About this guide

It is important that Victorian government boards reflect the diversity of the Victorian community. Diversity of skills and expertise, and the perspectives and lived experiences of people from different backgrounds, contribute to good governance and help ensure that boards are making decisions in the interests of the Victorian community.

Supporting diversity on government boards is important because the decisions made by boards may have different impacts on different people and may affect some communities more than others.

This guide provides general advice to support diversity on boards, including advice tailored to specific cohorts that experience barriers to participation. Barriers to participation on government boards may be linked to inequalities relating to Aboriginality, race, religion, ethnicity, disability, age, gender (including non-binary), sexual orientation and more. The advice is general in nature and outlines minimum requirements for recruitment processes.

Collectively, these cohorts represent the majority of Victorians.

For example:

• Around 20 per cent of Victorians identify as a person with disability
• Over half of Victoria’s population are women
• Young people aged 12–25 make up approximately 18 per cent of the Victorian population
• Nearly 50 per cent of Victorians were born overseas or had at least one parent born overseas, and 26 per cent of households speak a language other than English at home.

The Victorian Government Appointment and Remuneration Guidelines outline Victoria's standard processes for appointing people to government boards and offices

Under this guide, when appointing new board members consultation with the following cohorts is mandatory:

This guide is a companion document to the Appointment and Remuneration Guidelines, administered by Governance Branch in the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Departments should direct general queries regarding appointments to their departmental appointment teams, in the first instance.

This guide has been developed to support Victorian Government departments to strengthen recruitment practices to ensure boards are reflective of the Victorian community

It outlines the processes and principles for delivering inclusive, equitable and accessible recruitment. It includes key considerations for engaging:

• women
• Aboriginal people
• people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
• people with disability
• LGBTIQ+ people
• young people
• people living in rural and regional communities.

Departments are encouraged to utilise this guide to consider diversity from an intersectional perspective, noting that individuals may be part of more than one of the key cohorts listed in this document. Intersectionality recognises that individuals may experience multiple forms of prejudice and discrimination at the same time, which can lead to heightened and unique disadvantage.

This guide should be used in conjunction with existing guidance on board appointments:

• Appointment and Remuneration Guidelines
• Recruitment and Appointment to the Board – A Governance Officer's Toolkit
• Best Practice and Recruitment and Selection Toolkit
• Disability Employment Toolkit
• Recruit Smarter
• Guidelines for maintaining data about Victorian entities and appointments