Foreword from Susanne Legena, CEO
It is with great pride and a deep sense of responsibility that I present Plan International Australia’s first-ever Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy. This milestone marks a significant step forward in our unwavering commitment to justice for all children and equality for girls. At the heart of our mission lies the belief that every individual, regardless of gender, race, or background, deserves equal opportunities and respect. This strategy reaffirms our dedication to fostering an inclusive and equitable environment where everyone can thrive.
Our DEI strategy focuses initially on gender and racial equality within our workplace. We recognize the importance of addressing these fundamental areas as a foundation for broader inclusivity. Our aim is to create a work environment where all staff, in their rich diversity, feel a true sense of belonging and are empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and talents. We are committed to dismantling the systemic and structural barriers that impede inclusion, understanding that this is a continuous journey requiring sustained effort and reflection.
This strategy is the result of extensive collaboration and input from our dedicated staff. Your voices, experiences, and insights have been invaluable in shaping our approach. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each of you who participated in this process. Your engagement and commitment have not only informed our strategy but have also strengthened our collective resolve to create a more just and equitable organisation.
As we embark on this journey, we pledge to be transparent about our progress and challenges. We will continually learn, reflect, and take action to ensure that our DEI efforts lead to meaningful and lasting change. Together, we will build a Plan International Australia that truly embodies the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, setting an example for the broader community and advancing our mission of justice and equality for all.
Introduction
This document presents a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy for Plan International Australia, encompassing all staff and extending to our relationships with external stakeholders and the communities we work with. At different times, there will be different areas of focus. The strategy brings our values of inclusivity, accountability, empowerment, collaboration and long-term impact to life. It also reflects our commitment to dismantling structural inequities and systemic oppression, aligning with the values we uphold as an organisation and as part of the Plan International global federation. It also aligns strongly to the Feminist Leadership Principles and our commitment to embed them into our work and culture.
The strategy affirms that our organisation’s success and wellbeing is dependent on everyone thriving. It has been meticulously designed to establish a clear vision and tangible actions, providing guidance throughout our journey. This strategy aims to enhance the experience of all members of our cohort domestically and the communities in which we work, enriching our organisation and deepening our understanding of the contexts in which we work.
The Strategy references and aligns with the Plan Global Gender Equality and Inclusion Policy (PDF 141KB).
What Diversity, Equity and Inclusion means to PIA
Plan International Australia recognises the multifaceted nature of diversity initiatives. To ensure the success of this strategy, we adopt the following definitions:
Benefits of a DEI Strategy
Our organisation is complex, and diversity, equity and inclusion are key enablers for achieving our goals and realising our vision and mission. Here’s why:
- Embedded in PIA’s work: prioritising diversity, inclusion equity and belonging is more than a legislative requirement or achieving citation. It is essential for our success in advancing girls’ rights and gender equality overseas, and for the wellbeing of our staff in Australia. We recognise that without valuing diversity and creating an inclusive workplace, we cannot achieve our organisation’s mission.
- Values: diversity, equity and inclusion are fundamental to bringing our desired culture and core values to life.
- Innovation and productivity: to remain competitive and differentiate ourselves in the market, we recognise that innovation is critical. Our people are more innovative, creative, and engaged when they can bring their authentic selves to work. This not only improves our performance but also enhances our ability to understand and relate to the diverse range of people within the communities in which we work.
- Employer of Choice Citation: we aspire to be an employer of choice, and an inclusive culture embedded throughout the employee life cycle is critical to achieving this recognition.
- Legal obligations: under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010, we have a legal duty to promote equality of opportunity, eliminate unlawful discrimination and foster good relations between key equality strands. These strands include age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity.
About our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy is designed to outline an overarching vision and four high-level objective areas. Alongside our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Work Plan, it provides us with a roadmap for the next three years and sets measurable goals to ensure accountability.
Vision
Our vision is to foster an inclusive, thriving, fair and diverse culture and environment of trust that embraces and respects differences across all aspects of our practices. We aim to work cohesively to contribute to the achievement of PIA’s mission.
To achieve our vision, we commit to providing fair opportunities for all and equipping our organisation to challenge bias and discrimination wherever they exist. We recognise that diversity efforts must be ongoing, and we are dedicated to taking long-term action.
We will forge efforts especially to focus on those who identify with marginalised social groups that have historically faced systemic injustices. Whilst we view diversity as intersectional and value all diverse groups, we will initially focus on three key diversity areas to make real, sustainable and accelerated change that aligns with our limited resources and Plan’s global mission and purpose. These areas are:
- Culturally and Racially Marginalised (CARM) people
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Gender Equality.
