Inclusive Employment Forum: A Resounding Success
Last Tuesday, the Inclusion Solutions team proudly hosted a successful Inclusive Employment Forum at Beaumonde on the Point.
With approximately 150 attendees, the strong turnout highlighted the growing momentum and interest in creating more inclusive workplaces. This year’s forum was held as part of the GROW WA project, a broader initiative aimed at raising awareness, building skills, and empowering businesses, organisations, and individuals to foster welcoming, accessible environments for people with disability.
The day was jampacked with presentations, panel discussions and interactive activities with plenty of opportunities for networking, building connections and learning. The day started with a heartwarming Welcome to Country by Ingrid Cumming and opening remarks by the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, DR Peter Cook. The Inclusion Solutions team then followed with an engaging and interactive presentation dispelling the myths around Inclusive Employment.
Then, it was time to hear from our first two guest speakers: Aaron Le Page, Manager Portfolio and Change at Rio Tinto and Jodie Wild, Project Coordinator at Youth Disability Advocacy Network (YDAN). Aaron and Jodie are fierce advocates of inclusive employment practices within their organisations and both shared invaluable knowledge and experience with the attendees.
Aaron, a driving force behind Rio Tinto’s Neuroinclusion Intern Program, spoke passionately about promoting neurodiversity at Rio Tinto. Aaron shared many of their learnings setting up the internship program, which has successfully supported several interns into full-time employment or graduate programs.
Jodie brings both personal and professional insights into creating fair and accessible workplaces. Their speech touched on their own lived experience of burnout and the critical role leaders play in creating safe, proactive and supportive workspaces by prioritising clarity, flexibility, psychological safety, and strong change management.
Although speaking on separate topics, their presentation shared many common themes, such as the need for leaders to be flexible, open to learning, and adaptive.
Next on the agenda was a thought-provoking panel discussion with a carefully curated and diverse lineup of panelists consisting of:
- Lena Constantine, Executive Leader at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA
- Nerida Sleaman, Project Manager Australian Disability Network
- Courtney Rosato, Disability Inclusion Specialist at the City Of Fremantle
- Roslind Witham, Disability Employment Advocate
- Anthony Pyle, Community Engagement Facilitator
During the panel, we covered many subjects, such as how to make employees feel safe to disclose their disability and strategies to combat attitudinal barriers to examples of reasonable adjustments and inclusive performance reviews. It was great to hear so many perspectives and ideas on how we can create more disability-inclusive workplaces!
Disability inclusion in the workplace shouldn’t be something extraordinary that requires people to go above and beyond; disability inclusion in the workplace should be the norm! This was a strong message from our final speaker of the day, Kaygan Lane. Kaygan is a disability advocate and her talk touched on their journey into employment and the people who saw Kaygan’s potential and supported them on their journey.
“We shouldn’t require disabled people to be extraordinary just to exist in our workplaces”.
– Kaygan Lane
Even though our speakers and panelist spoke of many different aspects regarding inclusive employment, one (1) message was present throughout the day, “it’s not about being perfect; it’s about getting started“.
Thank you to the speakers, panelists and stallholders, who greatly enhanced the experience of this Inclusive Employment Forum. We also want to thank the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA, as well as Disability Assembly WA, for their support in making this event a success.
