Addressing Aboriginal Employment recruitment, retention and senior leadership growth

It still amazes me that organisations struggle with Aboriginal employment.

Last year I attended a conference that Bill Shorten spoke at. When he was discussing the capability and capacity of the Commonwealth Public Sector he admitted the public sector struggles with Aboriginal Employment.

I remember being quite confused by his comments, as, in my mind, Aboriginal employment should be one of the easier strategies to implement. It’s always been a frustration of mine that organisations continue to be deficient.

Over the past year I’ve thought about why organisations find this task difficult and why they fail to properly progress Aboriginal employment.

Eliminating Misconceptions

First and foremost, it’s important to dispel myths and misconceptions around Aboriginal employment. It is not an act of charity, and positions are not gifted to Aboriginal people without merit.

A common complaint I hear is that successful applicants in identified roles are not as qualified as those in mainstream roles and that concessions are made during the recruitment process which allow for less qualified applicants to obtain identified roles.

I’ve heard this tired line trotted out time and time again throughout my career as both a public servant and as a consultant, and it’s simply not true. I would argue that if you are recruiting in this manner, then you’re incompetent at it.

In the public sector applicants for identified roles have to meet all the requirements in the role description, as any other mainstream applicant should. The only difference is they also have to show they have the cultural knowledge that would add value to the role and the organisation.

Roles are identified or targeted in an acknowledgement that being Aboriginal and bringing a cultural lens to the work is a distinct requirement of that role and a significant need in skill set for the department or organisation.

They should be viewed as being subject matter experts in culture, on top of meeting all the other requirements of the role.

Promoting Blak Leadership and Excellence

To properly progress Aboriginal employment, organisations must first embrace the notion of Black Excellence and create leadership opportunities to allow for Blak excellence to thrive.

It’s not enough to create entry-level positions. There needs to be opportunities created for Aboriginal staff and people with exemplary skillsets to allow them to move into leadership positions that have a direct influence on the strategic direction of organisations.

This isn’t just creating identified executive-level positions, although that is integral. It’s creating space and opportunity for Aboriginal staff and people to inform guidance, policy and strategy, particularly as it pertains to any Aboriginal-related service delivery or engagement with community.

Too often I’ve seen non-Aboriginal people well below the required capability level lead Aboriginal-related work in both policy and service delivery who have no skill, experience or capability in this space. Often it results in ineffectiveness.

Aboriginal people are the subject matter experts when it comes to our communities and people. Organisations need to see this collaboration as mutually beneficial and understand that we can better develop policy and deliver services to our communities.

It’s nurturing existing Aboriginal staff to develop and refine experience, skills and knowledge. Such development may be through implementing mentoring programs, providing training and educational opportunities, providing acting opportunities in higher-graded positions, and creating and encouraging secondment opportunities.

Being Purposeful and Consistent

When looking at Aboriginal Employment, it is important to understand the purpose of identifying roles and gaining an understanding of what impact a role might have.

Organisations tend to take a tokenistic approach to meet targets. They fall into the trap of pursuing outputs over outcomes but can also lead to Aboriginal staff being isolated.

Also, as simple as this may be efforts and strategy need to be included in an Aboriginal Employment Strategy or similar guide or policy framework. It ensures a consistent approach is taken and creates accountability.

Creating Safe Environments

For Aboriginal employment to succeed and thrive, it needs to be supported and augmented by a culturally safe environment. Organisations should view cultural safety and Aboriginal employment as two sides of the same coin, whereas they usually view them as unrelated.

Having a culturally safe working environment will ensure support for stronger retention of Aboriginal staff.

Value and Honesty

Ultimately organisations need to value Aboriginal people, culture and communities for any employment programs or strategies to work. Again, tokenistic, insincere attempts will never yield any results.

My final piece of advice to any organisation struggling in this area is to be honest. Are you making genuine attempts to employ Aboriginal people? Is this consistent throughout your organisation? Do you just have entry-level identified positions, and is there an understanding of the purpose and intent of your recruitment?

I’ve worked with and for organisations who complained about a lack of success in Aboriginal employment yet failed to even confront or address their own poor practices and working environments.

The only way to improve is to identify opportunities and make genuine attempts to rectify them.

Authored by Sean McCarthy for Impact Policy