Changes to the demographic make-up of your organisation can have profound impacts on organisational culture – both in a positive and negative way, depending on whether you create the conditions that allow for cohesion.

A high-performing, multi-generational workforce requires a selection of specific behaviours and cultural elements, namely inclusive learning cultures that “celebrate differences and embrace mistakes” and encourage different communication styles, according to a research team from the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing at Griffith University.

Boards and senior HR management teams need to ensure they understand how changes in demographic trends might require a refresh of certain organisational practices, says demographer and social commentator Bernard Salt AM.

For example, we’ve seen a rise in Australian life expectancies, which jumped from 69 in 1950 to a current 83 for men and 85 for women, he says.

“Before, people worked up to the age of 65, got a gold watch and retired,” says Salt, who is speaking at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August. 

But the nature of work has changed. 

“In the 1950s or 1960s, many of the jobs were in manufacturing, or labouring in areas like building and construction,” says Salt.

“If you were a blue-collar worker and made it to 65, you usually couldn’t work anymore because of the physical consequences of having worked with your body from the age of 15. You needed to take the pension and retire.

“Today, a greater proportion of the workforce is involved in knowledge work. Medical advancements are also improving our quality of life and life expectancies, providing people with more opportunities to continue work beyond the age of 65.”

On top of this, the current cost-of-living crisis means many people are less prepared for their retirement years and have had to go back to work, he adds. This is a concept known as ‘The Great Unretirement’.

“By default, we’ll end up with a greater proportion of our workforce over the age of 50 and, proportionately, around the age of 70,” says Salt.

Hear more about the future team member of 2030 from Bernard Salt AM at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition on 20-22 August. Secure your spot today.

The Bunnings approach

A company that is already preparing for this demographic shift is Bunnings, which claims age is never a barrier at any of its stores. 

Around 30 per cent of its store team members are aged 50+ while around 14 per cent are aged 60+. Its oldest employee is 93 years old.

“We learnt a long time ago that older and more experienced team members are an integral part of creating a great place to work and providing our customers with the best experience. They have significant life and industry experience, making them a wealth of knowledge for our customers and wider team,” says Damian Zahra, Bunnings’ Chief People Officer. 

“Every organisation is different and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to engaging older people in the workplace.”

Having said that, he adds that Bunnings believes creating a supportive environment for older workers starts with flexibility. 

“We do this by first and foremost offering casual, part-time and full-time working options because we know it’s an important way to keep your team engaged and supported in their wellbeing and performance. 

“Fewer people aged 15 through to 25 are funnelling into the workplace. A shallower pool of youth coming through means there will be a skills shortage for decades.” – Bernard Salt AM, demographer and social commentator

“Then there’s the extras like our popular ‘Travelling Team Member’ program where people can pick up casual shifts at different Bunnings stores while they travel across Australia and New Zealand.

“A team member can map out their desired travel journey and proactively contact stores in the areas they’re visiting to see if any casual shifts are available. They have the flexibility to work as much as they like based on their travel schedules and preferences.”

Zahra says Bunnings’ ‘Retiring Well’ program helps older employees implement a tailored pathway to their retirement. It includes the option of reducing their hours over time to support a gradual transition into retirement, and a dedicated program that provides advice on how they can enjoy financial, emotional and physical wellbeing in their retirement.

Safety is also a priority. 

“We have extensive training and guidelines in place to make sure all our team return home safely each day and feel equipped to perform their roles. 

“This includes ongoing professional development so our team members always feel confident and engaged at work, regardless of their age. 

“We often find our older team value training just as much as our younger cohort.”

Not only is Bunnings creating environments to support its current older workforce to thrive, it’s also actively looking to bring more age diversity into its business.

“We maintain a really flexible recruitment process and use as many channels as possible to reach the communities we serve,” says Zahra. “For example, we place posters around our stores that highlight the great careers of some of our older team members to demonstrate the value mature-aged people can bring to our business.

“We always try to use neutral language in all our recruitment materials, and avoid specific words or phrases that target younger generations. We also accept walk-in resumes to ensure we consider applicants who may not be tech-savvy.”

Read HRM’s article on how to create an age-inclusive culture for the multi-stage career. 

