The ROADS Foundation believes the key to retaining Aboriginal workforce lies in the layers of support that employers can provide to their workforce.We work closely with The Australian Indigenous Business Alliance Group (AIBAG) to support the Aboriginal apprentices/trainees we work with in partnership with their employer. AIBAG provides one on one pastoral care for the employees; covering family and personal issues that may be affecting attendance and retention.We also utilise AIBAG's knowledge in Cultural Awareness and Aboriginal Cultural Core Competency to deliver training to employers to ensure that their staff are given the tools required to not just understand the issues, but to build the organisations' capacity and ability to problem solve these long term issues.Leon Harris providing Cultural Awareness Training to new traineesWe spoke to Leon Harris, Chairman and Managing Director for AIBAG about his holistic view of Aboriginal employee support and what he believes more employers could be doing in this space.As momentum grows for businesses to employ more Aboriginal people, what do you see as the priorities for employers to retain a strong, loyal Aboriginal workforce? In essence - 'Tolerance'. Tolerance and understanding is the best platform to launch successful Aboriginal engagement strategies. Being 'understood ' is key for a happy Aboriginal workforce. Cultural awareness is an emotional roller coaster, but doesn't always link to key work core objectives. So often corporate Australia thinks that doing a simple cultural awareness session is going to be all that is required!If there is no tolerance and direct linkage of understanding through policies involving Aboriginal workforce, then maybe it's time to look at how effective your company's previous attempts have been around promotion of cultural awareness and previous mentoring initiatives.Many people ask why Aboriginal employees need additional support, why they aren't treated the same as everyone else. What is your view on this? Well I look at it as a completely different specialist area where you need to have the right industry professionals. For example, you wouldn't want a retail supervisor providing advice and supervision to a civil works road project. Different industries come with many different sub cultures, cultural differences and understandings. Aboriginal people are just that - a completely different area of specialist workforce with their own set of sub cultures, cultural differences and understandings. Aboriginal workforce need to have educated and proactive policies to better support not only the employee but also the employer.
