Headline Action 2: Cultural understanding
Cultural understanding
Build an APS-wide Interagency CALD Champion Network and a curated collection of multimedia learning resources.
Objective
Understand and build on the diversity of the current workforce.
Outcomes
The experience and the contributions of CALD employees are shared and reflected in greater intercultural understanding.
Our greater intercultural understanding enables us to harness the wealth and depth of expertise available across the APS.
Best practice is promoted and collaboratively implemented across the APS.
Lead
APSC in collaboration with other agencies.
Building our intercultural understanding in culturally and psychologically safe workplaces will enrich workplace interactions by instilling belonging in all employees and make our work better. This means that the APS needs to listen to, and understand, its people and their lived experience. This will allow the APS to better serve not only CALD employees, but also the Australian people.
An APS-wide Interagency CALD SES Champion Network (the Network) will promote and advocate for the specific needs and expectations of CALD employees. Champions will be an internal advocate for dismantling workplace barriers faced by CALD employees in their agency, drawing on the broader experience of the Network in leveraging solutions. The Network will be empowered by being APS-wide and able to influence through its connection to its own and the broader APS leadership.
In the 2023 APS Employee Census, a higher proportion of respondents from a CALD background perceived discrimination than non-CALD respondents. For those who perceived discrimination (63% from Southern and Central Asian backgrounds, 61% from North-East Asian backgrounds and 60% from Sub-Saharan African backgrounds), they identified race as the basis of that discrimination.
The perception of many CALD employees is that issues can sometimes occur due to a lack of cultural understanding and a fear of saying the wrong thing. Misunderstandings between employees can be exacerbated by different culture-based expectations, unconscious biases and deep rooted beliefs that lead to negative attitudes and exclusive behaviours.
CALD employees have expressed a willingness to share their unique cultural background stories as part of their strong commitment to making a contribution to Australia and the APS. Both CALD and non-CALD employees have shown their readiness to learn and understand more about one another to enrich workplace relationships and improve how we work together.
Agencies need to be able to demonstrate their understanding of their own CALD employees and their cultural intelligence on CALD issues. A key step in this will be building a picture of the agency’s CALD employee footprint and experience. Enabling employees to navigate and be comfortable with cultural differences will be fundamental to instilling cultural understanding as well as safety.
The curated collection of CALD employees’ stories is key to improving these capabilities through narrative-based learning. The collection will include stories of barriers that prevent CALD employees from fully participating in the workplace due to having to learn unspoken rules and implicit cultural expectations of ‘Australian’ workplace behaviour. It will also include accounts from CALD and non-CALD employees detailing their personal journey and experience of migration, life in Australia, and family history.
Championing CALD employees and showcasing their experience will build intercultural understanding and improve the attraction, retention and progression of CALD people within the APS.