Premises, Procurement and Customer Experience.
Image: The Life Without Barriers DAWN committee, Executive team and Board members standing together smiling after being immersed in a theatre-based training and exploration session that focused on the lived experiences of people with disability.
Since the Access Inclusion and Employment Plan's (AIEP or the Plan) launch, teams across Life Without Barriers have diligently worked towards creating a more inclusive and accessible workplace and improving employment opportunities for people with disability.
We are excited to share our progress on our 2022-2025 AIEP.
Commitment to Best Practice Establish
AIEP reporting metrics
We created a PowerBI dashboard (updated monthly) in early 2023 to monitor several metrics. Against our target of 15% of our workforce, at all levels of our organisation, being people with disability:
14% of our employees have a disability (D&I Survey, Nov 2023)
13.8% of employees with a disability are in leadership positions (HR system, Jan-Mar 2024)
We hired 100 new employees with a disability in the 2023-2024 financial year.
Our annualised retention rate remains comparable for employees with disability, i.e., we retain employees with disability at a rate similar to that of non-disabled employees.
Biannual submission of ADN Access and Inclusion Index
We submitted Life Without Barriers 2023 Access and Inclusion Index to the Australian Disability Network (ADN) in March 2024.
Leadership and Innovation
Increasing leadership and career development opportunities for employees with disability
In 2023, Life Without Barriers partnered with the Disability Leadership Institute (DLI) to offer a CEO internship. The CEO internship program provides a unique opportunity for a high-potential leader with a disability who aspires to become a CEO to work alongside the Chief Executive of Life Without Barriers. Debbie Heron was appointed to co-lead Life Without Barriers alongside Claire Robbs in early 2024.
Image: Debbie Heron wearing a pink blazer and maroon shirt, standing next to Claire Robbs, wearing a cream blazer and black shirt, smiling at the camera.
Reviewing the requirements of direct care roles to explore and expand options for people with disability
The Achieve Foundation is partnering with Achieve Australia, Life Without Barriers and Yooralla on the Disability Employment Catalyst. It aims to address barriers to employment for people with disabilities by creating pathways into open employment opportunities for job seekers with disabilities within the disability service sector.
Influence government employment initiatives and contribute to inquiries/consultations
We met with the Department of Social Services (DSS) to establish a relationship and discuss potential partnership opportunities. We made several submissions:
We responded to the consultation on the Disability Services and Inclusion Act and recommended that the government set disability employment targets for DSS-funded organisations.
We submitted the NDIS review on employment.
We responded to the DSS Future of Supported Employment Discussion Paper.
Develop a disability employment policy statement
Our Working Without Barriers Policy Position is publicly available on our website.
Image: Emma Bennison, Chief Innovation Officer, wearing a light pink shirt and dark pants, stands next to a brick wall with a tree behind her. Photography: Jess Oakenfull, commissioned by the Tasmanian Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Alliance20
Life Without Barriers continues to participate in Alliance20. Alliance20 brings together Australia’s largest and most influential disability service providers who leverage their history, expertise, research and innovation to shape the NDIS.
Governance
Two groups meet regularly on our AIEP: the AIEP Strategy Governance Group and the AIEP Actions Owners. The AIEP Strategy Governance Group has a monthly monitoring and reporting meeting and holds an in-depth topic-based discussion each quarter. We have held five topic-based talks so far:
Sharing disability information at work
Learning and development and leadership capability
Recruitment and retention for people with disability
How key strategic initiatives (RAP, AIEP, and people strategy) intersect
Co-design with the people we support in Disability Mental Health (DMH) and Child, Youth, and Family (CYF)
We report progress on the AIEP to the Executive and Board via our project management tool, Altus. It is dynamic and can be updated in real time if priorities shift or change. We add new projects that impact employees with disability or people with disability we support as they arise. We are proud of our continued progress toward a more inclusive and accessible workplace.
This article is part one of a series, you can read the other articles via the links below:
