Making a Difference
16 September 2014
Job opportunities for unemployed Indigenous candidates can be a rare commodity. So when a new Masters Home Improvements store is about to open in a regional area there is naturally a great deal of interest by many in securing a position.
Diversity Dimensions has partnered with Woolworths Limited for the past 4 years in providing a Transition to Employment program for Indigenous jobseekers to assist them into roles across all brands. In this time around 600 people have gained employment across the group.
When embraced by the whole store team, this program has continually proven to be tremendously successful. This success can be demonstrated by the outstanding results recently achieved at two Masters Home Improvement store openings, Taree in NSW and Sunbury in Victoria. Both stores have been able to not only place large numbers of participants from the program but have also managed to retain almost one hundred percent of the new employees for over six months since opening.
Meanwhile these employees continually prove to be highly valued members of the Masters team. In Sunbury Daniel Williams and Shaun Ortuso have grabbed the opportunity to make a positive change in their lives. After being unemployed for three years Daniel secured a role in Freight Flow and has since gained his fork lift licence. While Shaun, having previously been unemployed for two years, works in Garden and Freight Flow. Shaun was awarded Employee of the Month for August 2014 in recognition of his performance. Both men feel that their inclusion in the team and the support they receive from management has helped them to turn their lives around.