On Monday, 2 March 2020, the sector’s people and culture professionals convened to ‘hack’ typical job share challenges they’ve found in their agencies. Assistant Commissioner Jane Spring set the scene before handing over to a range of leaders discussing their experience and research in the area:

• Brooke Black and Sonia Dametto, job sharing HR Directors at Premier and Cabinet, discussed the business case behind DPC’s support for job share, and their own experience of how to make it work.
• Professor Ros Dixon of UNSW’s law faculty gave us a sneak peek at the research that she and law graduate Jessie Zhang’s has completed on non-traditional job share, giving insight into ‘code switching’ and the different ways job share can be configured. Professor Dixon then hosted a panel with Professors Eileen Baldry and Leisa Sargent, Co-Vice Chancellors Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, to discuss their vertical job share arrangement and the innovative way they have re-designed their role, while backfilling Leisa’s other role to provide career progression at multiple levels.
• Gemini 3, partners in the job share platform with PSC, then led a ‘hackathon’ with participants, to explore the challenges they perceived that job share faced in our sector in our current industrial, IT and recruitment systems. The good news is that the teams found a solution to everything, and the results have been made available as a resource ongoing. It’s heartening to see how a good hive mind can tackle what seem even intractable problems! Contact flexible.working@psc.nsw.gov.au if you would like access to these resources, and the flexible working webpage has a number of fantastic guides for those keen to job share, manage or recruit job share, or implement more of it as a talent solution in their agency.

Explore how behavioural insights (BI) can help to create diverse, inclusive workplaces at the final Community of HR Professionals event for this year - presented in partnership with the D&I Forum.

BI draws on the latest evidence from the behavioural and social sciences to understand the way people actually make decisions and uses these insights to design better policies and services for citizens.

Attendees were able to:

• Understand the principles and practices of BI and how they are applied within government
• Learn about a NSW Government research project and pilot program which is using BI to increase the representation of women in senior leadership
• Hear from experts about how BI practices are being implemented to address inclusion in the workplace.

View part 1.

View part 2.

The inaugural D&I Forum: Let's talk about Flex! was held on 12 February 2019. The event provided a private sector perspective on flexible working practices, including an overview of implementation challenges and benefits that were relatable to the government sector context. Guest speakers were Mariebelle Malo, Unilever executive and Co-founder of Gemini 3 & Lauren Di Pietro, Australian and New Zealand People Leader at Aurecon.

Videos from Let's talk about flex

• Mariebelle Malo (Unilever executive and Co- founder – Gemini 3): Mariebelle Malo shares the Unilever flexible working experience and her own flexible working story – including the role of communication and technology in the process; the benefits and challenges for the organisation, and the mechanics and advantages of job share.
• Lauren Di Pietro (People Leader, Australia & New Zealand, Aurecon): Lauren shares her experience of implementing flexible working at Aurecon – including the cultural change and the overall positive impact of flexible working on the organisation and employees.
• Let’s talk about Flex Q&A: The Q and A session covers a range of questions for the two speakers (Mariebelle Malo and Lauren Di Pietro) around the practicalities and challenges of implementing flexible working in the private sector, and how this may work in a government sector context

On 14 May 2019 the flexible working team held the second D&I forum for the NSW government sector - Accommodating Flexibility: strategies for ageing, inclusion and agile workplaces. Speakers included Susan Ryan AO, the former Ageing and Disability Discrimination Commissioner; Clark Powers, HR lead from Bunnings; Natalie Goldman, CEO Fund to Fly; Greg Alchin, the Disability Employment Lead from the NSW Department of Education; and Stace Fishwick, Director, Development & Transactions, Property NSW. The speakers got the room thinking about how we can do things better for our ageing workforce, and for those with a disability, and make proactive and effective decisions around flexible working, inclusion, workforce planning and design for our government sector colleagues.

Videos from Accommodating Flexibility: Strategies for ageing, inclusion and agile workplaces:

• Susan Ryan AO former Ageing and Disability Discrimination Commissioner.
• Clark Powers Human Resources Lead for Bunnings.

Centre for Inclusive Design: world-first report on the impact of inclusive design

Research conducted by the Centre for Inclusive Design has revealed that products and services designed with the needs of people experiencing poverty, disability or the effects of aging in mind can reach four times the number of intended consumers and impact the bottom-line of organisations: http://centreforinclusivedesign.org/community/blog/2019/may/21/world-first-report-research-reveals-inclusive-design-can-expand-customer-reach-fourfold/

Did you know that the majority of people with disability have an unseen disability?

The August 2019 Diversity and Inclusion Forum focused on people with unseen disability such as autism spectrum disorder and mental health conditions.

The forum was designed for people and hiring managers in the NSW public sector. It provided them with the tools and confidence to address challenges and identify opportunities in their workplaces.

View Ruth Bonser discuss her experiences of working with autism.

Download the transcript of Ruth Bonser discussing her experiences of working with autism. 

Listen to the autism panel discussion. 

Download the transcript of the autism panel discussion.