Brandon Engineering is a privately owned business providing engineering consulting with offices in Toowoomba, Chinchilla and Roma.
Historically Chinchilla and Roma offices have found it particularly difficult to find staff, and with the current skills shortage, it has been even more challenging.
When Business Manager, Ken Murphy, became aware of the Workforce Evolve program, he saw this as an opportunity to check in with current practices for new ideas or practices to help Brandon Engineering continue to diversify its workforce and ensure they were up-to-date with current workplace practices.
“Diversity and inclusivity in the workplace is something our business is particularly interested in, and the more I investigated what Workforce Evolve offered, the more I wanted to complete it,” Ken said.
“Skilled migrants have played a significant part filling our workforce gaps, our workforce profile is male dominated which is on trend for the Engineering profession. We are proud to say that we do employ a few women and skilled migrants.”
Ken identified the opportunities that Workforce Evolve presented as twofold:
- Reinforce that Brandon was already doing things in the right way.
- Explore opportunities or ideas to do things differently to improve current practices.
“I had a few light bulb moments throughout the course,” Ken said.
“One of those related to advertising and our employer value proposition. We have a diverse workforce – which we celebrate – but we don’t include a diversity and inclusion statement in our employment ads. We often get calls from overseas candidates asking if we employ non-Australians and realised that if candidates are having to ask us then we haven’t been explicit in our advertising.”
Upon completion of this module, Ken’s team went about updating their website content to draw attention to their diverse culture by adding photos, celebrations of current work practices, and results from their annual employee survey.
“Although we do this naturally, it didn’t occur to us to communicate this. And the course made me realise that it really matters and makes a difference. So, we made a few simple changes to our website and our job adverts. Our philosophy is that if you have the right skills and experience then apply – we genuinely welcome you to our workplace and into our broader community,” he said.
Ken found the modules to be practical and easy to complete, reinforcing a lot of what he already knew but providing prompts and inspiration for what the business could be doing better.
“For example, we are about to start advertising, and I was able to apply the knowledge I had gained for Workforce Evolve to modify the ads to include a D&I focus, and showcase our workplace culture and benefits, hopefully making us more attractive to candidates” he said.
“As we are a regional business housing is an ongoing issue – we offer relocation and support staff to find accommodation, often putting them up until they find something.
As a regional employer we are aware that people relocating to the regions may have concerns about how they will be accepted within the community, we want to reassure people they can feel safe, and they will be accepted.
Ken completed his Workforce Evolve learning via the flexible online platform, allowing him to do so when he was able to find the time in his busy schedule during the workday and into the evening.
“There were plenty of good resources within the program, some of which I’ve been able to use now and some for future reference”, Ken said.
In summing up the value the program, Ken said: “The word that comes to mind when I think of Workforce Evolve is refreshing and I recommend the program to other small businesses”.
