Analysis of Australian Defence Force Diversity and Inclusion Report

This report examines the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, focusing on its intention to enhance Defence capability through diverse and inclusive practices. The report outlines the importance of creating an environment that supports equitable and inclusive behaviors, respecting individuals and groups. It emphasizes the need to address personal biases and prejudices that can impact teamwork and ethical conduct. The document delves into the Diversity and Equity Policy, referencing relevant laws and assurance expectations, including the Occupational Health and Safety Act and various discrimination acts. It highlights strategies and practices for supporting individual needs, diverse family lifestyles, and emotional needs, as well as orientation and recruitment processes. The report also discusses staff professional development opportunities, providing a comprehensive overview of the ADF's approach to diversity and inclusion.

Australian Defence Forces
The intention of our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy is to: Enhance Defence
capability through diversity and inclusive practice.
Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Policy
To create an environment that supports, reflects and promotes equitable and inclusive
behaviours and practices, and respects individuals and groups of people, it is crucial
that an organisation examines its value and belief systems.
For many organisations
Personal experiences, biases and prejudices can influence professional and ethical
behaviour and effect: the ability of stakeholders to work cohesively as a team.
Reflective questions can assist organisations to develop different ways of communicating
and can encourage open and honest discussions between the organisation’s stakeholders.
The Diversity and Equity Policy should refer to the organisation’s Philosophy
Statement.
Policy Number (number can be anything) <number>
Link to Quality Assurance Principles LIST relevant laws or current policies
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List assurance expectations
Policy statement
 The purpose of the Diversity and Equity Policy is to:
1. The organisations employing people from different backgrounds like religion,
nationality and races should ensure that all the employees are treated equitably
based on their performances and positions. Their backgrounds should not be
considered while treating them, they should be treated with dignity, and respect
without prejudice of any sorts what so ever towards their backgrounds (Benschop
et al. 2015).
2. The managers while commanding the subordinates should be aware about their
cultural backgrounds and perceptions about various things like body language and
gestures.
3. The managers both of the upper and middle level should exemplify fair treatment
of the subordinates by treating all employees equity irrespective of their
professional backgrounds and social status.
4. They should provide equal opportunities like training and promotions to both male
and female employees.
5. These practices by the apex management and the middle level management would
direct the lower level supervisors and managers to treatment all employees against
prejudices of any sort like gender and backgrounds (Alguacil et al. 2014).
 The organisation’s environment treats and respects all employees irrespective of their
backgrounds like culture, religion, nationality, social status and gender. The policies
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seek to create an environment that fosters fraternity, equity and just treatment of all
employees, which leads to high degree of cooperation and understanding among
employees. This ultimately leads to high productivity and organisational performances
(Madera 2013).
 The organisation does not tolerate behaviours exhibiting prejudice and injustice
towards any employee on the grounds of their backgrounds like nationality, race or
gender.
 The organisation recognises and values the importance of the employees to its
performances. It respects the employees irrespective of their cultural backgrounds,
genders and social status. It recognises the significance of career growth, job
satisfaction and families to its employees.
 The Occupational Health and Safety Act1 states that employers have a duty of care to
their employees to ensure that the working environment supports emotional and
mental wellbeing.
o Occupational Health and Safety Act(OHSA) (Business.gov.au 2017)
o Safe Work Act 2011, Australia (Safe Work Australia. 2017).
o Disability Discrimination Act 1992(Commonwealth) (Legislation.gov.au.
2017)
o Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission Act 1986
(Commonwealth) (Eoc.sa.gov.au. 2017)
o Sex Discrimination Act 1984(Legislation.gov.au. 2017)
o Racial Discrimination Act 1975(Commonwealth) (Legislation.gov.au. 2017)
o Privacy Act 1988 (Oaic.gov.au. 2017).
1 There are legislative Acts and regulations for each state and territory that address the issue of Occupational Health and
Safety. Organisations are advised to seek information that is relevant to their jurisdiction.
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Rationale
The rationale represents a statement of reasons that detail why the policy and/or
procedures have been developed and are important to the organisation.
The policies have been developed by the organisations and re important to them because these
policies incorporate the laws in power in Australia. The governments in operations in
Australia, both central and state governments mandate the organisations to incorporate the
laws like Fair Work ct in the employee policies. The laws mandate the commercial
organisations to ensure the safety and security of their employees. They should form policies
to ensure just and fair treatment of their employees irrespective of gender, caste, nationality,
religion or any other background. The laws of Australia also lays down provisions of
penalties and other legal actions against firms breaching these laws (Swan 2017).
Strategies and practices
These are examples. Organisations are encouraged to develop and adapt the following
strategies and practices as required to meet their individual circumstances and daily
best practices.