Counting the benefits 

Demographic diversity is a key component of a thriving workplace culture, but when there are no intentional processes around leveraging a multigenerational workforce, it can cause friction points to surface. 

For example, communication barriers can form or differing work styles could lead to conflict within a team. To remedy this, specific programs that cultivate empathy and understanding can help. 

For instance, you could consider:

• Storytelling sessions to give employees the chance to share their career stories with each other, including what they’ve learned, their challenges and their greatest successes.
• Keeping age diversity in mind when building project teams.
• Setting up shadowing programs allowing employees to shadow colleagues from different generations to gain a better understanding of their roles and expertise.

Companies that employ older workers benefit from their corporate knowledge, networks and ability to train and mentor younger workers, says Salt. 

This is an approach that Bunnings has embraced.

“By sharing their knowledge, skills and life experiences, our older team members often become mentors to their younger teammates, which goes a really long way in helping form strong connections and creating a positive working environment,” says Zahra.

“Mentoring can work both ways, and our younger team members can support older workers too.”

There are also opportunities to promote shared learning via reverse mentoring programs whereby junior employees train seasoned employees in relevant areas, such as how to reach a younger audience on social media. 

You could also consider facilitating a skills-sharing workshop where employees of all ages come together to share their knowledge in specific areas.

Griffith University’s research found that valuing co-creation, a strong focus on job satisfaction and tailored HR programs were key characteristics of a thriving multigenerational workforce.

For example, a specific HR program focused on retaining older workers in critical skill areas could help solve Australia’s skills shortages, which Salt believes will be a long-term challenge for employers. 

“Fewer people aged 15 through to 25 are funnelling into the workplace. A shallower pool of youth coming through means there will be a skills shortage for decades.”

If your workforce isn’t yet set up to support employees in the latter portion of their careers, now is a great time to learn from those who already have robust strategies in place. 

This article first appeared in the June-July 2024 edition of HRM Magazine.

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Delegates flocked to Sydney yesterday to attend AHRI’s annual Diversity and Inclusion Conference, and others tuned in virtually, to hear from a range of experts on all manner of topics, including how to elevate women in the workplace and increase visibility for Indigenous candidates and those living with disability.

However, a question that was on everyone’s lips was, ‘Are we actually making progress? Or are we simply preaching to the converted and will we continue struggling to get cut through with these important issues?’

As AHRI’s CEO Sarah McCann-Bartlett noted in her opening address, change is happening, even if it appears to be at a glacial pace.

For example, she referred to the keynote address from last year’s conference, where refugee advocate and former Socceroos Captain Craig Foster addressed many of the atrocities Australia has committed towards refugees.

“Since this time last year, we’ve seen the release of the Park Hotel detainees in Melbourne, as well as nearly 5000 Australian visas granted to Ukrainian refugees fleeing the ongoing war,” says McCann-Bartlett.

She pointed to other incremental changes that have happened in terms of public responses to damning failures at an institutional and government level, but said there’s far more work to do.

“Simply removing barriers and actively avoiding discriminatory behaviour is not enough. We also have to do the work to question our own behaviour at times, and think about how our privilege impacts our experience of the world. That requires intentional effort, introspection and a willingness to be challenged. It’s not always easy or comfortable work – and it requires a lifetime of effort – but it’s the only way we’ll see true progress.”

The Conference was packed with helpful insights to help people do just that. Here’s just a taste of what was discussed on the day:

This is longer than our usual articles as we’re wrapping up an entire day of thought-provoking conversation. And this is only the tip of the ice-berg. You can skip to the part that interests you most.

1. 1. Re-thinking the use of resumes. Do we need to shake up our job interview processes to attract diverse talent?
   2. How to hold leaders accountable for targets.
   3. Create a succession plan for your own projects and spread your passion for the work to create more champions in your workplace.
   4. Visible diversity isn’t the only type you should be across.
   5. Create opportunities for people to practice curiosity and learn from those who are different to them.
   6. Final quick wrap-up of insightful tips. 

1. Is it time to ditch the resume?

HRM has previously written about creating more inclusive hiring and onboarding experiences for employees, and Scarlett McDermott, Chief Technology Officer, and Lara Yaager, Vice President of Employees Success, at WithYouWithMe, an organisation that specialises in inclusive hiring (namely for veterans and neurodiverse candidates), offer more helpful tips.

