s there’s anything wrong with that!”  In the decades that have followed, this phrase has been bandied around like a Monopoly ‘Get Out Jail Free’ Card, giving apparent impunity to all straight people saying anything demeaning about LGBTQI+, absolving them of perpetuating negative stereotypes or any hurt they may cause. When reflecting on the defini ..read more

Bullying in the workplace has often been viewed as a behavioural problem that can flourish given the right conditions such as a power imbalance, rather than a problem rooted in organisational structures and processes.  As such, widely used strategies such as antibullying policies, bullying awareness training, incident reporting, and investigating complaints that focus directly on the behaviour that takes place between individuals, overlook the root causes of the behaviour in the organisational system. Workplace bullying is a form of systematic mistreatment that occurs repeatedly and regul ..read more

No not that kind of sex.  The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).  For nearly 40 years the SDA has made it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sex, a term which is encompasses so much more than just gender.  Specifically, the SDA makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person because of their sex, gender identity, intersex status, sexual orientation, marital or relationship status, family responsibilities, because they are pregnant, might become pregnant or because they are breastfeeding.  In addition, the SDA also makes sexual harassment against the law. While this ..read more

No worker expects their workplace to be a palace of fun. Each working day brings new challenges, some hard and unexpected. What they do demand, though, is to feel safe. Regrettably, many find their psychological safety at work threatened by toxic, unsupportive cultures that induce stress and worry.  Take Grace, a hypothetical administrative worker from Brisbane. Grace is of Papua New Guinean descent and suffers from a physical disability that produces inflammation and tenderness in her joints. A psychologically safe workplace embraces Grace’s diversity – it supports, values and respects h ..read more

In 2018 The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) published findings that a staggering 85% of women had been sexually harassed at work at some point in their lives, yet only 17% of people who were sexually harassed in the workplace in the last 5 years made a formal complaint about it.  Even more concerningly, one third of people surveyed had been witnesses, or bystanders, to sexual harassment in the workplace yet only a third of these bystanders took action.[1] While Australia has had laws against sexual harassment and discrimination for many decades, the problems remain rife – in per ..read more

Following our attendance at the AHRI National Convention, we asked our team to answer the following questions based on their experiences during the 3 days when speaking to delegates. Q. What are the challenges that you have heard organisations face when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace? I think one of the biggest challenges that I’ve personally heard throughout this convention is companies wanting to comply with psychological safety and the new ISO standard that are coming into force under the Work, Health and Safety Act. Companies are wanting to mitigate risk. They are als ..read more

Building a business case for disability inclusion Stephanie Agnew and Dr Lisa Chaffey are highly educated, insightful and entertaining presenters who, like 1 in 5 Australians, also happen to have a disability. As Stephanie pointed out, people with disabilities can do all things, they just do it differently. The statistics around employment for people with disabilities are revealing. Compared to their ‘able bodied’ counterparts, disabled people are five times more likely to give excellent customer service, have superior safety records, are four times more likely to stay in their role ..read more

On 27 April 2022 the Australian HR Institute held their 10th annual D&I AHRI Conference showcasing leading practices in diversity and inclusion within Australia. They celebrated and articulated progress, and discussed and deciphered action to move along the path to greater inclusion. The AHRI Conference is not only for HR professionals but for thought leaders who want to be informed and inspired by the latest PROGRESS + ACTION for diversity and inclusion. The Conference is always, in equal parts, an uplifting celebration of what is good in the world and a depressing reminder of how far we ..read more

Whether you participated in the live event in Sydney, or joined virtually, we hope you enjoyed the AHRI Diversity and Inclusion Conference this year as much as we did.  As a team we were energized and inspired by the work being carried out by some truly amazing individuals including Professor Munjed Al Muderis, the opening keynote speaker. Not only were we captured by his humour and impassioned storytelling, but he highlighted how fine the thread of tolerance can be, and how bigotry, hatred and forgetfulness can once again lead humanity to unspeakable atrocities. The Professor chall ..read more

5 Simple Steps to Maximising your Talent Pool In a candidate short market, the last thing companies should be doing is limiting their options by looking for more employees that are just like themselves. Whilst instinctively, you might think that similar people would increase a cultural fit in an organisation, it reduces the diversity in your workplace and limits your access to all the benefits that go with it. Diversity has proven positive impacts to an organisation in many ways including productivity, problem solving, and even revenue! According to Deloitte Access Economics, effective managem ..read more