Unemployment amongst Indigenous Australians is four times greater than any other demographic. That statistic, when viewed alongside similar statistics for standard of living and health, rams home the gross inequalities facing Indigenous Australians.
Danny Lester, CEO of the Aboriginal Employment Strategy (AES), says that most Australians are aware of these hideous gaps; the problem, he says, is that many Australians - and most employers - don't know how they can help.
"I think Australians want to do something," he says. "The will is there. But the questions we always get from business leaders are, how do we engage, how do we source, how do we retain Indigenous Australians?"
The work undertaken by the AES, which is a 100% Indigenous, national not-for-profit recruitment company and a Registered Training Organisation, is intended to help employers breach that massive gap in terms of committing to Indigenous employment.
A victim of the GFC?
A sad reality of the GFC was that diversity came to be viewed by many companies as a luxury rather than a necessity. Juliet Bourke, partner at diversity advisors Aequus Partners, says that of all diversity strategies only flexibility stayed on the agenda because it was still viewed as a strategic way to retain staff. Other diversity initiatives slipped onto the backburner.
Fortunately, 2010 is shaping up to be more positive, with many companies once again gearing up their strategies across a broad spectrum of diversity initiatives. Perhaps the biggest surprise has been the emergence of indigenous programs on corporate agendas.
"Diversity is coming back onto the agenda now because of the focus on women, which then causes organisations to look more broadly," Bourke says. "Having said that, some of our clients retained and advanced a focus on Indigenous employment because of their specific workplace needs - for example they were operating in Aboriginal communities - or because their competitors were doing it."
Longitudinal data from the 2003, 2005 and 2008 Australasian Diversity and Equality Survey (completed by best practice organisations) shows marked improvement. Fifty-two per cent of organisations focused on Indigenous programs in 2003, 53% in 2005, and 60% in 2008. "It's a trend in the right direction, which was no doubt assisted by the Prime Minister's apology in 2008," Bourke says.
Lester agrees, but believes the resurgence is multifaceted. He concedes Prime Minister Rudd's apology helped, but feels there are other elements at play. "The awareness of the issues around Indigenous hiring and the means being used to support and promote it, such as the Australian Employment Covenant [a three-way commitment between employers, the Australian Government and indigenous people to create 50,000 sustainable jobs for indigenous Australians] certainly helped. However, I believe employers are seeing that by employing local indigenous community members, they are providing assistance to local economies and gaining a retained workforce as well. They can see more benefits than ticking the CSR box - there are benefits around creating their own workforce for tomorrow and planning the future for local indigenous communities," he says.
Making it work
As with any diversity initiative, Lester says the first step in an Indigenous recruitment strategy is to get the highest level of commitment by the organisation. This means gaining endorsements and support from the CEO or chairperson. Beyond that, involvement from the HR executive or HR personnel - those who will drive change within the process of recruiting, supporting and retaining indigenous career seekers - is crucial. "I firmly don't believe the HR policy needs to change but the process within those policies may need to be altered somewhat. For example, if you traditionally recruited via online tools, that won't work for indigenous career seekers. There needs to be an alternate process put in place that enables a far greater awareness and catchment to engage potential employees," he says.
Nonetheless, Lester says the WIIFM (what's in it for me) question will still be asked. "What's in it for organisations is this: there are a huge number of unemployed and employed Indigenous Australians out there and by employing local community members to service the local workforce you'll get sustainability and you'll be helping those local communities. You'll create a loyalty base that is far reaching. Many indigenous people view these opportunities in terms of whole careers with an employer and they will stay with an employer long term."
Employers cannot be expected to do this by themselves. Lester notes that meaningful partnerships are important. The work that service providers like AES undertakes far outweighs the sourcing capacity that many employers have. "They don't know how to source and engage. We do. We can refer hundreds of potential employees to them," says Lester.
Driving the AES recruitment and training operations is a vast database that holds details of individuals that are willing to work tomorrow, and individuals that are keen to work but may need some occupational training.
AES acts as more than a recruitment agency. The organisation takes a holistic approach and works closely, one to one, with the communities in which it operates. AES representatives go into communities to meet with career seekers and seek to understand what each person is hoping to get from their life as well as their career. Through that process AES ascertains whether they can go directly into employment or whether they need additional skills to reach their goals. AES also works closely with schools. "We work with the principals and event coordinators and that brings about a cohesive pipeline for the future through the School Based Trainee [SBT] program," Lester says.
In partnership with the Federal Government, the SBT was central to placing 200 Indigenous year 10 students into SBT with Australian companies this year. The 2010 target is to find 500 SBT positions across Australia.
Lester says that as well as keeping kids interested and engaged while completing senior school years, the SBT program gives Australian companies a chance to find young enthusiastic employees who fast become an asset to the business. "The SBT program develops skilled Indigenous youth who can enter the Australian job market, and is a proven pathway to employment," he says.
"Indigenous employment targets are meaningless without models to keep kids at school and thinking about their future. So we want more Australian companies to work with us to create these opportunities."
The AES currently has more than 35 host employers around Australia who offer SBT positions.
Indeed, the AES views employers as their number one client. To that end, the AES undertakes thorough research into each employer to understand their needs, what skills sets are required, the peaks and troughs of the recruitment cycle, and also their HR policies. "We can provide suggestions around influencing different processes to make sure they capture the full potential of Indigenous people," Lester says. "We work on quality not quantity - the reason we do that is because we don't want to waste the time of the career seekers or the employer."
For the time being, the financial sector is leading the way in indigenous recruitment, but Lester is optimistic that other industries such as building and construction, retail, hospitality and mining and engineering may also benefit. To facilitate this, AES has rolled out an employment roadshow around regional Australia. The aim is to promote the AES brand and indigenous excellence through case studies and personal experiences of people who have been placed in careers.
"Our long-term goal is to ensure the local workforce population doesn't just fit within the low level occupations. To make real change, we need to see Indigenous Australians represented at low, medium and high level occupations," Lester concludes.
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