EQUITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT – 2007

Section 3.1: Recruitment & Selection

The Bank’s recruitment policy and guidelines integrate equity and diversity principles into the specific goals and strategies. This helps ensure that the Bank continues to attract high calibre candidates to its graduate, cadetship and traineeship recruitment programs. A key aspect of the recruitment policy includes an equitable approach to selection of candidates; including from groups under-represented in the Bank’s staffing profile. The Bank uses a range of merit recruitment strategies to attract and select a diverse field of applicants.

Several initiatives have been implemented this year addressing equity and diversity in recruitment. Recruitment and selection processes were reviewed and changes were made to ensure continued compliance with anti-discrimination legislation. The content and mode of delivery of the Selection Panel Guidelines have been revised to allow discussion of equity issues and employment needs of specific organisational areas.

There has been a continuing emphasis on attracting more female candidates to the Bank. The Graduate Development Program is still the main avenue to attract qualified women into professional and management positions in departments. The Bank has continued its participation in The Australasian Graduate Recruitment Benchmarking Survey which assists in ensuring the Bank is well informed on best practice attraction strategies.

The Bank promotes a range of methods to invite applications from candidates who might not otherwise think of applying for work at the Bank. This year, on-line recruitment has featured more prominently as a medium to attract employees, with an increase in the use of internet job boards. Traditional methods also continue to be used to ensure that the largest possible pool of potential applicants is tapped. In order to broaden the pool of candidates for the Traineeship Program, various sources were used including relevant recruitment agencies, TAFE colleges, the internet and employment agencies representing people with disabilities and Indigenous Australians.

Additional options for recruiting more Indigenous Australians at Head Office and the business recovery site were also investigated. During the next reporting period, the Bank intends to reconsider the Commonwealth Indigenous Cadetship Program as an additional way of targeting Indigenous Australians for employment opportunities within the Bank. The Bank continues to maintain a designated traineeship position with mentoring support and will be investigating further avenues to source applicants via the Indigenous Education Program at a number of NSW high schools.