Question:
Discuss about the Strategic Management and Leadership for DET Policy.
The Department of Education and Training has planned and implemented different strategies to promote and maintain diversity in the workplace throughout Australia. In this regard, the department has prepared strategies that include the Workforce Diversity Plan 2012-2017, Aboriginal Human Resources Development Plan 2012-2017 and Strategic Human Resources Plan 2012-2017. The Workforce Diversity Policy has been created to ensure a workplace that encourages diversity in every aspect of life. It encompasses the students, parent and community.
Some of the key legislations included in the DET Diversity Policy are:
It is evident from the above list of legislations that the department has more or less included all the relevant legislations that are aimed at ensuring workforce diversity. However, a close look into the policy reveals that little importance has been given to gender equality. Although the policy does mention equality on all levels including gender, it lacks prominence. Gender discrimination is visible throughout the world across workplaces and the situation is no different in Australia as well (Sugrue, 2014). Women with equal qualities and skills are not appointed to higher ranks, be it in educational institutions or other organizations. Gender equality becomes all the more important at basic educational level because that shapes and molds the behavior and thinking of the students. An inclusion of the Gender Equality Act would have provided a push to the workforces to work together towards the betterment of the Australian society.
Diversity refers to the inclusion of people in a society from different cultural backgrounds, gender, demography, ethnicity, region and religion. The current DET policy is committed towards encouraging diversity in the workplace that mirrors the multiplicity of the students, teachers, carers, parents and the community of NSW. The Workforce Diversity Plan 2012-2017 mentions the achievement of a workplace where each individual irrespective of his or her culture, ethnicity, physical ability, community or religion, shall be valued and respected. Respecting differences is one of the principles of diversity. Providing equal employment opportunity to the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, differently able people, non-English speaking people, women and younger people is included in the principles of WDP. Equality in employment is also a part of the principles of diversity.
The Strategic Human Resources Plan 2102-2017, mentions that a higher and better representation of Aboriginal people in the workplace will be an indicator of the achievement of goals. This can be aligned to the principles of diversity especially in the Australian context wherein the Aboriginal people are given their rightful importance. In addition, the plan also aims to have 50% representation of women in higher positions by the end of 2017 that would ensure a successful implementation of the plan. Other indicators include 1.5% or higher presence of people with disability in the workplace, 19% representation of non-English speaking people, racially and ethnically distinct people and other minority groups.
The intention to prepare a separate plan for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people itself is evidence that supports the principles of diversity. The Aboriginal Human Resources Development Plan 2012-2017 aims to provide equal opportunities to the people of the deprived community to be a part of the workforce and achieve what they deserve. They will be given equal training to refine their skills and a platform to highlight them as well.
The DET Diversity Policy mentions wide range of objectives that it aims to achieve in the five years starting from 2012. The objectives include achieving skilled and diverse workforce reflecting diversity of the students, a workplace that encourages comprehensive practices for the profit of all employees, the education and other fields. In addition, providing better employment and opportunities to the under-represented through particular initiatives and plans also constitute the policy objectives. Other objectives are similar to the ones already mentioned. However, the last objective mentions the achievement of awareness amongst employees about their rights and duties in terms of equity, integrity and respect for diversity.
A comparison of these objectives to the strategies and measures of success outlined in the three-implementation documents gives an insight into their relevancy. In the WDP 2012-2017, attracting and employing diverse workforce, developing and preserving the workforce and making this a part of everyday business are the three main strategies that are supposed to help in achieving the objectives.
The strategies mentioned in the Aboriginals Human Resources Development Plan 2012-2017, like the WDP looks to enhance the participation of under-represented people with a special focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These include, training the Aboriginal people to help them improve their managerial and leadership abilities, taking assistance from local communities to ensure better understanding and so on.
As already mentioned, the Strategic Human Resources Development Plan 2012-2017 aims to apply strategies that include recruitment of best quality staff in all parts of Australia, partnering with local communities to empower under-represented individuals, devise innovative ways to do business to ensure everyone has a chance to display their talent and thus.
The three-implementation documents mention the application of these strategies to achieve success by the end of the five-year plan. The measures of success for each plan is indicated by the achievement of a higher percentage of Aboriginal people in the workplace that includes students and teachers as well; increased percentage of women in senior roles, better representation of non-English speaking community , people from different race, ethnicity and minority groups.
It is thus evident from the strategies and indicators of success that these can be related to the objectives mentioned in the policy. However, it remains to be seen to what extent these will be implemented and achieved.
