Staff Wellbeing Now the Top Driver for Diversity and Inclusion in Australia, Global Research from Workday Reveals

Workday Global Diversity Survey Shows Almost All Large Australian Organisations Have Diversity Initiatives In Place

SYDNEY, March 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ --  Workday, Inc (NASDAQ: WDAY), a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today announced the results of its latest global study titled Global Blueprint for Belonging and Diversity, which found improving staff well-being (46%) is now the top driver for DEI in Australian organisations, surpassing the need to attract and recruit a diverse workforce (43%). The global study surveyed 2,600 business leaders – including CEOs and leaders from HR, finance, IT, and sales – globally, including in Australia.

This comes as more Australian businesses than ever are prioritising DEI. Three-quarters (74%) report DEI has become more important in the past year, and 83% of organisations now have a budget for DEI, up from 69% in 2022.

Almost all Australian respondents (97%) now have at least one DEI initiative in place, and many are seeing the results. The survey found that 72% have seen an increase in belonging and inclusion and 71% in representation since investing in these areas. One-half (51%) even report a boost in profitability.

"In recent years, DEI has gone from a 'nice to have' to a priority invested in by Australian businesses," said Jo-Anne Ruhl, managing director and vice president of Workday ANZ. "Australian organisations are moving to a point of maturity in their DEI approach now that they have a strong foundation. There's potential to do more with a strategic, technology-enabled approach, using emerging tools like AI to track progress, and ultimately create people-driven change."

While more than half (58%) of respondents say they're making progress on DEI, just one-in-10 (9%) rate their performance as good. To move to the next stage of maturity, Australian organisations say there needs to be more than just budget – they need a clear strategy, with DEI metrics included as a core part of corporate KPIs (42%), a shared vision and understanding of the business case for DEI (38%), and leadership and commitment from the top (37%).

Technology is Enabling Change – including AI

Almost all Australians (96%) deploy technology to support DEI initiatives, with emerging technologies like AI used to support DEI tracking and data collection. Three in five (82%) say the bias mitigation features of AI-enabled tools have helped with promotion discussions, 80% for performance development, and 75% for hiring, all areas where it's critical to reduce bias.

Although there can be difficulties putting the right systems in place to capture DEI data, doing so can make a big difference according to the survey. Two thirds (66%) say recording DEI is a challenge because new systems and software are needed to manage it, but the majority (68%) with systems in place trust their organisation's DEI data.

For additional information:

Download the report, Global Blueprint for Belonging and Diversity.

About the research

The study was conducted by Sapio Research and Workday among over 2,600 HR professionals and business leaders with influence over DEI in their organisations across 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and US.  

The interviews were conducted online by Sapio Research in September 2023 using an email invitation and an online survey.

About Workday

Workday is a leading enterprise platform that helps organizations manage their most important assets – their people and money. The Workday platform is built with AI at the core to help customers elevate people, supercharge work, and move their business forever forward. Workday is used by more than 10,000 organizations around the world and across industries – from medium-sized businesses to more than 50% of the Fortune 500. For more information about Workday, visit workday.com.

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