Our Gender Pay Gap Report
Objectives
The success of our strategy is underpinned by the following objectives:
Objective 1: A diverse workforce
We aim to support and establish a workforce that reflects the diversity of Australia’s broader society. This objective entails implementing proactive strategies to attract and retain a wider range of individuals.
Objective 2: Fairness and equity
We are committed to providing equitable access and opportunities for all. We will regularly identify existing gaps, barriers or unfair practices and proactively work to change them.
Objective 3: Inclusive systems and practices
Our values will be reflected in a structured and systematic way through our policies, processes and procedures, and ways of work. This objective ensures that our internal structure meets the diverse needs of those we serve.
Objective 4: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is embedded
We strive to foster a culture of safety and belonging where our vision is shared, and voices are heard.
Photo: Laughing girls at primary school in Siem Reap, Cambodia. © Plan International /Hartmut Schwarzbach/argus
Supporting the strategy
We all have a role to play in cultivating an inclusive and diverse culture at PIA. We have identified how our employees, managers, senior managers, Board and DEI working group can support this strategy.
Employees – support colleagues by committing to and feeling responsible for implementing the DEI strategy by being inclusive and report, or constructively challenge, non-inclusive behaviour.
Managers – Model, uphold and reinforce inclusive behaviours and cultivate an environment where employees can share ideas and speak up when they have differing views.
Executive – Provide visible and vocal leadership and demonstrate commitment to DEI. They are ultimately accountable for the delivery of the PIA DEI Strategy.
Board – Governance of DEI Strategy ensuring appropriate accountability of DEI is in place through Corporate Governance Committee Reporting.
DEI Working Group – Representative group and champions of DEI from across PIA who consult and participate in the delivery of the DEI Strategy Workplan as detailed in the DEI Working Group TOR.
OD&C Team – Sponsor of the DEI Strategy, ensuring workplan is integrated into organisational operations, measured and reported to appropriate stakeholders. They facilitate and coordinate how all groups work together to a shared purpose (Employees, Managers, Executive, Board, DEI Working Group).
Evaluation
This strategy will undergo an evaluation process once a year and will be updated with new objectives and goals if required.
Photo: Ana is a leader in her community. © Plan International
Goals
To meet our objectives and lay a foundation for long-term change, we have identified nine (9) cross-cutting goals:
- Employer of Choice for Gender Equality: We will aim to obtain Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) Citation from WGEA.
- Policies: We will aim to ensure all policies, practices and processes create, support and uphold an inclusive working environment.
- Pay Equity: We will examine pay equity through the lens of gender and racial pay gaps, to assess base equity of pay and determine whether women and people of colour are at a disadvantage in meeting those.
- Inclusive Recruitment: OD&C will establish best practices for inclusive recruitment and hiring and capture this in an updated Talent Acquisition Policy. OD&C will then meet with each department to ensure recruitment strategies align with the organisation’s inclusive hiring guideline within six months.
- Training and Education: We will provide all team members with compulsory Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training to equip all of our employees with a shared language and understanding of how power, privilege and bias manifests. A specific focus will also be applied to managers to build leadership capability and skills when managing diverse teams.
- Embedding DEI into culture: We will work to ensure DEI initiatives are entrenched in our day-to-day BAU. This will include proactive organised events dedicated to highlighting various diverse groups, ensuring departments and teams have DEI related goals, and that various working groups across the organisations collaborate on DEI objectives.
- Inclusive External Messaging: PIA will promote and champion the use of inclusive and authentic messaging that will resonate with our diverse internal and external audiences. PIA’s employee value proposition will actively promote and socialise our commitment to DEI.
- Increased Diversity in Workforce: We will commit to building our baseline of staff demographic data so that we can identify areas of improvement in the diversity of our workforce and where appropriate set targets for diversity. We aim to create and maintain a more balanced spread of gender, CARM people and ATSI people balance in our leadership teams and general staff cohort.
- Safe Reporting Mechanism and General Feedback: We will implement safe and anonymous reporting mechanisms specifically in relation to DEI concerns and socialise this in the organisation. On a regular basis, all employees will also have the opportunity to complete an anonymous survey to gauge employee sentiment and DEI progress. Aggregated survey results will be shared with employees, along with areas of progress and opportunities for improvement.