Our People

Projects and activities planned for next financial year include:

• Meeting the challenge of attracting and retaining appropriately skilled employees
• Improving our recruitment strategy to better position us in the recruitment market
• Consolidating the Regional Engineering Associate Traineeship Program to help build a sustainable workforce in the regions
• Continuing a focus on increased Aboriginal employment and creating pathway programs beyond the traditional university stream
• Continuing workforce planning with a strong focus on providing the information to enable us to make strategic decisions for our future workforce and to ensure workforce capability is appropriate for changing expectations
• Continue to ensure the delivery of cultural awareness training to all new employees.

Our Workforce Profile

Get to know our people.

Developing Our People

We are committed to attracting capable people and developing their potential. We focus on building a highly skilled, professional and ethical workforce with the ability to adapt to changing business, technology and environmental needs.

We look to provide the best possible development opportunities including supporting people with nationally recognised qualifications either through fully funded or study assistance options. Due to COVID-19 disruption this year, some development options that involved face-to-face workshops were postponed however these will be delivered as early as possible next year. A greater emphasis on supporting staff wellness and resilience during challenging times was a feature of development options provided this year.

Learning Management System

LearningHub, our corporate learning management system is continuing to grow with the number of available e-Learning modules. We have more than 50 modules available - covering topics related to safety, environment, compliance, integrity and wellness.

This year the system was expanded to provide access to an external stakeholder group for the first time, enabling the Heavy Vehicle Auditor accreditation process to be brought in-house. Additional external contractor groups will also gain access in coming months.

New Regional Leadership Programs

A leadership development program with management teams from Mid West-Gascoyne commenced this year and features a combination of personal coaching and group workshops for individual self-awareness and team cohesion. Planning has commenced on the design of a new, cross-regional leadership program with an emphasis on identifying and supporting individuals with a commitment to a region and the potential to move into senior regional management roles over the next few years.

This will support our workforce planning process and lead to rewarding regional career pathways for our high potential future leaders.

Road Construction Training Program

A new contract was awarded to enable the continued delivery of training for maintenance and project delivery staff and our development employees. This training provides the underpinning knowledge to support the supervision and management of works contracts. Further work is planned once new maintenance delivery teams are appointed to identify any skills gaps that can be addressed through our road construction training contract.

Cultural Awareness Training

The Walking Together in Partnership brings greater understanding of Aboriginal people's culture and the commitments of our Reconciliation Action Plan and has now been delivered to 260 regional participants. The one-day workshops were conducted with a local perspective component within each region; perspectives were culturally tailored giving consideration to each area's own local, unique, and diverse communities. The trainers worked together with local Elders to provide an immersive learning program which took participants through a journey exploring non-Aboriginal thinking, traditional culture, and its relevance, and keys to cultural competence and ultural safety.

Following the successful cultural awareness training to 848 of our employees across the metropolitan area, a final celebration was conducted by Sister Kate's Home Kids Aboriginal Corporation. We were presented with a triptych Aboriginal painting that all our staff had contributed to during their training experience. Commissioner and the Minister for Transport were also presented with their own 'booka' or decorated kangaroo 'yongah' skin cloak traditionally worn by Noongar peoples during performances or for warmth.

Face-to-face cultural awareness training was also planned for graduates and trainees followed by an Aboriginal cultural tour with Noongar Elder Mervyn Abraham of Warrang-Bridil Enlighten to Acknowledge, which also includes a walk by the shores of Derbal Yerrigan, the Swan River.

Diversity and Inclusion

We encourage and recognise that a diverse workforce is integral to our success and value the unique blend of knowledge, skills and perspectives people bring to the workplace. This includes diversity of cultural background, ethnicity, age, gender, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, language and education.

Our Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Management Plan focuses on six priority areas to increase engagement and representation of:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• Women
• People with disability
• Youth
• People from culturally diverse backgrounds
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+).

Employment Opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

We continue to demonstrate our commitment to create employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in both metropolitan and regional localities.

In utilising the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are prioritised throughout key recruitment campaigns, we have successfully deployed several recruitment actions under section 51 and 50D of the Act to recruit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for entry level to senior roles across the Kimberley, Metropolitan and Goldfields-Esperance regions.

We continue to work with our internal and external stakeholders to create culturally secure recruitment campaigns so these outcomes can be replicated in our other regions.

Reconciliation Action Plan 2021-2023

We continue to deliver initiatives from our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 'The Road to Jobs and Business Opportunities'. In support of the government's Aboriginal participation policy, our Aboriginal Advisory and working groups are implementing Aboriginal engagement initiatives for procuring goods and services from Aboriginal businesses and engaging Aboriginal groups in design, construction and maintenance activities related to road infrastructure projects. We have an agency wide commitment to achieving the RAP actions. However, we are also focussing our attention on what we can do to increase our direct Aboriginal employment and to support employees who are already with us.