The 2016 Annual Report of the NSW Department of Education provides statistics and information on the achievements and failures of the government to achieve its proposed objectives. In regards to the Workforce Diversity Plan, the Annual Report suggested an upward trend in the representation of women in educational institutions especially. According to the report, compared to the 73.4% representation of women in workplaces in 2012, the year 2016 saw an increase of 4%. In the senior leadership roles, the representation of women in senior leadership role exceeded the 50% benchmark by 1.1%. The benchmark of 2.6% representation of Aboriginal people in the workplace set by NSW government also saw a rise with 3.7% total representation in 2016. However, the stats showing representation of non-English speaking people witnessed a decline compared to previous years and did not even get close to the 19% benchmark set in the DET policy. With 3.2% representation of people with disability in 2016, the trends suggest little deviation from previous years.
Going by these statistics of the Annual report, it is evident that not much has been achieved yet as per the objectives and strategies of the Workforce Diversity Plan, the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Plan and the overall Strategic Human Resources Plan 2012-2017.
In terms of the Equal Employment Opportunity, the Annual Report statistics showed no significant changes after the implementation of the DET Diversity Policy. Against the 100-benchmark set under the DET policy for EEO groups representing women, Aboriginal people, people with disability and non-English speaking people, only two groups saw a rise. People with disability and non-English speaking people stats increased by just four to 104 in 2016.
The EEO issues too did not demonstrate much improvement even after the implementation of various plans. However, it must be stated that there is still time to review the effectiveness of these plans and hopefully the results would be remarkable.
The DET Diversity Policy is a noble effort on the part of the NSW government and must be appreciated. Nonetheless, the visible trends and results indicate that sterner policies are required and better ways to implement are needed as well. Some recommendation can be made to improve or better the policy that include:
Håkansson and Isidorsson (2015) stated that before implementation of different diversity acts and regulations the institutions should make effective promotional activities with the help of which people in general can be aware of the acts and regulations.
Equal employment opportunity act strictly prohibits the organizational experts in maintaining discrimination at the workplace. This very specific act implies that people belonging to various geographical areas and religious backgrounds are competent for being the part of this institution like DET. Therefore, the administrative managers should never show their biased attitude in proving the platform (Håkansson and Isidorsson 2015).
Gender Equality Act implies that both male and female should receive equal priority from the organization. In order to get a chance to be a learner of DET female employees had to face innumerable difficulties. As a result, the female learners would not get deprived of receiving effective learning process from the institution such as Department of Education and Training (Bjerkan, Nordtømme and Kummeneje 2013).
Racial Discrimination Act ensures that an institution should not show their reluctant attitude in appointing an individual learning for the cause of racism. The purpose of an educational institution should be focusing on the skill and talent of an individual. An individual personality due to Aboriginal stature should never be ignored within a workplace.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 defines that no individual shall be discriminated based on his or her physical, psychiatric, intellectual, learning or any other type of disability. The act also involves discrimination based on any illness like HIV or such. This act certainly has impact on workplace diversity, as it involves treatment of fellow colleagues as per their disability. This act ensures that peoples in the workplace especially in educational institutions respect the people with disability and allow them to grow together with others. The citizens of Australia must be made aware and trained in this regard so that the plans implemented by the government yields positive results.
Reference List:
Bjerkan, K.Y., Nordtømme, M.E. and Kummeneje, A.M., 2013. Transportation to employment. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 15(4), pp.342-360.
Button, J.W., 2015. Black violence: Political impact of the 1960s riots. Princeton University Press.
Håkansson, K. and Isidorsson, T., 2015. Temporary Agency Workers-Precarious Workers?: Perceived Job Security and Employability for Temporary Agency Workers and Client Organization Employees at a Swedish Manufacturing Plant. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 5(4), p.3.
Kurtulus, F.A. and Tomaskovic-Devey, D., 2012. Do female top managers help women to advance? A panel study using EEO-1 records. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 639(1), pp.173-197.
Lee, S.Z., 2013. A Revolution at War with Itself-Preserving Employment Preferences from Weber to Ricci. Yale LJ, 123, p.2964.
Miller, A.R. and Segal, C., 2014. Do female officers improve law enforcement quality? Effects on crime reporting and domestic violence escalation.
Smith, J.J., 2014. Banning the Box but Keeping the Discrimination: Disparate Impact and Employers’ Overreliance on Criminal Background Checks. Harv. CR-CLL Rev., 49, p.197.
Sugrue, T.J., 2014. The origins of the urban crisis: Race and inequality in postwar Detroit. Princeton University Press.
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