SBS is committed to never standing still in pursuit of greater inclusion – through its people and the way it operates, through the programming it produces, and as a positive force for change in the media sector. In 2021, SBS engaged an external inclusive design consulting firm to work with employees in reviewing and redesigning some key internal processes including recruitment, internal complaints management and content workflows. The objective was to ensure any barriers to participation were removed and identify ways SBS could continue to make these processes more inclusive for all employees, particularly those from diverse backgrounds.

As part of this, SBS wanted to ensure that relevant processes and employee practices were effective in both preventing inappropriate incidents from occurring, and that they enable swift and supportive redress if they ever did occur.

One of these processes was SBS’s employee complaints management process, given how critical an effective process is in addressing issues relating to discrimination, such as racism. 

SBS invited 10 employees with different backgrounds and perspectives, drawn from different levels and functions from across the organisation, to participate in inclusive design workshops. This group included First Nations employees, employees with different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, employees with a disability, and LGBTIQ+ employees. In addition, some former SBS employees who had previously participated as complainants were invited to be involved in the process (and were compensated for their participation).

The workshops were designed to build a common understanding amongst the participants about the principles of inclusive design, and involved a review of the existing complaints management process, before rebuilding it for ‘edge users’ – those who may have an atypical experience to the majority. In doing this, the process design ensured that it was fit for the broadest possible user group, whilst enhancing the experience for all staff as well as identifying and removing barriers that employees may face in raising and responding to allegations of discriminatory behaviour, systems or practices. This included utilising the experiences of former employees and determining what procedural amendments might have improved their experience and/or outcomes.

In the end, SBS employees redesigned the complaints handling process to include the following:

• Specific cultural and language support available to any staff member making a complaint.
• Implementation of the SBS Inclusion Champions program which elevated 12 SBS staff members reflecting diverse backgrounds and experiences who were trained on the complaints handling process, who can be approached by staff to seek support in advance of making a complaint.
• The assignment of a specific wellbeing support officer, separate and distinct from the complainant’s own chosen support person. This support role is designed to check in on the complainant regularly to ensure they are adequately supported throughout the entire process.
• Greater transparency principles in terms of information provided to complainants throughout and at the conclusion of the investigative and outcome stages.

SBS plans to monitor and evaluate the redesigned process to track users’ experiences.

More information is available at https://www.sbs.com.au/.

What was it?

Responding to concerns raised regarding systemic racism within the university, as well as the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion’s (CSJI) role in contributing to anti-racism discourse in the broader community, the Social Impact Team (SIT) at the Centre, a team of approximately 9 members, decided we wanted to work on being actively anti-racist. The program was first conceptualised as an entry into better understanding what leads to racism, what it looks like and how to be anti-racist.

In 2020, the Social Impact Team collectively agreed to form a reading group to work through Layla Saad’s Me and White Supremacy. This book was originally a 28-day personal reflection challenge posted on Instagram. Saad introduces ‘The Circle Method’ early in her book, outlining a process for working through the book in a group. The team decided to cover one theme per week, reflecting individually on the content and questions outlined, then meeting weekly to discuss and share our observations, questions and understanding. This was a 6-month commitment from the whole team. Discussions within the Social Impact Team explored how we could build a shared language for speaking about and responding to racism.

Who did it?

The Social Impact Team is a small team in the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion at UTS. The SIT Team is responsible for operationalising UTS’ Social Impact Framework, delivering co-curricular and extra-curricular programs that amplify and grow social change within UTS. These programs deliver social impact by: connecting UTS communities to external communities and services, supporting internal capacity building, supporting student leadership, and uncovering and communicating the social impact originating from the UTS’ teaching, research, and practice.

Our team had different attitudes towards and responses to the content of the book, but there was a collective agreement that the book created a framework and space that allowed for personal reflection. The meetings felt distinctly different to typical anti-racism trainings or programs. Instead, they felt much more like ‘personal work’, where a safe space was created to initiate challenging conversations about privilege, white supremacy, and systemic racism.

New members joined the SIT team over the year and accommodations were made to help them catch up, including review sessions and giving them time to read the missed chapters. New members reported that in addition to the learnings of the book itself, joining the sessions also helped them become closer to their work teams, even throughout lockdown, and understand the values developed and shared by the team. As one new member reports, ‘Since the first day I joined these sessions (just one week after starting working) I already felt it was a safe, honest and very reflective space and I felt completely free and comfortable to share stories and support others in this journey’.

What was the impact?

The Social Impact Team, including both new and former members, continue to explore and expand upon learnings from the Me and White Supremacy sessions. Members approach their work practice and their projects, through an anti-racist lens, understanding the commitment required for sincere allyship.

