success at st mary’s

Masters Resourcing the Future Program.

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Success at St Mary’s Masters, Resourcing the Future Program

5 June 2014

Judith Hardy is delighted with the progress of employees recruited through the Diversity Dimensions Resourcing the Future program for her new store at St Marys NSW.

Judith, Store Manager at Masters Home Improvements was happy to run the program in her second store after previously initiating it during the opening of the Chullora store. While the Chullora program produced good outcomes for participants she was keen to build on that success. Judith had a clear vision of the type of workers she wished to employ. “We wanted to have a diverse workforce and have used the program before but with better success this time around” she said.

Culturally mirroring the local community was one of her key goals when planning for the St Marys opening. “Employees and customers are Aboriginal and it's good to connect with the community as there are a lot of Aboriginal people in this community” she said. And she couldn’t be happier with the results. “The staff do a great job and now you don't realise that they have come out of the program”.

From the intake of 9 participants in the 4 Day program a total of 7 candidates were selected from the Group Assessment to be offered positions at the store. Candidates were referred to the program from Jobfind Centre at St Marys. Site Manager Joanne Williams is understandably proud of her clients.

“This was amazing, we had 9 people in the group. One dropped out due to personal issues she had been denying and the group had her realise she needed to address these first. One was not suitable and was not quite job ready. But all the other 7 clients were employed and 6 are still employed after 6 months and going strong”.

"What an amazing program this was."

She also has praise for the Resourcing the Future program. “What an amazing program this was. Very successful and the feedback from the clients has been extremely positive. The training they received and the support throughout employment really assisted the clients in gaining the self-belief to know they have what it takes to be successful”.

With positions in the store ranging from hardware to electrical and home décor to garden there is a wide variety of interesting work available. Some participants were able to utilise previous experience to secure specialised positions while others with little or no previous work experience were able to Page 2 of 3 demonstrate their will to work and their ability to succeed. This has been the cornerstone of the Resourcing the Future program.

Diversity Dimensions CEO Carolyn Gallaway is passionate about assisting people to overcome their barriers to employment. She says that with just a little help many people who are willing succeed when given the opportunity to prove themselves.

“Empowering people to overcome issues that may be preventing them from gaining and maintaining employment is also important. If given the tools and support to identify a remedy to these issues people can take control and enrich their lives” she says.

Diversity Dimensions has been an IEP Member for the past 3 years and during that time has assisted almost 900 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to secure employment. This has meant a real and significant positive outcome for not only the candidates but also their communities.

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