Developing Cultural Competency in Your Organisation
Australia is culturally diverse - according to census date, one-third of the population was born overseas. There are over 300 separate languages spoken, with 21 per cent of Australians speaking a language other than English at home.
Given this broad culturally and diverse demographic, you’d expect cultural competency to be fully reflected in our workplaces.
Unfortunately, the reverse is often the case with many people continuing to experience discrimination and at worst, racism, in the workplace - whether overt, or more subliminally delivered when applying for jobs or not being promoted.
And while it may not be widely known there is research to show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders submit 35 per cent more applications to secure a position and, in the case of Chinese people, 68 per cent more than average. Those coming to Australia from the Middle East need to submit 64 per cent more applications to secure a position.
Despite all of the above, it’s only in very recent times that diversity and cultural awareness in the workplace have been addressed at any level.
Over the past 12 months many design and engineering companies have approached Mecca enquiring about workshops and training programs on ‘cultural awareness’. Increasingly, professional teams are being asked by their clients to display "evidence of Cultural Competency and Anti-Racism Training" as a tender requirement.
In response, Mecca has brought together a panel of experts, from industry and academia, for a webinar workshop to explain how to set strategies and develop practices that acknowledge and recognise cultural diversity within organisations.
The panel will consider what it means to be culturally aware and recommend a way forward that allows organisations to understand, communicate and effectively interact across cultures?
Some of the areas that will be discussed at next month’s workshop, include:
Understanding our own cultural assumptions, values, and beliefs.
I’m not racist...but
Recognising who you are and how do you see the world?
What do we mean by cultural competency?
Recognising and understanding the various ‘levels’ of racism?
How to address racism, whether it’s in the workplace or in daily life?
Key elements that lead to racist outcomes?
Establishing HR policies that allow for diverse staffing in a workplace
Formulating policies for greater transparency – ensuring everyone has the same access to services and products despite language or other differences, be it ethnic or sexual identity.
Demonstrating cultural competency in the built outcome – case study of a project
Meet the Experts
Associate Professor Gabrielle Russell | University of Sydney
With a PhD from Southern Cross University in Lismore, Associate Professor Gabrielle Russell is the Academic Director of the National Centre for Cultural Competence at the University of Sydney. Gabrielle has worked in non-government organisations, politics, business, church, and higher education and has co-authored the book Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector and promotes research, education, and dialogue about cultural competency through educational programs, on-line modules, face-to-face workshops, and leadership programs. Gabrielle sees cultural competency as working ethically, collaboratively, and respectively in diverse cultural contexts.
Dr Simon Holloway | Melbourne Holocaust Museum Manager of Adult Education and Academic Engagement
Trained in Classical Hebrew and Biblical Studies at the University of Sydney, Dr Simon Holloway both lectured at the university and also worked at the Jewish Museum in Sydney for a number of years. More recently, he took up the position with the Melbourne Holocaust Museum establishing programs for both professional and corporate groups, including the police and the military as well as the general public. For Simon cultural competency is an awareness that everyone is a cultural being, with a need for everyone to be culturally sensitive to the background of others.
Phil Gardiner | Principal Director, WSP
Phil has over 40 years’ experience in engineering consultancy across all types of buildings and engineering structures. For 20 years he was Managing Director of Irwin consult before its acquisition to WSP in late 2018. Phil’s broad experience includes low, medium, and high-rise commercial and residential buildings, large clear span, and high bay industrial developments, educational, sporting and healthcare facilities, as well as maritime and other civil engineering structures. A major contributor to both structural and multidisciplinary design teams, Phil is known for his innovative and lateral design solutions and his support of significant and challenging architecture. He is highly sought for major heritage structures across Melbourne and for tall buildings in Darwin.
