GrainGrowers Diversity Pledge
GrainGrowers recognises and celebrates the important role women play in Australian agriculture and support the Program’s vision to achieve transformational change in the representation of women in leadership positions.
We are focussed on providing a pathway forward for growers helping to lead the way with practical action to ensure the Australian grains industry can benefit from improved diversity in representation. As a leading organisation within the grains industry, we encourage diversity, equity and inclusion and strive for a broad mix of people to work together to improve performance and wellbeing in the sector, including genders, ages, cultural backgrounds, and perspectives.
We are focussed on creating, maintaining, and always improving diversity to help attract, retain and harness the best talent in the Australian grains industry. Some examples of our current initiatives include considering pay equity when reviewing remuneration across the organisation, providing enhanced maternity and paternity conditions, offering flexible working arrangement provisions and training for all staff in our Code of Conduct.
We strive for an active lead-by-example approach to reduce barriers and enhance the opportunity for female members to get involved in key organisational decision-making groups. We currently advertise through publications that have large female readership when publicising Board Director and National Policy Group roles and consider gender balance in recruitment and selection panels.
GrainGrowers helps attract and harness the best talent in the industry by assisting in practical ways to reduce barriers and encourage participation in our leadership programs through initiatives such as recognising the importance of carer responsibilities by offering a stipend to offset costs like babysitting or carer support. We also consider gender balance when selecting candidates for GrainGrowers leadership programs and allocating speakers for events. We are proud to report strong female representation in all our current leadership programs.
GrainGrowers strives for positive engagement with members including nominations for Board Director, National Policy Group and leadership program positions, and supports open dialogue regarding race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. On gender balance specifically, there are a range of actions in line with GrainGrowers Equal Employment Opportunity policy, which help ensure we are leading the way in encouraging greater gender diversity.
GrainGrowers is focussed on encouraging uptake of membership by female growers and has supported a range of initiatives through the Farming System Group partnership program, implementing a women in grains working group, as well as events dedicated to the promotion of women in the sector. GrainGrowers is also continuing to work to increase leadership representation across the broader industry through our leadership programs. Furthermore, we are proud to have over 50% current female representation in staff and senior leadership.
We recognise that there are always positive changes that can be embraced and are proud to continue supporting growers from all walks of life across Australia.