Case study: How RMIT promotes diversity

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2021 Sustainability Annual Report RMIT identified a range of material issues, such as climate change, learning and teaching, environmental footprint, health, safety and wellbeing. Among these, promoting diversity stands out as a key material issue for RMIT.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups RMIT engages with:

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics RMIT engaged with its stakeholders through interviews.

What actions were taken by RMIT to promote diversity?

In its 2021 Sustainability Annual Report RMIT reports that it took the following actions for promoting diversity:

• Increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff
• RMIT is strongly committed to creating a workforce that is inclusive and reflects the diversity of people and cultures that exist in the wider Australian community, and to increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, implementing initiatives supporting employment. A key focus for 2021 was the development of RMIT’s workforce through the application of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment Plan 2021-2022 and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Future Workforce Strategy 2021-2025. Both the strategy and plan implemented a whole of university approach to employment, development and retention, and embedding hybrid accountability with each College and Portfolio. Individual Indigenous Employment Action Plans were developed by the Colleges and Portfolios and endorsed by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment Committee. In 2021, RMIT reframed its approach to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employee Value Proposition, which included recruitment videos, an Indigenous careers page, and candidate prospectuses. Targeted guidelines for the Employment and Retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were also developed, to promote a cultural shift in the practices of hiring managers and the People team to make sure Indigenous recruitment was promoted across all roles. RMIT exceeded its Indigenous workforce retention target in 2021, recording 90 per cent retention (compared to a target of 80 per cent). Additionally, seven Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff received promotions or internal transfers as part of internal mobility initiatives, which was an increase on pre-pandemic levels. RMIT also invested in professional development for members of the Indigenous Staff Network and scoped trainee, graduate and apprenticeship programmes. The RMIT 2018 Higher Education Enterprise Agreement includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment and participation principles that recognise the rights and responsibilities of Indigenous employees, as well as highlighting the role reconciliation has as a core value of RMIT. It also requires that the University provides all non-Indigenous staff with the opportunity to participate in the relationship of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.

• Promoting gender equality
• Led by the Gender Equality Action Plan, RMIT identifies and addresses barriers to women’s inclusion and career progression, focusing on delivering strategic, sustainable and meaningful change across the priority areas: leadership and governance, employment conditions and women’s career advancement. The Victorian Gender Equality Act 2020 (GE Act) requires RMIT to run assessments of its current gender equality standings and develop a four-year action plan to continue progress (RMIT Gender Equality Action Plan 2022-2025). Accordingly, throughout 2021, RMIT’s GEAP was developed through high level university-wide consultation and co-design. This has required deep analysis and review of gender and intersectionality, resulting in embedding the lens of intersectionality in RMIT’s new plan. In 2021, RMIT was also recognised as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) citation from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) for the fourth consecutive year and re-submitted for certification for 2021 – 2023. The citation demonstrated a continued commitment to best practice in promoting gender equality in Australian workplaces. In addition, RMIT reports under the Workplace Gender Equality (WGEA) Act 2012 and the Victorian Gender Equality Act (2020). This report encompasses all employees (headcount) in Australia including full-time, part-time, casual and temporary employees.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 405-1 Diversity of governance bodies and employees

Disclosure 405-1 Diversity of governance bodies and employees corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality
• Targets: 5.1, 5.5
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.5

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References:

This case study is based on published information by RMIT, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.rmit.edu.au/about/our-values/sustainability/sustainability-annual-report

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