Harmony Week across Main Roads
Main Roads Multicultural Plan, launched in December 2020, identifies new ideas to create an inclusive environment and it acknowledges work across Main Roads to meet the needs of our people who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD).
One celebration of our diversity was Harmony Week. To launch the week we created a detailed ‘Main Roads Harmony Week Cookbook’ capturing recipes and stories to showcase the many cultures of our people around the state. Other activities included:
- A photography competition with the theme ‘What harmony means to me’, with the winning entry used on the cover of the cookbook.
- Great Southern Region organised a craft activity where our people made flags of different countries represented in the workplace and then followed up with a lunch reflecting the cuisine of the many cultures at work.
- A number of areas held lunches featuring delicious food from many cultures and wore orange to acknowledge the week.
- One area conducted a daily quiz testing our people’s knowledge of food, traditions, flags and customs. A morning tea was held where quiz winners received certificates in a range of languages.
- The Network Operations team held a morning tea and introduced a new activity – the Diversity Map. Everyone in the directorate was invited to add their electronic pushpin to an interactive world map that was on display in a collaboration space. Each pin represents all the places the team come from, demonstrating the diversity of our colleagues, with nearly 100 pins reaching out across the map.
- We coordinated many of Perth’s iconic landmarks, including the Matagarup Bridge, Sky Ribbon, and Mount Street Bridge to be lit up orange to mark Harmony week.
- The CaLD Walking Trail was highlighted to our employees identifying local significant multicultural landmarks.
- A series of regional harmony week events were promoted via our internal communication channels to our people to get them involved in community-led diversity activities.
Our Multicultural Plan was developed in response to the Western Australian Multicultural Policy Framework. Key actions from the plan have been incorporated into our corporate business plans.
Our Diversity Facts
- We have employees from at least 57 countries around the world.
- Languages other than English spoken at home include Russian, Bengali, Spanish, Finnish, Vietnamese and Malay.
- Top 10 countries of origin include Malaysia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and India.
