Geoscience Australia has been awarded a 4th SAGE Cygnet Award for supporting gender equity through improved talent attraction.
The Cygnet Awards are earned by education and research organisations that demonstrate progress, outcomes and impact in addressing barriers to attraction, retention and progression of staff, and ultimately, to gender equity, diversity and inclusion.
This is Geoscience Australia’s fourth Cygnet Award, following awards for improvements in flexible work, inclusive culture and combating sexual harassment. The latest Cygnet Award is for supporting gender equity through increased talent attraction.
“Hiring and retaining diverse, talented people are key elements of Geoscience Australia’s recruitment process,” SAGE Executive Champion and Acting CEO Dr Andrew Heap said.
“We have implemented actions to improve gender representation, visibility and inclusivity in talent attraction and our recruitment operations.”
This includes minimising gendered language in job advertisements, the inclusion of supportive statements encouraging gender diverse people to apply, and a flexible and supportive employee value proposition.
Geoscience Australia’s decadal strategic plan, Strategy 2028, outlines the objective to foster a positive culture that is inclusive and supportive of everyone. The People and Culture Strategy 2028 outlines the organisation’s vision to achieve this through success through diversity, and actions under the strategy target the attraction, engagement and progression of diverse talent. Geoscience Australia is committed to advancing the careers of women, trans- and gender-diverse individuals, including achieving equity in decision-making forums.
“Feedback from recent recruitment processes shows increased confidence from women applying for positions at Geoscience Australia due to the changes we’ve made,” Dr Heap said.
SAGE CEO, Dr Janin Bredehoeft, said that the award demonstrates Geoscience Australia’s deep and ongoing commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
“By tackling their recruitment processes and improving the visibility of women, they made concrete impacts on the number of women applying for roles,” Dr Bredehoeft said.
“Along the way, they considered feedback from staff and the unique needs of different groups, showing they are willing to constantly adapt and improve. This is what the iterative SAGE process is all about.
“Congratulations to Geoscience Australia on continuing to be a leader in building workplace equity.”
Dr Heap said that Geoscience Australia joined SAGE in 2017 to build on efforts to improve gender equity, make their workplace more inclusive and to become a workplace of choice for outstanding Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professionals to their organisation. “We want our science organisation to be a place where people from all backgrounds can feel like they belong,” Dr Heap said.
Find out more
This is Geoscience Australia‘s fourth SAGE Cygnet Award, which builds on the work they did to achieve Athena Swan Bronze accreditation.
Access this downloadable PDF summary of their progress and impact to find out all about the barrier they were tackling, their actions, outcomes, impacts and next steps.
You can also read their full Cygnet Award application for all the details on what they did.
