Inclusive recruitment strategies

Signal your commitment

Inclusive recruitment starts before your candidate search begins. Jobseekers may look for signals on an organisation’s public platforms to decide if yours is an accessible and inclusive place to work. You can signal your commitment to diversity via:

• your website and communications – for example, in an inclusion statement, and by your values and strategic directions
• including an Acknowledgement of Country on your website
• having diversity in your leadership or promoting leadership opportunities for diverse candidates.

You might also consider having an affirmative action policy. Affirmative action policies seek to increase opportunities for people who are underrepresented in your organisation or from marginalised communities.

Determine your needs

It’s important to work out your organisational needs. Different activities may be needed depending on your aims. You might be trying to increase the overall diversity of your workforce to reflect the communities you support (called ‘workforce mutuality(opens in a new window)’). Or you could be specifically hiring a worker who has knowledge or expertise of a particular community. This might be for a ‘designated’ or ‘identified’ role(opens in a new window).

If you are hiring a person for a designated role, ensure you are clear in your position description about the specific skills and knowledge needed. This might include the cultural knowledge you are looking for as well as general practice skills.

Support workers from diverse communities

It is important to support staff by:

• having processes to ensure staff don’t take on extra emotional labour – for example, someone managing or suppressing emotions at work or pretending they aren’t bothered by discrimination, prejudice or stereotypes
• developing ethical guidelines to support staff in designated or identified roles to manage situations that may come up in the communities they work with
• providing regular supervision to check in with staff and to manage their work
• supporting people to balance their professional and personal responsibilities
• having a culturally safe workplace
• encouraging staff to take part in community activities as part of their role
• for First Nations staff, support to manage and alleviate the cultural load that they might carry.

More tips on recruiting for diversity are available throughout this resource.

Other resources

For practical tips on inclusive recruitment, refer to:

• the cohealth Inclusive recruitment guide(opens in a new window)
• VPSC’s Recruiting people with disability(opens in a new window) guide
• the Pride Inclusion Programs(opens in a new window) webpage – for tips on inclusive recruitment for LGBTIQA+ communities
• Refugee Council of Australia’s Employing refugees: information for employers(opens in a new window)
• Fair Work Ombudsman’s Employing young workers(opens in a new window) guide, which explains best practice approaches for employing young people.