The commercial organisations operating within the geographical boundaries of
Australia are required to form strategies and practices to follow the employee safety laws in
their daily activities according to their best practices. They should form strategies to ensure
safety and fair treatment of the employees to ensure that there are minimise accidents and
casualties. The companies especially the manufacturing companies like ABC Pty Ltd. require
implementing the safety provisions confirming to the Model WHS Act and the Safe Work
Australia (Australia 2013). For example, they should ensure that electrical wires do not hang
over the manufacturing sites where workers involve in manufacturing activities or they are
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deactivated to avoid electrocution of workers. They manufacturing units should be provided
with sufficient lighting arrangements and brought under purview of cameras to ensure that if
an accident occurs, the employees caught can be rescued promptly. The safety officers posted
at the manufacturing units should maintain a list of safety measures available in the
manufacturing units (Gray and Collie 2017). They should also maintain a register of accidents
and injuries and report the same to the police. The safety officers should arrange for safety
training sessions for the employees especially the ones involved in moving hazardous objects
and chemicals.
Identifying and supporting individual needs:
The organisation can describe how it supports
 intellectual or cognitive delay. The apex management while identifying and
supporting individual needs should consider the following reflective questions.
o How will the organisation communicate the requirement of services like child
care so that the employees and their families are able to use it to take care of
their children.
o How do staff effectively communicate their experience about child care
facilities provided by the organisations to the staffs who are considering hiring
the child care services in the future.
o How do staffs effectively retrieve information about the child care qualities
and the expectations of the staff from the child care facilities provided by the
organisations(Barsade and O’Neill 2014).
o How can the organisation develop methods to communicate information child
care between the children, parents and the child care centres.
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 practices that differ to the organisation’s practices. These include belief systems
regarding gender roles in play, independence, self-help skills, behaviour guidance;
The practices that differentiate the organisations from their competitors consists of
measures like equal importance given to both gender, independence and
interdependence between the employees and confidence. The organisations following
the laws of Australia establish organisational cultures and practices based on equality
and self-confidence among the employees (Medhanyie et al. 2015)
 diverse family lifestyles and structures-The organisations should create and maintain
organisational structures which recognise the diversity in lifestyle patterns and outlook
of the employees. The human resource department should form policies which allows
that employees to achieve work life balance between their work and families. The
companies should allow the employees to avail facilities like paid holidays and work
from home facilities so that they can spend time with their families (Grusec and
Hastings 2014).
 emotional needs resulting from trauma, abuse or grief- The organisations and their
apex management should policies to deal with the trauma which employees go though
after accidents. The employees present during accidents suffered by their co-workers
can also go through trauma, depression and mental shock. The organisation should
form strategies to treat those employees and make provisions to give them trauma
therapy. The employees suffering from trauma should be provided counselling so tat
they can recover from shocks as resume their normal lives. The apex management
should employees are not subjected abuse or grief from the peers or superiors. The
apex management should initiate probe once an abuse or ill-treatment is reported.
They should take exemplary steps against employees caught involved in unethical acts
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like abusing employees on the grounds of their gender and cultural backgrounds
(Hutchinson and Jackson 2015).
Orientation
 Orientation is often the preliminary impression of the employee benefit service like
child care facilities to the employees, the children and other family members. The
company should communicate its orientation and enrolments to the employee benefit
facilities like childcare are available to all the employees in equitable manner.
 The organisation can state how it ensures that the orientation process is equitable and
fair. The apex management should form policies to enrol and orient the employees in
a fair and equitable way. The ranges of facilities available to the employees may
depend on their positions in the organisations like; directors may receive more
facilities than executives. However, the apex, management should ensure that no
employee is denied facilities on the grounds of ethnicity, race, cultural background
and gender (Grusec and Hastings 2014).
 Organisations should consider the following reflective questions: The organisations
should consider the following reflecting that their employees receive fair and
equitable employee facilities:
1. How do the services provided to the family members help the employees and their
families?
2. What types of resources are required by the companies to provide the employees
with employee benefits like childcare and trauma care treatment?
3. How will the company communicate the childcare and other facilities to the
employees and their family members who are not conversant in English? How should
the apex management prepare the documents so that both the English speakers and the
non English speakers can proceed with them? (Barsade and O’Neill 2014)
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Please refer to the organisation’s Enrolment and Orientation Policy.
Staff, students and volunteers
Selection and recruitment2
 Brief and concise detail of the organisation’s strategy.-The enrolment programme
should communicate the selection and recruitment details to the employees and their
family members of the employees of ABC Pty Limited. The communication message
should communicate the charges, tenure and the other conditions, which would come
into force while the employees avail these facilities. This would ensure that the
employees and their dependent family members are able to understand the scope and
facilities that the company can provide within a certain type of service. This would
create a more transparent and long lasting understanding between ABC Proprietary
Limited and the employees (Swan 2017).
 Organisations can link this section by stating: The organisations like ABC Proprietary
Limited can link these facilities to their human resource policies. The employees
should clearly outline the benefits the employees from a particular post can enjoy.
This would in fact act as a motivating factor which would encourage employee to
perform to achieve higher degree of efficiency. They would as a result be eligible for
promotions to higher posts and the benefits associated with the posts.
Relief staff, students and volunteers
 Brief and concise detail of the organisation’s strategy.-The apex management and the
human resource department of ABC Pty Limited should streamline the employee
2 There is equal opportunity legislation protecting the rights of individuals through the recruitment and selection of
employees. Organisations are advised that their policy and procedures should reflect the relevant federal, state or territory
legislation.
