Ali Wastie By Catherine Watson
RECENTLY some 40 senior council staff gathered to watch a series of short films about LGBTQI people living in Bass Coast. Co-hosted by council CEO Ali Wastie and Cr Geoff Ellis, the films were the centrepiece of a workshop for staff to discuss how they could make their workplace more welcoming for people of diverse sexualities and genders.
Ms Wastie told staff she wanted the council to celebrate and welcome LGBTQI members of the community, and to send a positive signal to employees who identify as LGBTQI that they could “bring their full selves to work”.
The Post asked her to elaborate.
RECENTLY some 40 senior council staff gathered to watch a series of short films about LGBTQI people living in Bass Coast. Co-hosted by council CEO Ali Wastie and Cr Geoff Ellis, the films were the centrepiece of a workshop for staff to discuss how they could make their workplace more welcoming for people of diverse sexualities and genders.
Ms Wastie told staff she wanted the council to celebrate and welcome LGBTQI members of the community, and to send a positive signal to employees who identify as LGBTQI that they could “bring their full selves to work”.
The Post asked her to elaborate.
Post: A lot of ratepayers would say we can’t afford this sort of nonsense – reconciliation, diversity, inclusion – and it’s no business of the council anyway.
Ali Wastie: My answer’s quite simple. We can’t afford not to do it. If I looked at it purely from a financial, productivity, hard-edged perspective, that would be very limited but it would still make sense to do it. From a productivity perspective, if people are fully engaged at work, if they feel respected, if they feel the organisation is supportive both personally and professionally, they will give more to the organisation. You will get it back in spades. More engaged staff put in extra. Organisations with high engagement levels have less unplanned sick leave, lower employee turnover and people recommend their organisation as a good place to work. A happy healthy workforce is a productive workforce.
Post: What do you mean by “bringing your full self to work”? Give me some examples.
Ali Wastie: There’s that old school way of thinking: when you come to work you leave your personal stuff at the door and you’re just at work. I want our staff to bring their full selves to work. When I come to work I’ll have corridor conversations with people about my interests, ask people about their interests, ask them how their kids are going, I’ll talk about my kids, what they’ve done on the weekend, what my husband’s up to. The social side of things.
But if I identified as a lesbian, for example, if my workplace was not inclusive, I might not feel comfortable talking about my partner, or using a term like ‘she’. If a workplace is not inclusive you’re not really able to bring that full self to work because you’re not feeling comfortable in sharing those aspects of yourself with your work colleagues. I can imagine that feeling of separation and I think that would be really tough, constantly having to check yourself.
Post: And how do you create that environment where people feel comfortable to reveal their true selves?
Ali Wastie: By living the values of the organisation. By living my own personal values that closely align to that of the organisation. By “preaching what we practise” not “practising what we preach”.
We’ve recently established a workplace diversity and inclusion working group that includes members from all areas of our organisation. They’ll be responsible for reviewing existing strategies and policies to ensure they’re inclusive.
Often these groups are set up during people’s lunchtimes. It’s seen as an optional extra. The workplace inclusion group meets during work time as part of the members’ professional development program. This is part of their job. This is really important for our wellbeing, for our productivity. It shows that as CEO I really value your contribution to that working group. It gives it credibility. Just like the reconciliation working group or a major projects working group.
We can always do better, always do more. We’ll just keep trying. Having Cr Ellis, who is so positive and so passionate about this space, is really important. I see it as a partnership between the organisation and council. All the councillors are supportive
Post: In a country area it can still be pretty tough to come out at work. Can you have a real effect with these programs?
Ali Wastie: I believe so. That’s why we’re doing it. The culture change has to start from the top – the CEO, the directors, for example – because we live in a hierarchical society. People look to senior figures to see how they’re behaving, the messages they’re putting out. They can see the CEO supporting an inclusive workplace by setting up a working group, and sending out really positive messages for staff to join that working group.
We’re an organisation of just under 300 FTE and we have a moral obligation to role model to other employers in the shire. Local councils and other big organisations have a corporate social responsibility to go beyond the bottom line in terms of setting examples for other organisations, for businesses out there. To say well, if they can do it, how can we do it in a small way? We partner with organisations on awareness days. Some people are a bit blasé – they say that awareness days are tokenistic – but they show the organisation is behind this cause, whether it’s mental health of men or reducing violence against women.
I know there are views out there in regional Victoria and Australia that are not progressive but I see Bass Coast as very progressive. We just need to be more creative and use our imaginations more because we don’t have the resources that our city counterparts do.
Post: I’d imagine people who feel comfortable at work will be more inclined to bring their imagination, their ideas?