Firstly, they shared the results of their recent research into diverse hiring practices, which surveyed over 500 hiring managers across Australia. They found that seven in 10 organisations were making interview offers based on resumes alone.

“You may or may not know that the resume was invented by Leonardo da Vinci back in the day, and that is considered the cutting edge [approach] for some organisations today,” says McDermott. “I’m not the biggest fan of resumes. They are riddled with bias.”

She says it was “disheartening” to find out that only a third of the people were using psychometric testing to assess someone’s aptitude and potential.

“That’s a really important metric. We like to [use] psychometric assessments as a forward-facing look at what somebody can achieve. When you look at a resume, that’s about someone’s past performance, and there’s certainly a place for that in terms of appropriate qualifications, but in terms of attracting diverse talent we need to look through other lenses.”

Photo: Kampus Production. Source by Pexels

McDermott also suggests changing up your interview processes to suit diverse candidates. For example, WithYouWithMe takes an innovative approach in interviews to make candidates with autism feel comfortable.

“We have some autistic candidates who simply are not going to present their best selves in a face-to-face situation where they’ve got to be under intense social scrutiny,” says McDermott. “So we conduct some of our interviews while playing e-sports. There’s no reason we can’t ask the same questions while playing Call of Duty, or something like that.”

It’s not uncommon for candidates to worry about discussing their disability with a potential employer, says Dr Lisa Chaffey, Senior Consultant, Get Skilled Access.

“Fear of disclosure is real, but there are ways to open the door in a positive way.”

Chaffey advises that employers ask candidates at the end of an interview: “Is there anything you think is important for us to know about working with you as a person with disability?”

If the candidate’s disability isn’t visible, or if they haven’t yet disclosed, you can invite them to do so by asking them directly if there are any mental or physical conditions you should be aware of. 

To attract diverse candidates, employers should think carefully about the signs and symbols that are publicly available.

“Does your website include images of people with disability?” asks Chaffey. “Show that you are an open employee. Show off your inclusive culture and put those signs and symbols out there.”

Job ad requirements can also inadvertently preclude people with disability from applying.

“A big one is having a driver’s license,” says Chaffey, who encourages organisations to think about whether this is an inherent requirement of the job before including it in a job ad.

“Simple barriers can stop people from applying.”

Read HRM’s article on five ways to make your recruitment processes more accessible.

2. Make leaders accountable for change

Amy Wild CAHRI, Group Executive, Head of Corporate Operations at Investa, spoke about an initiative they put in place to elevate more women in their business, which won them an AHRI Award for gender equality.

Investa discovered it was underutilising female talent by not having enough women working in revenue generating functions.

“One of the most important things was creating ‘targets with teeth’, [meaning] we tied it to bonuses and compensation. Every single manager, from the CEO down, was to set targets to have a 40 per cent female, 40 per cent male and a 20 per cent variable gender balance.”

 “People’s vulnerabilities are at stake… so we all have a duty to stay on top of that.” – Julie Moss MAHRI, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager, Transgrid

They did this not only to achieve gender balance in the short-term, but to ensure that the talent pipeline was also diverse – they were thinking long-term too.

“We had a weighting in everyone’s KPIs and that was felt in our bonuses as a result.

“Initially there was a little bit of push back from some who didn’t really understand it. They’d say, how can I contribute to meeting this? I don’t have a big team; I’m not making hiring decisions.’

“So it was really about helping people understand that what you say and what you do every day impacts the culture we create. And how inclusive we make this culture impacts on whether people of any gender identity want to come and work with us … there’s not a single person in the organisation that doesn’t have a really important role to play in that.”

Watch HRM’s video of Graeme Innes AM and Sam Turner CPHR unpacking the value of diversity targets here.

Investa also removed tenure as a requirement for eligibility for parental leave.

“That was really critical for us to get mobility of mid-career talent across the sector. [The existing policy] was a big barrier to attracting women of a particular age and stage of their career. But we’re also increasingly seeing a lot more men take up parental leave, which was really important for us to drive some policy change… it made it okay for people of any gender to take parental leave and to embrace that important stage of their life.”

