This year’s International Women’s Day theme aims to encourage everyone to #InspireInclusion and create a sense of belonging for all. 

This is especially relevant in the workplace and is something that SuniTAFE Head of People and Culture Angela Gransden is actively working towards. 

 “Within the workplace, inclusion is about ensuring that everyone feels valued, welcomed, respected, represented, and heard so that they can contribute to the collective and have a voice,” Angela said. 

“Diversity involves ensuring that everyone is welcome, regardless of their social and ethnic backgrounds, gender, or sexual orientations. 

“It’s about respecting people’s differences. It is important to value what everyone can bring to the workplace and the richness that creates. This also aligns with SuniTAFE’s Values; Accountable, Relationships, Improvement, and Integrity.

“Managers and leaders also have a responsibility to give everyone an opportunity to voice their views and opinions. You’ll always have extroverts in the room who want to talk, so providing the space for everyone to contribute is really important.”

There are some practical ways to #InspireInclusion. As part of the People and Culture Plan that is being developed, a Wellbeing and Safety Plan and a Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Plan will be devised. 

“Staff will have an opportunity to contribute to the development of these plans,” Angela said. 

“Consideration is being given to establishing targets for youth and First Nations peoples recruitment. These plans will need to be supported by strategies such as succession planning and leadership development.”

A growing problem that is close to Angela’s heart is the barriers to re-entering the workforce for older women and the opportunity to support young women entering the workforce. 

“The statistics around older women being the fastest growing cohort of homelessness and their lack of financial literacy, and the ability for women to enter the workforce are alarming,” she said. 

“SuniTAFE is exploring options to implement a mentoring program, as part of the People and Culture Strategies, to mentor and coach young people who join the Institute. These actions align with our Values, Strategy on a Page, and our ability to build skills for the future.

“There’s a lot of opportunities for how we can achieve this. We have the ability to bring in people and ‘grow our own.’

“We are also lucky at SuniTAFE, we have TAFEKids on site which is a fantastic support for working parents, not just working mums, which makes the return to work just a bit easier.”

Read more about Angela Gransden by clicking here. 

Or, to see if there’s a role available at SuniTAFE that’s right for you, click here.