Diversity and inclusion

About diversity and inclusion

Diversity is our individual differences, perspectives, knowledge and skills. It can include gender, disability, age, sexual identity, intersex status, language, ethnicity, cultural background, religious beliefs and family responsibilities, as well as differences between individuals in life and personality.

Inclusion in the workplace happens when everyone is valued and respected, has equal access to opportunities and resources, and has a say in decision making. Inclusive workplaces are ones where people feel a sense of belonging and have a shared sense of purpose. They are places where people feel they can contribute their perspectives and talents, and experience reward and recognition for their efforts.

What might this mean in your business or organisation? You may find people have very different understandings of what diversity and inclusion means. Safely sharing these views and why they matter may have benefits for your workplace.

Diversity and Inclusion matters

A diverse workplace with an inclusive culture is essential for business. Having and valuing individual differences, perspectives, knowledge and skills in the workplace fosters a healthy and safe workplace.

This benefits everyone by:

• increasing employee wellbeing
• fuelling performance & profit
• driving innovation
• driving employee satisfaction, success and security.

Diverse workplaces reap the benefits of being better at serving Australia's diverse range of customers. Taking action to improve the diversity and inclusion of your workplace can empower everyone to excel.

Everyday discrimination is still common

The Diversity Council of Australia’s Inclusion at Work Index 2023-2024 found:

Reducing discrimination in your workplace is critical.

Inclusion minimises risk

Exclusion at work harms both people and business. For employees, experiencing discrimination and harassment can harm their wellbeing and impact their performance. For organisations, it risks costly lawsuits and loss of organisational reputation. The good news is that workplaces that are inclusive have much lower rates of discrimination and harassment.

What does an inclusive workplace look like? This may look different for teams, managers and organisations.

An inclusive team is one where a diversity of people feel they:

An inclusive manager is someone who creates an inclusive team environment. They:

An inclusive organisation is one where employees:

Does this describe your business or organisation? Do your employees agree?

Understand your obligations

There are obligations under the law

Employers need to meet their responsibilities under human rights, equal opportunity, and anti-discrimination legislation.

Employees are protected from workplace discrimination under Victorian and federal laws. Organisations can be held legally responsible for incidents of workplace discrimination.

Under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010, organisations have a positive duty to eliminate discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation as far as possible. This means you must take positive action to prevent these behaviours – regardless of whether someone has made a complaint.

Take practical steps

Understand your workplace

Diversity and inclusion can seem overwhelming, but there are practical steps you can take to acknowledge and increase diversity and create a more supportive workplace.

Start by understanding your own workplace. Are you clear about how diverse and inclusive your business or organisation is? You can take steps to assess your own workplace using a survey.

The Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Diagnostic is a free tool to assess your workplace, available here:

Inclusion means involving people in the process. Remember to check with your employees about their experience of diversity and inclusion. Do they feel:

Prioritise what needs to change

After you have taken steps to understand your workplace and consulted with your employees, you will have information to guide you about what may need to change in your workplace.

There are a variety of resources you can connect with depending on what your organisation needs. For example, you may benefit from training, creating a diversity and inclusion strategy, or policy and process changes.

The Diversity Council of Australia have resources on each dimension of diversity and inclusion:

Review and improve

After making your change, take time to monitor how things are going and what needs to happen next. You will have the most success with embedding your changes when everyone has meaningful involvement in the process. Track and measure your progress, making use of feedback from all involved in the changes.