3. Create a succession plan for your program

Another important lesson for Wild was that not everyone will be as passionate about your project as you are. Most people take on certain D&I projects because it has touched their lives in some way.

So before embarking on your project, it’s important to find other people to be champions of it – not only to spread the enthusiasm among the organisation, but to ensure continuity if you were to leave the organisation.

This is why Julie Moss MAHRI, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager at Transgrid, suggests putting plans in place to account for program sustainability.

“If you just have one person who’s passionate, then the whole program will fall over if that person leaves. There has to be succession planning, there has to be at least a few people who are running this particular program who can step up and keep it going.”

Store all your information in an easy-to-access, centralised place and bring employees along on the journey. If you get them excited about what you’re doing, they’re more likely to want to be advocates for it in the future. 

You might also consider creating how-to guides, project onboarding docs and cheat sheets as you go, so you have all the materials needed to get a new facilitator up to speed quickly.

4. Consider cognitive diversity

Maud Lindley, founding director of leadership consultancy Serendis ran an illuminating session that looked into the differences between cognitive and identity diversity.

She said if you stopped someone on the street and asked them to tell you about diversity, they’d list factors such as age, gender and race (identity diversity metrics).

“It’s unlikely that I will get people telling me about the importance of having diversity of expertise, knowledge, experiences, thinking patterns or ethical frameworks (cognitive diversity).”

You want people who bring different thinking styles and experiences in your team. In many respects, that’s just as important as visible diversity (and often the two go hand in hand).

However, just because you have cognitive diversity, that doesn’t mean you can tick diversity off your agenda. In fact, Lindley points to research which has found that having groups that are only cognitively diverse (i.e. no visible diversity) leads to groupthink.

“The lack of visible [diversity] made them want to belong to a group. It made them act in a tribal way. It was more appealing for that group to agree with one another, than present their own perspective on the topic,” she says.

“The visibly diverse groups outperformed the homogeneous groups… because they were able to debunk some of the wrong hypotheses and assumptions that they made at the beginning. And they made less mistakes and were more creative.”

Seeing someone who looks different from you can act as a circuit breaker, she says. If you belong to the dominant group, having people who look different to you can be an important reminder to consider a situation from all angles.

5. Create opportunities for people to practice curiosity

Anoop Chaudhuri FCPHR, Vice President HR at Ford Australia and New Zealand, spoke about a six-week program that he and other Ford employees are undergoing. They are paired with a colleague who is different to them, from any Ford company across the globe, and spend 20 minutes each week having “discovery dialogue” with them.

“It’s about getting to know them as an individual, getting to know their differences and building this notion of recognising and celebrating difference,” says Chaudhuri.

“It’s not always easy or comfortable work – and it requires a lifetime of effort – but it’s the only way we’ll see true progress.” – Sarah McCann-Bartlett, CEO, AHRI

Wild also shared an interesting anecdote of an LGBTQIA+ initiative run at Investa. 

“We’re very blessed to have a very strong group of LGBTQIA+ staff that are very happy to share their own stories and journeys. We had a great initiative that one of our employee network champions started called ‘Gay Q&A’. They collected [anonymous] questions from people in the organisation in a ‘You Can’t Ask That’ style… it opened the doors to a conversation and created a safe place where people talk and learn.”

Final food for thought

While meaningful change in the D&I space requires broader organisational initiatives, action can also happen at the individual level. 

In a panel discussion on Breaking down barriers to intersectional leadership, panelists shared their advice for becoming a better ally to diverse employees, candidates and stakeholders. Their advice included:

• • Context is king, so don’t make assumptions about how you should interact with a diverse person.
    
    Miriam Silva, Chair at InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence, and Julie Chai CAHRI, Founder and CEO, Asian Leadership Project, both indicated that they were generally taken aback when asked: ‘Where are you from?’However, Shelley Cable, CEO of Generation One, Minderoo Foundation, says in Indigenous communities, this question is often a sign of respect and a genuine desire to form meaningful connections.“For me it’s rude not to ask, ‘Who is your mob and where are you from?’ If you don’t ask that you don’t get to know the person that well. In Indigenous circles, it’s quite shallow just to ask, ‘Where do you work?’ It’s not getting to know who that person is as an individual.”
  • Don’t always refer to leaders with reference to their diversity marker – e.g, ‘female leader’, ‘Black CEO’ or ‘young manager’.
    
