Generational Australians are increasingly working later in life, and the demographic structure of our workforce is continually changing. Soon, five generations will be working alongside each other for the first time in history.
Generational inclusion at GHD includes understanding the career journey of employees and achieving positive outcomes through initiatives that support the collaboration and contribution of people at all ages. Smart Seeds Smart Seeds started in 2012, when a group of graduating students joined GHD in Melbourne. The group had diverse skills, great energy and new ideas with the potential to transform our industry, but like many emerging leaders, they had limited connections and experience to mobilise their ideas. Recognising the potential, we designed a program to build the connections, capabilities and confidence of these emerging leaders. Today, the Smart Seeds programs is run globally. It brings together our people, our clients and partner organisations to respond to challenges set by local industry leaders. Collaborating with teammates and mentors from different industries and disciplines within a structured innovation framework develops entrepreneurial and ideation skills. Young Professionals We are focused on connecting and developing our future leaders through our Young Professionals (YP) networking groups. Our YP program provides a strong support network for our early career professionals and opportunities for them to participate in a range of professional development activities. Active in every state, our YP groups help our people build strong working relationships with their peers and clients. The YP program brings together people with less than 10 years of professional experience from various disciplines to assist in developing skills. GHD Mentoring Program Through our formal Mentoring Program, our people can apply to be a mentor or mentee. The program matches experienced professionals with upcoming practitioners and helps people to meet their career objectives. The relationship is based on encouragement, feedback, mutual trust, respect and a willingness to learn and share.
Pictured: 2021 graduates from Victoria at introductory lunch
Global Graduate Development Program We refreshed our graduate program to create a globally aligned, structured development program balanced with a blend of experiential learning, coaching and training that will develop our graduates as future problem solvers and leaders. As part of the program, 400 GHD graduates from more than 50 offices in 10 countries gathered virtually for the our Global Graduate Forum in November 2021, aiming to connect graduates to what matters via networking and learning opportunities. Talent management and succession planning We have robust talent management and succession planning processes in place. With 20 percent of our employees aged 50+ we have undertaken consultation with our mature age employees to better support career planning and development needs, and to facilitate greater knowledge sharing and mentoring of younger employees. Leveraging intergenerational diversity Generational diversity is complex, but research demonstrates that organisations can leverage its benefits through proactive management. As part of our efforts to encourage optimal work practices that support mature employees’ participation, engagement and health at work, we are a Stakeholder Reference Group member of CEPAR’s ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research. This membership helps CEPAR to translate their research knowledge into practical business applications, it also facilitates our access to data, personnel and other resources that will help us promote successful ageing in our workplace. Through our partnership with CEPAR and the application of its model for the effective management of age diversity (include, individualise and integrate), we are seeking to identify where our current policies and practices are effectively supporting age diversity and where improvements can be made by either changing current or introducing new policies and practices. Furthering leveraging this model, to seek a better understanding the attitudes and perceptions towards generational diversity within GHD, we conducted qualitative interviews with our own people, and are in the process of assessing the results to further our review of policies and benefits.
