Cultivating a socially sustainable workforce is essential for organisations aiming to address the needs of the present while ensuring that future requirements are not compromised. Social sustainability can boost productivity and engagement, enhance brand appeal, promote innovation, secure supply chains and decrease regulatory, workforce, financial and reputational risks.
To explore how in-house legal teams can build socially sustainable workforces, Ashurst Reach – together with the Association of Corporate Counsel Australia (ACC) – recently ran our third national roundtable series. The participants represented a broad range of sectors and legal team sizes. These sessions provided great insights into the most highly valued social sustainability factors and focused on four key areas: culture, hiring practices, personal development and training, and DEI.
Most-valued social sustainability factors
Roundtable participants were asked to rank their most valued social sustainability factors through a short survey. In the Perth, Sydney and Brisbane sessions, workplace safety was most highly valued and in Melbourne, work-life balance topped the list. Ranking second in Melbourne and Brisbane was health and wellbeing, in Perth it was work-life balance, and in Sydney the group was equally split between health and wellbeing and work-life balance. Across the country, upskilling and DEI initiatives were also highly valued.
The key takeaways
In the corporate setting, social sustainability is underpinned by culture and effective leadership. It was clear from the roundtables that sustainable cultures are built through communication of values and guiding employees on where their purpose fits in that context. But there was also significant participant emphasis on the importance of respecting people's lives outside of work.
Regarding hiring practices it was particularly interesting how different organisations are tackling conscious and unconscious bias. From re-examining language in job ads to re-imagined approaches to interviewing, it was clear from each roundtable that the universal goal was to tear down barriers so that all candidates hired are the best candidates for the role.
Personal development and training was agreed to be fundamental across all roundtables. Regardless of whether that meant boosting inherent skills like critical thinking or investing in the skills of tomorrow, the consensus was that creative approaches garnered the best results.
DEI remains a significant issue for many teams. Disappointingly there remained anecdotes shared regarding gender, racial and age-related blind spots. However a key theme continually raised throughout each topic was how we can make a difference as managers and colleagues, but also as people.
The full report is available here.
Ashurst Reach is a flexible legal resource offering, giving in-house teams access to our talented panel of contract lawyers. If you'd like to learn more, please contact Linda Grace.
Linda Grace
Partner & Practice Head – Ashurst Reach
+61 3 9679 3127
linda.grace@ashurst.com.au