    “It’s been a long time since anyone has referred to me as a leader without a diversity tag,” says Silva.
  • Approach conversations with diverse employees with empathy and curiosity.“Take the time to listen, show empathy through understanding our challenges and what we’ve had to endure. For some of us, challenges may include a level of trauma that remains unspoken,” says Chai. “You need a trusting team environment and collegial support. Curiosity and patience are also important.”
  • There is strength in numbers, so facilitate change with the support of your team.
    
    “The worst thing you can do is try to do it by yourself,” says Cable. “Seek advice from people who know that space better than you do.”

And to sign off for the day, we’ll leave you with advice from Julie Moss, who was asked by MC Catherine Fox: ‘Are you hopeful about progress for the future?’

While Moss said ‘yes’, she also raised a pertinent point.

“Never assume it’s done. Your culture is changing and evolving over time. Never stop. Keep on reviewing, tweaking, staying up to date and getting more people involved. People’s vulnerabilities are at stake… so we all have a duty to stay on top of that.”

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In our previous article, we discussed the ins and outs of workplace rights and what people are entitled to at work.

When there has been a breach of workplace rights, claims to that effect are usually made  through the avenue of adverse action under the Fair Work Act (technically, these are labelled “general protections claims” by the Act). In short, the Act does not allow anyone to take “adverse action” against another person because they have exercised, or might exercise, a genuine workplace right.

Types of adverse action

Have you heard the one about the employees who claimed adverse action when their employer issued gift cards to the colleagues who had continued to work during a strike, but not to those who had ceased work?

“Adverse action” can take many forms beyond dismissing an employee, including altering someone’s employment in a negative way. Relevant successful cases of adverse action have included:

• threatening to reduce a person’s salary
• arbitrarily making someone redundant (and not properly consulting with them)
• not allowing someone to take up an overseas posting they had applied for
• issuing a formal warning letter
• placing someone on suspension

It’s not just contracted employees that can invoke claims of adverse action — the protections also apply to prospective employees and independent contractors.

When is adverse action prohibited or unlawful?

Adverse action is only prohibited when the motivation behind it is a prohibited reason, such as to punish someone for exercising a workplace right. It is, for example, fine to performance manage someone who is not meeting expectations, so long as there is no other prohibited reason driving the action.

How can you prove why a person took an adverse action in the past, short of using a time machine and a lie detector?  Thankfully, the courts give employers the benefit of the doubt. eEvidence given directly by the relevant decision maker as to why they took a certain action is usually enough to show whether the intent behind the act was unlawful. However, this is of less assistance to employers in circumstances where this person is no longer with the business, or does not wish to appear as a witness. In such  cases, a well maintained paper trail means that a court won’t be left guessing exactly why your business denied that discretionary bonus being paid, or why an employee was not given a promotion.

When it’s all said and done, if a person is successful in bringing an adverse action claim, they are entitled to be compensated for any loss that they suffered, up to and including reinstatement to their former role if the adverse action they encountered was being sacked.  Although, in our experience, reinstatement is like getting back together after a bad break-up — not much fun for anyone, and likely to end in tears all over again.

How to minimise the risk of adverse action claims

As they say, perception is reality. One of the best ways to avoid an adverse action claim being made against your business is to leave employees in no doubt as to why certain decisions have been made.. If a person is being suspended, dismissed or will be on the receiving end of a negative outcome, the (presumably legitimate) reasons for doing so should be made clear to them.

Providing training for managers and HR staff on the topics of workplace rights and adverse action will also help a business avoid making poor decisions for the wrong reasons. — Claiming ignorance of the existence of a workplace right is no defence.

At the end of the day, you can’t stop someone from making an adverse action claim if they really want to. What you can do is prepare your business to put up the best defence it possibly can against any legal “adverse action” it might face, or better yet, avoid claims from being made in the first place by ensuring employees are well informed about why the decisions impacting on them were made.

Aaron Goonrey is a Partner and Luke Scandrett is a Lawyer in Lander & Rogers’ Workplace Relations & Safety practice.  Aaron can be contacted at agoonrey@landers.com.au

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