Our Diversity and Inclusion Journey

Credit Union SA

Member Experience Team

9 June 2021

Our goal is to make money work for everyone.

To do that, working at Credit Union SA must work for everyone. That’s why we’re on a continuous journey to create a workplace that embraces individual differences and gives people of all backgrounds and circumstances the support they need to thrive and grow.

Inclusion isn’t a destination – it’s a journey that requires ongoing commitment and focus. As part of this journey, we want to share an annual update with you on our progress to help us hold ourselves accountable, understand how we're doing, and make changes where we need to.

In this update we will share our diversity and inclusion progress over the past year while also looking at how some of these initiatives will evolve in the coming year.

Progress over the past year

In the past year, we’ve had a lot happening in the diversity and inclusion space. Here’s a breakdown of what we’ve done so far

Aboriginal Cultural Sensitivity & Respect Training

All Credit Union SA staff took part in Aboriginal Cultural Sensitivity & Respect Training with Hayden Bromley from Bookabee. Hayden not only shared his Aboriginal cultural and life experiences with us, but also covered a range of important topics, including:

identifying the gap,
implementing change,
culturally sensitive terminology,
understanding Aboriginal Australia,
facing the facts: historical and contemporary,
identity and Aboriginality, and
racism and privilege.

The training created awareness and understanding of Aboriginal Australians’ history and culture and provided opportunities for us all to examine and challenge our own personal values and attitudes.

This training will now be part of standard onboarding for all new staff. Ensuring everyone who works for us has the same education opportunity and can contribute to our efforts towards reconciliation.

Reconciliation Action Plan

We’re in the early stages of implementing our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). This is the start of our organisations reconciliation journey, and we are confident that guided by our Reflect RAP commitments and actions that we will demonstrate meaningful connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and implement action to support reconciliation.

See our RAP

Acknowledgement of Country

With the help and guidance from Reconciliation SA we have implemented an Acknowledgment of Country statement as part of our website, email signatures, office building, Member Experience Centre, meeting rooms and in spoken form at the beginning of our events and meetings.

We think it’s an important step to show respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and the ongoing relationship of traditional owners with the land.

Public Holiday Exchange Policy

We give our people the freedom to celebrate and observe the days that matter most to them through our Public Holiday Exchange Policy.

This includes the choice to switch the Public Holiday on 26 January for an alternative day off as we recognise it’s not a day of celebration for many people.

Our policy is all about embracing individual differences and giving people of all backgrounds the support they need to thrive and grow in our workplace.

Thrive Day Leave

Our core purpose is to help South Australians thrive. We believe a big part of achieving this is by putting people first, including our own.

That’s why we introduced ‘Thrive Day' Leave, where our people can take an extra four days off a year to pursue any activity they choose - it's a time to celebrate individuality.

Family and Domestic Violence Leave

We have taken further action to support our people by increasing our Family and Domestic Violence Leave from 10 days to 20 days. This gives people and their families more time to seek help without risking their income.

We recognise that we still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we’re committed to helping those impacted by domestic and family violence so that the decision between safety and financial security is not one that they need to make.

Parental Leave

As part of our Diversity & Inclusion Strategy we revised our Parental Leave Policy. The revised Parental Leave Policy now supports all full-time, part-time and eligible casual staff with Employer Funded Paid Parental and Partner Leave.

This is paid in addition to the Australian Government provided Parental Leave Pay.

Flexible working

Covid-19 forced most organisations to adopt remote working practices but we embraced these practices for the opportunity they provided our staff. We are proud to offer flexible working arrangements to our people, so everyone can fit work comfortably around their lives.

At the moment, 30% of our people work remotely at some stage during their working week and a smaller percentage work remotely all the time with a ‘keep in touch day” at least once a month.

We're making remote working an option for all new roles going forward. Our goal is to make it possible for the right people to work at Credit Union SA, wherever they are in the world.

Diversity & Inclusion Training

All our people attended diversity and inclusion training. This training explored unconscious bias and showed us how we can all be more inclusive in our day-to-day.

Leaders also took part in further training that focused on how to be an inclusive leader in everyday communications and actions.

We think it’s hugely important that we are empathetic, collaborative, and respectful in how we lead and work here at Credit Union SA.

That’s why we will continue to provide new recruits with the same education opportunity. This way everyone has the knowledge they need to contribute to an inclusive workplace.

People and Culture Committee

We introduced a People and Culture Committee which is made up of people from all different areas within the organisation.

The Committee has been working on strengthening our commitment to diversity and inclusion by looking at ways we can celebrate, acknowledge, and get involved in significant events throughout the year.

So far, we have celebrated or acknowledged the following events:

International Women’s Day,
Ramadan,
Harmony Day,
Domestic Violence Prevention Month,
IDAHOBIT,
Reconciliation Week, and
World Environment Day.

This project is still in the early stages but has already helped us gain greater understandings and insights into what’s important to our people.

Health and Wellbeing

All Credit Union SA staff took part in wellbeing and resilience training late last year that focused on building skills and behaviours that promote mental health, increase self-compassion, and manage stress.

New recruits will get the same level of training, plus we have further education opportunities for our people in the coming year.

This is on top of wellbeing initiates we already have in place such as our EAP (Employee Assistance Programme), which is a 24/7 confidential service offering counselling support for our staff and their families, and our contact officers who provide care for those that need it, when they need it.

Workplace Culture Survey

We want to understand what it really means for people to work at Credit Union SA across our different collectives.

That’s why we routinely run workplace culture surveys, with the most recent one taking place in May.

We are currently in the process of creating an action plan based on the survey results and staff debriefing sessions. This plan will include ways we can create a more diverse and inclusive work environment as well as ways we can improve in our key focus areas.

We’ll be able tell you all about our plan in our next update.

Image credit: Jo

Partnership with Feast Festival

We’re always looking to create partnerships with different organisations that are dedicated to inclusion.

Last year we were lucky enough to become a support partner of the incredible Feast Festival. A not-for-profit LGBTIQ+ Queer Arts and Cultural Festival that celebrates Pride and Diversity in Adelaide.

We are onboard again this year and can’t wait to get involved and celebrate diversity, equality, inclusion, and respect for everyone in our community.

Family Fun Day

We recently had a Family Fun Day for our hard-working team and their families. It was wonderful for everyone to get together and enjoy great food, coffee, games and live music in a relaxed atmosphere.

We found that it was a really nice opportunity for people to learn more about one another which helps us to create a greater sense of belonging, which is so important to us here at Credit Union SA.

We'll be holding more of these events in the future – just waiting for it to warm up again.

New Chief People and Strategy Officer

Last but not least, we have a new Chief People and Strategy Officer, Liana Reinhardt, who is designing new initiatives and strategies to increase diversity and inclusion in our workplace.

What’s ahead

We’ve given you an overview of the initiatives we’ve started this year as part of our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. Most will continue and evolve over the coming year, but we also have some new diversity and inclusion projects we’ll be bringing to life which we will tell you all about in our next update.

We’re only at the start of our journey and we understand that we still have a lot of work ahead of us to be the change we want to see. Our goal in 2023, is to build on our strong foundations and continue moving towards a more representative and inclusive place to work.

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