Event Wrap: How DES providers can work with Australia Post

Australia Post is one of the oldest and most iconic organisations in the country, servicing communities across Australia for over 200 years. With an ongoing commitment to connecting Disability Employment Services (DES) providers with employers, JobAccess hosted a webinar on how DES providers can secure positions for their clients with Australia Post.

JobAccess General Manager Daniel Valiente-Riedl welcomed the 260+ participants and highlighted Australia Post’s commitment to disability employment.

“We are delighted to count Australia Post as a long-standing Alumni partner of our Employment Engagement service, the National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (NDRC). Alumni are organisations that have completed the one-year partnership with the NDRC and are great examples of disability inclusive employers,” Daniel said.

As part of one of the biggest recruitment drives in their history, Australia Post wanted to use this session to encourage DES candidates to apply. As a Disability Confident Recruiter with almost 5,000 positions to fill this year, there has never been a better time for people with disability to join Australia Post.

Daniel added, “Australia Post knows that the right person for the right job may just be a person with disability. They had decided to partner with us to make sure that disability and employment efforts are sustainable in the long term.”

A whole-of-business approach

In her opening remarks, Australia Post Diversity and Inclusion Partner Sharon Carroll talked about Australia Post’s Accessibility and Inclusion Plan and its main focus areas. “Our plan is a whole-of-business approach, to create not just an accessible workplace but also products, services and places in the community,” she said. “Our goal is to make Australia Post accessible to everyone.”

This is particularly important in terms of their recruitment and employment strategy. “We are very proud of our recent achievement in becoming Australia's largest Disability Confident Recruiter within the Australian network on disability,” Sharon continued.

Dedicated recruiters make for an inclusive process

Australia Post’s Head of Talent Acquisition, People and Culture Julie Duncan talked about how her team supports applicants with disability.

“A recruitment process is only as good as the recruiters who are leading it, which is why it is so important that our group of eighty recruiters feel as passionate as us that our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive and that we are opening up opportunities for more and more people with disability,” Julie opened, before elaborating on how the recruitment process works at Australia Post.

“First and foremost, we ask all of our candidates to apply online from our careers site. It’s important that (DES providers) working with their clients let them know that they have the option to tell us that they are a person with disability. This immediately triggers a different process for the recruiters and makes them pick up the phone and have a conversation with the candidate on whether or not any adjustments are required to help the candidate be successful through the assessment process, interview and onboarding.”

Reaching out is key

As a key takeaway, Julie recommended that DES providers familiarise themselves with the Australia Post jobs website and get in touch with the inclusion team at inclusivecareers@auspost.com.au.

She also stressed, “The best thing you can do for your clients is to encourage them to declare that they have disability during the application process, if they are comfortable doing that. We call people with disability priority candidates, but we cannot act on that if we don’t know.”
“They can of course also identify at a later point, after applying, or even after joining,” Julie added.

Sharon agreed. “During the recruitment process, we will ask about adjustments multiple times, and that’s because we really want to know. We’re not an organisation that would rather people don’t tell us they need adjustments.”

The webinar concluded with insightful questions from attendees, including some who had already placed clients with Australia Post.

Last updated: 3 November 2021 - 9:21am