Members report having developed new skills in cultural competency to assist in working with Black, Indigenous and People of Colour communities (BIPOC). These have led to more authentic relationships.

Members also report having undergone deep personal reflection in understanding and navigating white supremacy and its impacts on BIPOC communities.

Further, the consistent approach to the meetings brought the team closer at a deeper level.

What happened next?

After completing Me and White Supremacy, our team has continued weekly sessions to work through various podcasts. We have worked to keep the conversation and learning going, recognising that change is an ongoing process and cannot be expected overnight.

Other groups within the Centre have developed reading groups, working through Saad’s Me and White Supremacy and taking on board the learnings from SIT.

How could others learn from our experience? Recommendations for your own group:

The Me and White Supremacy reading group involved all staff levels, including management. The Me and White Supremacy reading group created a neutral space where all staff could come together and effectively contribute as their whole self. The involvement of the manager and their ability to create a safe space was critical to this. By embracing their positional power and acknowledging their responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of their team, the manager was able to practically give space to this work. This was done through authorising the allocated time required for the reading group, and role-modelling to create a culturally safe workplace. Once the space was created, the group operated under a flat structure where responsibility was shared among the team, through a predetermined schedule of rotating host and guardian roles at each meeting. Due to Covid, the meetings were run over Zoom and the use of the raising hand function helped to ensure that each member was respected and heard.

Key lessons learned that helped the meetings run successfully:

• Valuing lived experience: Recognising the emotional labour required for people to share their experiences, the perspectives of people with lived experience of racism were not required or expected to be shared, but highly valued when they were. This was key to keeping the conversation practical.
• Considering timing: The weekly meetings were initially run in the morning, but they were moved to the afternoon following concerns about their high cognitive and emotional load. Being flexible and adaptable to the needs of the team was important to provide the space for the team to meaningfully participate in the meetings.

• Facilitating debriefing: Moving to the afternoon also facilitated organic debriefing sessions between staff following the sessions at the end of the workday. Members benefited from having a trusted person with whom they could have an informal debrief.
• Committing to learning: The questions and content in the book carry a high cognitive and emotional load. It took commitment from all members to ensure consistency, even when we were feeling less than optimal.
• Inviting participation: It was important that participation at the meetings was voluntary, as engagement with the group and the ideas discussed required a willingness and commitment to both oneself and the wider team.
• Creating safety: Our team was close-knit and many team members have lived experiences of racism, or experience conducting research about racism and anti-racism. As such, there was a high level of trust and prior knowledge which helped create a safe space to work through the book and have these conversations.

• Allowing reflection: Our team had different attitudes towards and responses to the content of the book and represented diverse experiences and perspectives. Even so, at its core, there was a collective agreement that the book created a framework and space that allowed for personal reflection.

Key challenges

• Creating culture: The team continue to weigh the benefits and challenges of mandating work of this nature. We see greater value in leadership creating culture and spaces that permit teams and individuals to explore questions around anti-racism work, rather than mandate the work.
• Securing buy-in: The group needs a majority of people committing to the work, who set anti-racism work as the norm, which in turn creates safety to explore in sincerity.
• Building a growth mindset: The process is not uniform. Team dynamics as well as personal experiences of the process ebb and flow each week and it takes time for a growth mindset becomes accepted. A period of defensiveness in the beginning could impair potential for growth.

More information is available at https://www.uts.edu.au/.

Creation

A group of empowered colleagues at the University of Sydney created the Mosaic network with the aim to challenge the status quo about experiences, support and progression of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) colleagues. Mosaic is a unique combination of a grassroots initiative with executive support.

The trigger was the Vice Chancellor’s Sponsorship Program at the University of Sydney, launched in 2016. The program was a University-wide targeted effort to support CALD women with potential to move into senior leadership roles. This brought together staff from across the university who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to cross paths. The lack of representatives of multicultural backgrounds within senior leadership/management at the university at levels reflective of population diversity prompted some of the participants to think about what could be done to support CALD staff to their full potential.

In creating Mosaic and giving it robust foundations, we: 1) sought leadership buy-in; and 2) engaged with colleagues. Discussions in 2018 with team leads within the Diversity and Inclusion team and the Director of the Culture Strategy within the university were instrumental in assisting with developing the structure for the staff network. Equally valuable was the enthusiastic endorsement by the then Vice Chancellor when the concept of a staff network was pitched to him. He also agreed to take on the role as the first Executive Sponsor for the network.

We initially engaged with colleagues through a workshop which was open to all staff so we could listen to diverse voices and views. Some of the themes that emerged were that Mosaic should aim to increase visibility and influence the experiences of CALD staff at the university. Internalised stereotypes (for example, the negative or positive association perception of certain groups) and lack of social acceptance were highlighted by workshop participants as inhibitors to a successful culturally inclusive workplace while the role Mosaic could play was envisaged as providing networking opportunities, increasing awareness and influencing governance.

