Diverse groups where diversity management and cross‐cultural communication strategies are used experience greater creativity and less stressful and unproductive conflicts. The growing trend of diversity management programs being developed in Australia to take advantage of such benefits is exemplified by the strong industry support for the Australian Network on Disability, a not‐for‐profit organisation. The organisation claims that 20 per cent of Australians suffer from disability, which affects two million working Australians. 

Companies involved in supporting the organisation include Platinum and Silver members, such as the top four Australian banks, Telstra, IBM, Australia Post, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Woolworths and Origin Energy, and Bronze members, such as Macquarie Bank, the Diversity Council of Australia and the Human Rights Commission. Westpac, a founder of the network has revealed that 12 per cent of their employees have disability of some type. Jane Councel, Head of Diversity and Flexibility for Westpac, reflects that serving the customer also means bringing the best skill sets together regardless of disability, which she states is ‘not cost prohibitive’ and that ‘the whole reason we’re so focused on diversity and inclusion is because we want to reflect the community that we serve. If you look at the incidence of disability and cultural diversity, having a diverse workplace means we can provide the best service to our customers’. While targets to employ people with disability may be promoted by advocates such as Graeme Innes (Federal Disability  Discrimination Commissioner), Peter Wilson (Chairperson of the Australian Human Resources Institute) contests that targets are just something to show progress in annual reports. Insights into more meaningful recruitment strategies have shown that targeting the demographic characteristic (such as disability) is less successful than focusing efforts on deep‐level differences such as a person’s attitudes or values.

QUESTION

Why are leading Australian companies driving initiatives to enable employees with disability to thrive in the workplace? What do you believe would be the challenges facing such organisations?

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