As part of Talenza’s NAIDOC Week celebrations, we wanted to amplify the voices of our First Nations communities and spark meaningful conversations.

One topic that came up again and again was Indigenised Recruitment. To dive deeper into the discussion, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to host a conversation with Leroy Maher, Managing Director of Dhiira. 

With a seven-year background in banking and finance, Leroy is the oldest of a generation with 12 siblings, countless cousins and a cultural obligation to lead by example. Leroy not only shared his valuable insights but also answered some of our community's burning questions.

This conversation is simply the beginning - an opportunity to ‘open the doorway’, to start thinking more critically and engage with the questions we have in this space.

Time to Tidy Up

Four years ago, after noticing differences in how Aboriginal organisations were running their HR versus mainstream organisations, Leroy founded his company Dhiira. His intention was to transform the policy landscape and discover how Aboriginal recruitment can exist inside mainstream settings.

It’s all about Indigenised Recruitment. If you’re trying to look that up in the dictionary … well, you won’t find it. 

The term was coined by Leroy himself and encompasses the idea of indigenising concepts. It’s basically the term for asking how do our strategies, our concepts, our techniques fit the unique needs of the Indigenous population?

Currently in its consulting era, Dhiira aims to raise awareness and develop strategies to combine Aboriginal ways of doing, thinking and being with mainstream recruitment. 

You wouldn’t welcome guests into your home without tidying up first - why shouldn’t we be doing the same for our EVPs and recruitment policies before reaching out to Aboriginal candidates? Leroy encourages us to consider how our EVPs currently encompass Aboriginal candidates. Are we considering specific cultural leave? Are we even actively recruiting within this demographic or have access to Aboriginal employee networks?.

We need to consider our language and imagery used on job adverts, the platforms we share them on, application assessments, interview processes and even communication nuances like silence. Especially in interviews, where we look for ‘sharp, hard and fast responses’, silence can be seen as a negative thing. For the Aboriginal community, silence means ‘I’m deeply considering what you’re trying to say and curate the right response’. Understanding and aligning with the nuances and subtle differences of the community allows us to create ‘true value and true meaning for Aboriginal employees to work successfully in organisations’

As Leroy pointed out, ‘we’re not talking about quality-based recruitment, we are talking about equity-based recruitment’ - considering these nuances isn’t about creating ‘special entry pathways’ but accommodating unique needs.

Check Your Peripherals

How can companies avoid unconscious bias in their job descriptions?

The short answer - well, there isn’t one. It’s all about having the right people guiding the work. 

Dhiira is one such example. They help organisations to evaluate their HR policies and ‘look for cultural considerations that might not be there’. If they are there, how can they be strengthened and modernised to meet the current and unique needs of this ever evolving conversation?

Leroy has discovered that often when his corporate clients conduct these evaluations and identify their cultural barriers, the main issue is not having an Aboriginal person actually involved in the evaluations. If they don’t have someone on board who understands the nuances of indigenised recruitment, how can they expect to see them?

Pulling out another killer metaphor, Leroy thinks of a nuance as a horse with blinkers. A horse can’t see in their peripherals (like the nuances the non-Indigenous community can’t see). They need something to show others where they’re going, just like organisations need Aboriginal partners to help develop content in order to see and understand cultural differences - it’s about having ‘the right sphere of people that can guide you’.

If we want to combat bias in our job descriptions, we need to do it on a case-by-case basis. We need to consider the language used and, more broadly, the ideal candidate we’re showcasing in our recruitment process. If companies are looking to find a ‘black version of the mainstream ideal candidate’, it’s about reframing and retraining our descriptions to target the preferred talent pool.

It’s time create a RAP

We’re not talking about crafting a masterpiece Marshall Matters would be proud of. We’re talking about a Reconciliation Action Plan.

An RAP, which is governed by Reconciliation Australia, is essentially a blueprint ‘to mobilise corporate action’ and develop a solid strategy to improve employment prospects for Indigenous people.

There are four types of RAP.

• Reflect - reflecting on what you are and aren’t doing. Essentially it’s a stocktake of your sphere of influence. How is your procurement, your policies, your employment opportunities, your buying and your partnerships supporting the Aboriginal community? Remember, we need to get our houses tidy before we welcome guests!
• Innovate - how can you innovate your practices and put them into action? In terms of Aboriginal employment, this is where you engage consultants, the community and ‘start to pull the trigger’.
• Stretch - 'stretching the impact’. At this point you’ve hired Aboriginal people, spent money with Aboriginal businesses and engaged with communities. How do you keep growing that impact over the next three years? The key is long-term strategies that can be embedded into the organisation and end up becoming ‘business as usual’.
• Elevate - now let’s start making an immense impact. There is where you have Aboriginal people come on board in specialised or new-to-market roles.

The reality is you don’t need to strictly follow the Reconciliation Australia guidelines to have an amazing RAP (especially for the little guys). Reaching out to the right people, having those conversations and bringing strategies to life is what it’s really all about.

Marketing Money Can't Buy

At the heart of it all is reconciliation. 

Reconciliation is all about ‘reconciling the books, reconciling the narrative’. Not only do we need to be inclusive, we need to work with First Nations people to also understand why we need to be aware of inclusivity.

It’s about asking questions around cultural safety and cultural responsiveness. We might make the effort to employ 100 Aboriginal people over the next five years, but if they’re having bad experiences within the organisation, what’s the point? We want Aboriginal employees to have good experiences. Good experiences lead them to being advocates for your organisation in the community - that’s marketing money can’t buy.

Want to hear our full discussion with Leroy (we’d highly recommend it)? Click here to watch the full webinar.