Vision and goals

With the vision to create a workplace where cultural diversity is understood, accepted, and celebrated as a powerful asset for the university and to influence thinking within higher education institutions, Mosaic was launched in 2019, on the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Mosaic goals

First steps

The network has used several strategies to establish a presence within the university community including articles in the staff newsletter, a spectacular launch event and a tour of senior leadership committee meetings (Deans/Heads of Schools and Faculty Managers). Steering Committee members were selected through expressions of interest sought from across the university and aspired to equal numbers of academic and professional staff as well as gender balance. Mosaic follows a shared model of leadership with the Steering Committee led by three co-Chairs and is supported by an Executive Sponsor.

Initiatives

Mosaic initiatives aim to reach out to our community of members, communicate with our stakeholders, contribute to, or create new actions. To achieve these aims we: circulate a newsletter to members and hold member meetings on alternate months throughout the year; organise workshops on topics relevant to our community; create opportunities to shift the workplace culture; and create safe spaces in which colleagues share experiences. For example, the Say My Name campaign aims to help others pronounce your name and signal additional languages by including this information in your email signature.

Mosaic collaborated with the University of Sydney’s National Centre for Cultural Competence, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff network and the Culture Strategy office to create workshops to raise awareness and provide tools for staff who may encounter racism and microaggressions within the workplace.

Challenges and Strategies

Engaging beyond the CALD bubble

There are many challenges that are encountered by other minority groups, that are also true for Mosaic. The discrimination that people from minority communities face is immensely difficult to prove and quantify, which often leads to it being dismissed. Thus, it is very difficult for networks like Mosaic to collect evidence to create institutional change. One issue that continues to challenge us is: how do we get our efforts to resonate with people outside the interest groups they support? For many, these aren’t seen as relevant to their work. Our most recent partnership with other stakeholders has been to develop an Anti-racism pledge which encourages staff to listen, pause, reflect, and commit to take actions to create more inclusive spaces within teaching, research and other workplace practices. We hope that this will be a first small step towards overcoming this hurdle.

Counting and examining culture

One issue we are still trying to influence is to count culture and identify the specific challenges facing different communities in a meaningful way. You can’t change what you don’t measure. The term CALD itself encompasses a heterogeneous population and the challenges faced by some groups may not resonate with others. The intersectionality of other characteristics brings additional challenges to some. Actions to address equity are unlikely to be served by a one-size fits all approach.

The expectation of all staff to conform to and be appraised against the dominant culture is an ongoing challenge which we hope to shift in a positive manner. However, it is difficult to appreciate the extent of the problem because there is no safe space for stories to be told. We need to create an environment where people can share experiences without prejudice or penalty as well as positive stories that can be valuable to develop strategies to overcome barriers. We need evidence that can help identify areas where most problems occur and challenges to overcome these problems.

Initial approaches we have considered include making member meetings places where experiences can be shared confidentially and to promote initiatives which amplify positive CALD stories. A formal research project is being initiated by Mosaic to empirically explore the experiences of CALD staff within the university.

Responsibility for creating change

The responsibility of identifying and resolving issues continues to fall on individuals from the specific minority community.  There is limited buy-in from voices or perspectives outside the CALD community and there is a gendered disinterest in being involved in equity initiatives. Typically, men have been less engaged in equity initiatives on campus.

There are very real consequences that people from minority communities face when they speak up about the discrimination they experience and that is why networks like Mosaic are so important to create a supportive community. It is empowering to belong to a network like Mosaic. We have strength together because we can support each other.

The challenge of adequately acknowledging and compensating the additional workload that Mosaic and other minority group activists take on is on-going. Often our direct line managers do not know or understand the impact of the cultural load we bear. At Mosaic’s request, our first Executive Sponsor (then the Vice Chancellor) sent letters to the manager and head of department of Steering Committee members of all staff networks acknowledging their commitment to improving the culture of inclusivity at the university. One Mosaic Committee member has successfully negotiated to have this cultural load included in their individual workload metrics and Mosaic has asked HR to investigate how this could be incorporated into current systems at the university.

From supporting to action

In the 3-years that Mosaic has been operational, we find we are becoming an important resource for staff by creating safe spaces which allow CALD staff to share their experiences. However, a real challenge is how conversations we have as a group can actually guide action to address and overcome the obstacles we face: in other words, how do we go from being a support group to become an action group?  By creating a direct line of communication to senior executives at the university via our Executive Sponsor we now have opportunities to be heard at the highest levels.

More information is available at https://www.sydney.edu.au/.