Social enterprise sets standard for workforce diversity
A CQUniversity research project is showcasing diverse workforces in Queensland’s social enterprises and setting a new standard for inclusive employment in business and industry.
The groundbreaking work with Queensland Social Enterprise Council (QSEC) informs Diverse Workforces, a new online resource launched at CQUniversity Brisbane on June 5.
Social enterprises leaders who had participated in the research, CQUniversity lead researcher and Sustainable Innovation academic Professor Olav Muurlink, and QSEC CEO Adele Laughton all presented at the event.
Ms Laughton said the Diverse Workforces project highlighted the huge benefits of supportive, inclusive workplaces.
“This is a practical new resource championing inclusive employment across all sectors, with social enterprise leading the way,” she said.
“A diverse team isn’t just good for society – it’s great for business.
“Bringing together people from different backgrounds, skills and experiences helps organisations connect with more customers, solve problems creatively and adapt to change - and in this project we’ve heard that time and again from our social enterprise leaders and employees."
CQU Office of Social Innovation Program Manager Steve Williams worked with social enterprises to develop the resource case studies.
“This project has shown just how life-changing a job in a social enterprise can be for people who have been shut out of traditional roles…but more than that, it highlights that all employers can apply these inclusive, supportive practices in their workplaces and it won’t just benefit the person who takes a new role,” Mr Williams said.
At the launch, CEO of Toowoomba’s Ability Enterprises Claire Torkington and General Manager of Brisbane-based Fruit2Work Simon Fenech, both shared their experiences for the research, and in case studies for the Diverse Workforces platform.
Transcript
My name is Simon Fenech and I am the general manager for Fruit2Work Australia.
Fruit2Work creates meaningful employment for people who have come out of the justice system. It is not just employment we have wraparound supports in place we have programs in place it is it is all about building a better you and transitioning into the community as a returning citizen.
So as as part of the the program at Fruit2Work we actually go inside of of the prisons and and present at employment expose we build relationships with the justice system we have parole officers and and community corrections that contact us to say "Hey we have candidates."
Or we also speak to employment providers and say "Who have you got on your books with criminal history?" So the the idea of the transitional employment is for people to join fruit to work they could stay 3 months they could stay 6 months the idea is to help upskill them with skills that they they've never had before or skills that they've just been rusty on and and ideally they would transition out of Fruit2Work and into full-time employment or they could transition within Fruit2Work they could start in the warehouse as a pickp packer and then move on to uh admin or business development wherever we can uh build a better version of of that individual uh we we will we will put that person in into that place so so fruit to work is transitional employment people might stay 3, 6, 9 months, they might stay forever they might transition within the business ideally they would uh move on to greener pastures and and transition back into the community as returning citizens going into full-time work.
I'm Cassie and I do administration. So Busy Ability my employment agency referred me for the job so I look after all of the admin side so all the customer service um so when the customers come on I put them through the system get them all sorted and any issues and stuff they have during their time with us come to me Fruit2Work aligned with all of my values and what I was looking for after being incarcerated every day is challenging um I love that we create chances for people and it it's given me a chance and a new lease on life as a growing social enterprise we we've made um a lot of great business decisions but um I think the biggest one was the expansion uh the expansion over five different sites and making opportunities uh for people just like me with lived experience so ideally to to have candidates succeed Fruit2Work has a program called building a better you which deals with loss worry rejection addiction it is it is all about upskilling people to deal with everyday life as they return to the comm the community as returning citizens.
Hi I'm Rebecca i am the business development manager here at Fruit2Work my role specifically is to create some visibility here in Queensland we're new to Queensland so uh I guess networking going out to different um networking events talking about what our mission here at Fruit2Work is and also more importantly generating sales um for businesses to purchase our fruit and milk so that we can increase our employment hours so the benefit of the of employing people from a diverse background for any social enterprise is the saving to the community specifically here we target um a particular group of individuals which are people who've been impacted by the justice system.
The recidivism rate here in Queensland is 50% so every two individuals that come out of prison one will go back. Here at Fruit2Work we've managed to um over the last 8 years employ 130 staff and transition them out into the community and currently employ 130, and no one in the eight years has gone back to prison.
So we've we've considerably reduced that recidivism rate here just at fruit to work alone ideally we we really get the message across that it is safe to employ people with criminal history people do change they can change and they do want something different for themselves a pro a pro diversity approach for for other businesses is to give people with criminal history an opportunity it gives them a chance to reintegrate back into the soci society and gives them a second chance at life [Music]
Prof Muurlink’s report Managing Workforce Diversity: Social Enterprises as an Exemplar, written with Office of Social Innovation researcher Ruby Smith, explores how social enterprises lead the way in creating inclusive and successful workplaces.
CQUniversity’s Office of Social Innovation led the project, connecting with social enterprise leaders and workers across Queensland.
The platform features resources and case studies with Fruit2Work and Ability Enterprises, as well as Impact Community Services (Bundaberg) and Indigenous-owned enterprises Bama (Cairns).
CQUniversity is Australia’s first and only social enterprise university, certified by national peak body Social Traders.
Learn more about Social Innovation at CQUniversity.
