Our focus areas

Customers and our people highlighted the importance for us to develop and grow a culturally capable and diverse workforce, with:

• Greater diversity in leadership
• Supported career development with more ways to ensure people are valued 
• An increased level of cultural competency across the organisation.

Work we’re doing to achieve this:

• Promoting a safe, inclusive, and productive workplace that recognises the importance of a respectful work culture
• Providing targeted learning and career development resources for our people 
• Growing inclusive leadership with a focus on creating a culture of care and belonging 

Over the next two years we’ll:

• Grow diversity in our leadership roles 
• Improve the cultural capability of our leaders and teams 
• Continue to grow inclusive leadership practices 
• Continue to listen and engage to improve the employee experience for our CALD colleagues.

Our customers told us they’re eager to continue engagement and consultation to provide input. We heard some customers would like more offline channels available to those who were not digitally savvy or did not have easy access to digital channels. 

Our people suggested a more consistent approach to our consultation process.

• More effective consultation and co-design with CALD customers and communities
• More information about what DCS does and the services we provide 
• More targeted services to CALD communities
• More face-to-face information sharing 

Work we’re doing to achieve this:

• Building relationships with community members, leaders, and organisations 
• Ensuring that all our service delivery begins with consultation with community
• Setting a high standard across government on how we communicate with CALD customers and communities
• Setting a high standard across government on how we provide in-language information. 

Over the next two years we’ll:

• Continue to learn and improve access to services for CALD communities
• Continue to build meaningful connections with CALD communities
• Continue to improve how we communicate and translate materials to CALD customers
• Do more research with CALD communities and publishing this research wherever possible
• Find the best ways to provide translation and interpretation services.
   

We heard from our people and customers about the importance of planning with CALD communities from the start. 

Our people suggested we could leverage more research and insights from our CALD communities. They were also clear that we needed mechanisms in place to ensure they felt safe in the workplace. 

• Collecting, collating and telling more stories with data and research on CALD staff and communities
• Considering multicultural communities when designing and planning any projects
• Improving complaints processes and procedures to ensure staff are empowered to come forward.

Work we’re doing to achieve this:

• Researching and consulting to design targeted services that address customer need
• Embedding the customer voice and utilising both qualitative and quantitative data
• Utilising our staff networks to better understand the needs of specific staff cohorts when designing internal policies
• Leveraging insights from our networks across the cluster to understand and address the experience of staff across the business

Over the next two years we’ll:

• Continue to consider CALD communities as a key cohort when planning projects
• Share the information and data we collect to enable holistic storytelling of communities
• Work on achieving consistency in how we engage translating and interpreting services
• Re-introduce the Community Language Allowance Scheme within the cluster
   

During consultation, customers told us that we needed to translate more information, rely less on digital, and do more to deliver information in engaging ways. Customers wanted to engage with government in accessible ways and felt more could be done to target service delivery to their communities. Key insights include:

• Doing more to ensure CALD communities are aware of the range of services and products available
• Delivering services and information in an accessible way 
• Targeting service delivery to ensure customers feel valued 

Work we’re doing to achieve this:

• Promoting a safe, inclusive, and productive workplace that recognises the importance of a respectful work culture
• Providing access to targeted and relevant resources for staff through learning and career development platforms 
• Delivering continued training to build an inclusive leadership 

Over the next two years we’ll:

• Continue to consult with CALD staff and customers to ensure products, services and policies are addressing their needs
• Continue to do in-language face-to-face seminars on the services we provide
• Develop targeted materials and initiatives to ensure CALD customers and communities achieve an equitable level of socio-economic participation