Some of our successful achievements are:

• Development of our Aboriginal Employment and Retention Plan 2021-24 which works to improve the level of direct employment and meaningful Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment and training opportunities. Four Aboriginal people were appointed as engineering associate trainees, three Aboriginal people appointed in trainee roles and three senior Aboriginal people appointed in identified positions to undertake Aboriginal Engagement roles.
• The development of the Mentoring for Aboriginal Peoples Program where we have arranged an Aboriginal provider AIBAG to provide an Elder to mentor Aboriginal employees as when required.
• Cultural Leave awareness and inclusion in job adverts to attract applicants.
• Our provider People Sense liaise with us to request cultural advice to assist them to support Aboriginal employees as part of our Culturally Relative Employee Assistance Program.
• Aboriginal Mental Health will be embedded into our Mental Health and Wellbeing Action Plan.

A copy of our RAP and regular updates are available on our website.

National Reconciliation Week 2022 - Be Brave Make a Change

To celebrate National Reconciliation Week 2022, we shared a series of stories on our internal website to highlight our involvement and achievements in the reconciliation space through various initiatives and our Aboriginal Participation and Engagement teams. The Office of Major Transport Infrastructure Delivery held a range of activities throughout the week, including a Welcome to Country with didgeridoo and dancing by Mungart Yongah as well as short videos on respect featuring ceremony understanding, the importance of the Mabo Decision made 30 years ago. Once again, we participated in and supported the unique state-wide initiative, supporting the annual National Reconciliation Week Street Banner Project, where hundreds of banners are displayed in prominent locations across Western Australia to celebrate National Reconciliation Week. The 2022 banner features artwork Karlamilyi - My Mother's Country by Narlene Waddaman, a Nyangumarta woman from Kariyarra country, South Hedland.

NAIDOC 2021

A bush medicine event celebrated the theme Heal Country, which highlighted the need to seek greater protections for lands, waters, sacred sites and cultural heritage. Noongar Elders Vivienne and Mort Hansen did the Welcome to Country and a bush medicine presentation. The event finished with Indigenous inspired food.

Women in Leadership

We continue our focus on attracting, retaining, and developing women for greater representation in technical and leadership positions. We recognise that women in positions of influence will lead to increasing numbers of women in leadership. International Women's Day 2022 was promoted with senior managers interviewed about their perspective on the importance of women in leadership and their advice on career development, challenges faced and management of work-life balance. International Women in Engineering Day on 23 June, was an opportunity for us to acknowledge and celebrate our female engineers.

Women's Engineering Society figures show that only 16 per cent of engineers are women, Engineers Australia says the national average of female engineers across the Australian workforce is 12 per cent while at Main Roads 17 per cent of our engineers are women. While we still have a long way to go, this is a good start.

Becoming Disability Recruitment Confident

As part of our commitment to the People with Disability Action Plan to Improve WA Public Sector Employment Outcomes 2020-2025, we have commenced the accreditation process to become a Disability Confident Recruiter. With the support of the Australian Disability Network, this review will ensure all barriers to attracting, employing and retaining people with a disability are removed throughout our recruitment processes.

The review also provides an opportunity for the internal recruitment team and key hiring managers to improve their attraction and selection techniques to promote best practice in promoting inclusivity. The Disability Confident Recruiter accreditation action is in addition to our involvement in the Public Sector Interagency Building the Talent Pool project, which also supports the continual review of our recruitment practices to ensure disability employment confidence and improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities.

Multicultural Diversity

As part of the Western Australian public sector, we are committed to support the capacity and contribution of people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds.

We have 1,221 employees, with just over 16 per cent being culturally diverse and we continue to progress with our action plan to raise awareness and promote the benefits of a culturally diverse workforce. Staff across the state proudly wore orange, to show their support for Harmony Week 2022 to celebrate our vibrant multicultural community.

LGBTQIA+ Inclusion

In the pursuit of best practice of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) inclusion and the attraction and retention of talent through the adoption of progressive inclusive policy, practice and behaviours, we have committed to an Annual Corporate Membership with Pride in Diversity. The benefits include professional LGBTQIA+ support, and LGBTQIA+ awareness training for staff and networking events. We have appointed an Executive Champion for LGBTQIA+ to promote awareness and inclusion of the theme of being your authentic self.

The International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobias (IDAHOBIT) is all about inclusion. To show support for and demonstrate the type of organisation we want to be, this year we produced a short video with personal messages from our people to support IDAHOBIT and LGBTQIA+ inclusion. We also created an internal website which includes information, useful links and videos on LGBTQIA+ inclusion.