Ali Wastie: You have to find ways to bring that out. Our front-line staff, the people who are closest to the customer, aren’t necessarily people who are in positions of great power in terms of the hierarchy, but they often have the best ideas because they’re closest and they see where there are issues. Innovations, better ways of doing things … we need to find ways for people to share those ideas and to test them. To say we may not get it right but we’re going to give it a go because if it comes off it’s going to be really valuable. An employee is going to feel really valued because their idea got taken up, or it was heard and discussed and debated. So we’re finding ways through working groups, problem solving on issues that are really critical to the organisation. That can involve front-line staff, senior leaders, a whole mix of people.
It’s one more reason diversity in the workplace is so important. Diversity brings different perspectives and often skills and expertise. It brings increased creativity and great problem solving abilities.
Ali Wastie: My answer’s quite simple. We can’t afford not to do it. If I looked at it purely from a financial, productivity, hard-edged perspective, that would be very limited but it would still make sense to do it. From a productivity perspective, if people are fully engaged at work, if they feel respected, if they feel the organisation is supportive both personally and professionally, they will give more to the organisation. You will get it back in spades. More engaged staff put in extra. Organisations with high engagement levels have less unplanned sick leave, lower employee turnover and people recommend their organisation as a good place to work. A happy healthy workforce is a productive workforce.
Post: What do you mean by “bringing your full self to work”? Give me some examples.
Ali Wastie: There’s that old school way of thinking: when you come to work you leave your personal stuff at the door and you’re just at work. I want our staff to bring their full selves to work. When I come to work I’ll have corridor conversations with people about my interests, ask people about their interests, ask them how their kids are going, I’ll talk about my kids, what they’ve done on the weekend, what my husband’s up to. The social side of things.
But if I identified as a lesbian, for example, if my workplace was not inclusive, I might not feel comfortable talking about my partner, or using a term like ‘she’. If a workplace is not inclusive you’re not really able to bring that full self to work because you’re not feeling comfortable in sharing those aspects of yourself with your work colleagues. I can imagine that feeling of separation and I think that would be really tough, constantly having to check yourself.
Post: And how do you create that environment where people feel comfortable to reveal their true selves?
Ali Wastie: By living the values of the organisation. By living my own personal values that closely align to that of the organisation. By “preaching what we practise” not “practising what we preach”.
We’ve recently established a workplace diversity and inclusion working group that includes members from all areas of our organisation. They’ll be responsible for reviewing existing strategies and policies to ensure they’re inclusive.
Often these groups are set up during people’s lunchtimes. It’s seen as an optional extra. The workplace inclusion group meets during work time as part of the members’ professional development program. This is part of their job. This is really important for our wellbeing, for our productivity. It shows that as CEO I really value your contribution to that working group. It gives it credibility. Just like the reconciliation working group or a major projects working group.
We can always do better, always do more. We’ll just keep trying. Having Cr Ellis, who is so positive and so passionate about this space, is really important. I see it as a partnership between the organisation and council. All the councillors are supportive
Post: In a country area it can still be pretty tough to come out at work. Can you have a real effect with these programs?
Ali Wastie: I believe so. That’s why we’re doing it. The culture change has to start from the top – the CEO, the directors, for example – because we live in a hierarchical society. People look to senior figures to see how they’re behaving, the messages they’re putting out. They can see the CEO supporting an inclusive workplace by setting up a working group, and sending out really positive messages for staff to join that working group.
We’re an organisation of just under 300 FTE and we have a moral obligation to role model to other employers in the shire. Local councils and other big organisations have a corporate social responsibility to go beyond the bottom line in terms of setting examples for other organisations, for businesses out there. To say well, if they can do it, how can we do it in a small way? We partner with organisations on awareness days. Some people are a bit blasé – they say that awareness days are tokenistic – but they show the organisation is behind this cause, whether it’s mental health of men or reducing violence against women.
I know there are views out there in regional Victoria and Australia that are not progressive but I see Bass Coast as very progressive. We just need to be more creative and use our imaginations more because we don’t have the resources that our city counterparts do.
Post: I’d imagine people who feel comfortable at work will be more inclined to bring their imagination, their ideas?
Ali Wastie: You have to find ways to bring that out. Our front-line staff, the people who are closest to the customer, aren’t necessarily people who are in positions of great power in terms of the hierarchy, but they often have the best ideas because they’re closest and they see where there are issues. Innovations, better ways of doing things … we need to find ways for people to share those ideas and to test them. To say we may not get it right but we’re going to give it a go because if it comes off it’s going to be really valuable. An employee is going to feel really valued because their idea got taken up, or it was heard and discussed and debated. So we’re finding ways through working groups, problem solving on issues that are really critical to the organisation. That can involve front-line staff, senior leaders, a whole mix of people.
It’s one more reason diversity in the workplace is so important. Diversity brings different perspectives and often skills and expertise. It brings increased creativity and great problem solving abilities.