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benefits with their human resource strategy. They should form the benefits to acquire
and retain the talented employees to ensure that they continue serving the
organisations. This would in turn allow the organisation to allocate its human
resources according to its long-term plans.
 The organisation can state how relief staff, students and volunteers are informed of the
organisation’s values. For example, asking individuals to read the organisation’s
Philosophy Statement and Diversity and Equity Policy.- ABC Proprietary Limited can
lay down clear directions how the relief staff members, students and volunteers should
be educated
 Organisations can link this section by stating:-ABC Proprietary Limited can link the
benefits to the organisational strategies. They should maintain a fleet of volunteers
who would rescue the employees in danger or who are injured. Logistics firms require
to own, maintain and operate massive warehouses to store goods. They employ
hundreds of workers to look after the warehouses and goods. These workers face
accidents while moving goods. The safety volunteers would be posted in these
warehouses to rescue these workers as fast as possible in case of an accidents.
Staff professional development opportunities
 The organisation can identify how it will support staff in developing diverse and
equitable partnerships with stakeholders.-ABC Proprietary’s staff and management
should engage stakeholders like its clients, suppliers and government bodies by
partnering with them. For example, they can abide by the laws laid down by the
government in the Fair Work Act 2009 and also encourage other firms to follow the
laws. The company can collaborate with the suppliers and the clients in raising
awareness about employee safety (safeworkaustralia.gov.au 2017).
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 This may be achieved through:
o professional development and training opportunities;- ABC Pty Limited can
hold training sessions with the employees, supplier and clients about dealing
with workplace accidents.
o informal discussions with staff about their values and beliefs when reviewing
the organisation’s philosophy statement;- The management should hold
informal talks and discussions with the staffs regarding the organisational
values and mission of ABC Pty Ltd. This would make the employees feel more
important and responsible towards their duties towards the professional duties.
This would motivate them o perform better (Dhar 2015).
o inviting support agencies to work with staff and the organisation to discuss
equity and inclusion concepts and issues; and the enhancing the collaboration
among the employees of various levels. This would create and enhance the
tolerance among employees for each other cultural backgrounds and gender.
This would enable the organisation to achieve higher diversity management
and avoid employee conflict.
o inviting members of the community from diverse backgrounds to discuss their
personal experiences of prejudices and biased behaviour.-This would create
greater awareness among the employees regarding recognising and respecting
each other communal backgrounds. It would enhance their understanding
about the pain inflicted upon people due to communal hatred and prejudices.
The employees would also realise the importance of collaborating and
cooperating with each other.
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Please note: There is often an assumption that culture is identifiable by difference in race or
language. This restricts the definition of ‘culture’, which is widely regarded to encompass
religion, family lifestyle and structure. It is important for staff to develop an understanding
that extends beyond preconceived or traditional stereotypes, which can be addressed through
professional development opportunities.
For example, consider the words ‘tradition’, ‘custom’, ‘worship’ and ‘way of life’ – these are
words often used to define culture; apply those same key words to a family who are devoted
fans of a football team. The family has a way of life where it is their custom to support and
worship their football team; it is their custom to attend the football matches every weekend;
and they practice certain traditions, such as wearing the team’s colours. The family unit has
created a system based on a common belief (support for the football team) and a significant
event (the football match). Race or language has not played a part in defining the family’s
culture; however a cultural belief still exists.
When culture is considered in these broader contexts, organisations can actively demonstrate
how they can support the diversity and equity staff and the local community.
Management/Coordination unit staff
Non-compliance of the Diversity and Equity Policy
 The organisation can state the types of prejudicial or biased behaviours which
are not tolerated at the organisation. For example, of a racist or sexist nature.-The
management of ABC Proprietary Limited should tale strict action against people
practicing unethical practices like treating people with prejudice and racism.
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 The organisation can detail how these behaviours will be managed and
resolved.-The top management of ABC Proprietary should speak to all employees and
warn them against unethical practices like ill treatment of women and so on. They
should point out the actions which the apex can take against such employees.
 Organisations can link this section by stating:- The organisation should link
equable treatment of employees to its HR policies.
Please refer to the organisation’s Grievances and Complaints Management Policy.
Anti-bullying practices and guidelines
 The organisation may decide to address the issue of workplace bullying
and how this may be linked to individuals feeling threatened, overpowered,
inadequate or insecure in the workplace. The apex management should make the
employees aware against practice of unethical workplace activities like bullying and
threatening of junior and women. They should take exemplary actions against
individuals involved in these actions.
 Bullying is often the behaviour from those individuals who are
prejudicial or biased against others.-The management should ensure that no employee
suffers from prejudicial treatment and biasedness from employees. This would create
a healthy organisational culture without bullying.
 The organisation can discuss anti-bullying guidelines and practices in
general terms or discuss the guidelines that identify types of bullying or when
bullying occurs between different stakeholders. For example:-They managers the
negative impact bullying has on the morale of the co-workers, team mates and
productivity as a whole. They can encourage employees to respect each other’s
identity attributes like culture, gender and economic condition.
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