22 March Indigenous Recruitment and Retention
Session 1
This session showcased the Department of Conservation and Land Management’s Mentored Aboriginal Training and Employment Scheme (MATES).

The MATES program won the prestigious Diversity@work award in the category of Employment and Inclusion of Indigenous Australians in 2004. The program also won the Premier's Award in the Category of Leadership in Equity and Diversity as well as the Premier's Award for Excellence in 2003.

Alan Byrne and Beth McKernan from the CALM training Centre in Dwellingup conducted this presentation.

CALM Presentation

Session 2
Three questions on Indigenous Recruitment and retention issues were put to our panel of speakers:

• Chris Cottier - Director of Policy and Coordination at the Department of Indigenous Affairs
• Wendy Dawson – Executive Director Indigenous Policy Directorate at the Department for Community Development
• Ricki Hewitt – Director of Management Projects, a business that provides recruitment and other services to government and community organisations

These questions were:

• To 50D or not 50D - What are the pros and cons?
• What are the preconditions for successful recruitment?
• Mentoring and career development for indigenous employees - What are the critical success factors?

Panel comments

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14 June Reporting Requirements
At this Diversity Forum, Noela Taylor Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment introduced us to the days speakers and topics. Noela's presentation.

Nicci Whitehouse from the Public Sector Management Division of the Department of Premier and Cabinet provided information, at the whole of government and agency level on:

• Workforce Information: What do we collect?
• The Role of Workforce Information in Managing our Workforce

You can email Nicci Whitehouse if you have any questions relating to her presentation.

Chris Stansbury from the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity provided information on:

• Overview of the 4 main datasets collected
• EEO Report
  • Why EEO information is required
  • How the OEEO analyse and use the data
• Climate Surveys
  • Survey process
  • How the OEEO analyse and use the data

You can email Chris Stansbury if you have any questions relating to his presentation.

Anthony Jones from the Insurance Commission of WA presented a case study which showed how data from the OPSSC Climate Survey Results could be linked with RiskCover Workers’ Compensation Data to highlight correlations between employee satisfaction and the frequent of worker’s compensation claims.

You can email Anthony Jones if you have any questions relating to his presentation.

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26 August Women in Senior Management

At this Diversity Forum, Noela Taylor Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment introduced us to the day’s speakers and topics.

Noela's presentation.

Session 1
Jennifer de Vries and Maggie Leavitt described highlights of the Leadership Development for Women Programme at the University of Western Australia.

Maggie Leavitt of Maggie Cox and Associates and Jen deVries of the University of Western Australia have been developing and delivering the LDW program together since 1999. It is currently being run at UWA; WA Police; and Department of Education and Training.

UWA Presentation

Session 2

Three questions on leadership issues for women in the Western Australian Public Sector were put to our panel of speakers:

• Maryanne Coombs - Principal Consultant, Promoting Women
  Department Education and Training
• Margaret Keys – Coach for Integral Leadership Centre and Principal of thInc (the intelligence consultants)
• Mal Shervill – Assistant Commissioner, Specialist Crime Portfolio, Western Australia Police

These questions were:

• Haven’t we done gender equality? Why do agencies need to improve gender equity?
• Do you think that what women want is just different from what men want from work and life and that women are choosing alternatives to the traditional hierarchical career path?
• How do we tackle the inevitable backlash from men (and some women) to tackling changes in culture and targeting activity to support and develop opportunities for women in the public service?

Panel comments.

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8 November Culturally Diverse Backgrounds (CDB)

Introduction

This Forum focussed on people from culturally diverse backgrounds. The morning’s program included an address from Dr Leela de Mel, Executive Director of the Office of Multicultural Interests, on the Government's Charter of Multiculturalism and how agencies might incorporate the Charter's principles into areas such as service delivery and recruitment.

A summary of Dr de Mel’s address is available.

There was a presentation from OEEO which included a summary from the recent DEOPE Annual Report on representation and distribution of people from culturally diverse backgrounds across the sector. You can email the Office of EEO if you have any questions relating to this presentation.

The morning concluded with a panel of speakers, representing a range of public sector employees. Four questions about their own particular experiences and views on what improvements could be made within the sector were put to our panel of speakers. Two of the speaker’s stories had previously appeared in the OEEO publication Voices of Diversity:

• Van Tan Phan – a Community Corrections Officer at the Department of Justice
• Marva Hunte – Language Services Coordinator at Fremantle Hospital
• Valery Niazov - Multicultural Development Officer at City of Gosnells.

These questions were:

• What is the story behind your entry into the public service and what were some of the difficulties you had to overcome?
• What do you think agencies could do better to attract and recruit more staff from culturally diverse backgrounds?
• What do you think are the biggest challenges facing public sector agencies in their attempts to recruit more staff from culturally diverse backgrounds?
• What are the kinds of things that happen in your workplace that still remind you of cultural differences?

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Mercure Hotel

The Mercure Hotel is located on the corner of Irwin Street and St Georges Terrace Perth (map).

Parking is available at

• Council House off St Georges Terrace,
• Kings Hotel on Hay Street or
• across the road from Fire and Emergency Services on Hay Street.

To view other available parking in the area, view the City of Perth Interactive Map.

There is wheelchair access to the Orelia Room, from the ground floor lifts and wheelchair accessible toilets on the ground and first floors.