Video: 10 Minute IT Jams – Aussie Broadband talks workplace diversity

Diversity at work is more than a buzzword for Australian internet company Aussie Broadband. Its General Manager of Corporate Affairs, Janet Granger Wilcox, has shared the organisation's hands-on approach to diversity and inclusion, shedding light on why it matters and how it translates into everyday business.

"Diversity provides better business decisions and ... value to the business in dollar terms," said Granger Wilcox. However, she emphasised that the benefits go far deeper. "We serve a diverse customer base, and to do that, it's helpful for us to have a diverse staff. We understand exactly where our customers are coming from," she said.

Based in regional Victoria but serving the whole country, Aussie Broadband has earned accolades for its commitment to inclusion. For the company, diversity isn't only a strategic imperative, but an ethical one. "We have a very strong philosophy about being good to people and being able to bring your whole self to work," Granger Wilcox explained. Inclusion and diversity, she noted, "go hand in hand".

She underscored the importance of making staff feel free to be themselves, citing research that found hiding core parts of one's identity can sap as much as 30 percent of a person's productivity. "You can't have a water cooler chat about what you did on the weekend, and you're constantly self-editing what you're saying and what you do," she said. "I don't want anybody at Aussie Broadband to feel that way. ... That's no way to be at work when work takes up such a large part of your life."

Aussie Broadband won an award for its diversity initiatives, a recognition that reflects a deep-seated approach rather than a tick-box exercise. "Get really clear on why you want to do it," Granger Wilcox advised. For Aussie Broadband, "being good to people" is so important it's written into one of the company's five guiding values. These are not just words to hang on a wall, she explained, but are used to make everyday business decisions.

Other companies, she suggested, should start with clarity from the top. "The first step for anybody who wants to pursue this is to get very clear from a senior leadership team level down about why you want to do this," she said.

Aussie Broadband favours practical action over bureaucracy. "I'm not a big fan of strategies and targets and all that kind of stuff," Granger Wilcox said. She feels that such approaches can be "a really slow way to do things". Instead, "for us it's all about the small stuff … we take small steps wherever we can see them to improve inclusion and diversity in our company".

This includes everything from reviewing job adverts to ensure gender-neutral language, to visibly displaying LGBTIQ+ and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at their head office. "It's just, we try and embed it everywhere in the organisation rather than going for a large strategy and large targets … it's everyday life at Aussie," she said.

The commitment is visible even in the heart of Latrobe Valley's industrial zone, where the company's office stands out with its colourful flags. "You don't see too many rainbow or Torres Strait Islander or Indigenous flags in the industrial area of the Latrobe Valley … it's a bit of a statement," she said. Yet, statements are not the be-all and end-all. The business also invests in training – through its "Be Good to People" modules – covering multiculturalism, LGBTIQ+ inclusion, and disability awareness.

Strategic sponsorships support gender initiatives such as "women into tech", and the impact is tangible. "When I first started at Aussie, I could walk down one end of the building where all the tech support was provided and I'd raise the oestrogen content by 100 percent just walking through the door," Granger Wilcox joked. Now, she estimates women account for between 30 and 40 percent of the tech support team, including senior managers. "It really didn't take much for us to start to shift that, and look where we are today," she added.

Aussie Broadband also gives back to its wider community, supporting disability shadow job programs in Gippsland and offering roles to long-term unemployed people in an area still in transition after the decline of coal mining. "We do a pile of work … to support longer unemployed people into roles with our call centres as well," said Granger Wilcox.

Attraction and retention of diverse talent, she explained, rests on being publicly visible and vocal. "Part of it is making sure that we're visible and public about this sort of stuff," she said. "We attend Midsumma Festival in Melbourne and make sure that the LGBTIQ+ community know that we're a safe place to work … we do social media, all of those sorts of things to attract diverse talent to the company."

The company has also had to stand firm in the face of racism. "All of our staff are Australian-based. They don't all have Australian accents... some customers expect an Australian accent on the other end of the phone. That's not what Australia is," she said. "We actually had to take a stand around racism against our staff and said that we wouldn't put up with that."

Staff engagement, Granger Wilcox insisted, comes from grassroots involvement. "Everything that we do is driven from a staff working group … we've really got kind of grassroots level staff involvement in the actions we take," she said. The use of Slack channels across the company, especially during remote working periods, ensures that staff across all backgrounds can communicate their needs and ideas. "We try and make sure that all of our activity is driven by staff and that staff have the opportunity to have their say in it," she said. "Engagement is not much more than that … it just has to be making sure that you consult with people and that they have a chance to have a say."

Asked what it is like to work there, Granger Wilcox was emphatic. "Aussie Broadband sounds like a fantastic place to work," she said – and there is little to suggest otherwise. For her, the heart of the company's approach is simple: "Be good to people."