Agencies can make positions open only to people from specific diversity groups.
Exceptions under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 allow agencies (under section 66R) to provide people with disability access to facilities, services and opportunities for employment such as targeting recruitment to improve workforce representation of people with disability.
The Act also allows agencies to nominate disability (under section 66S(c)) as a genuine occupational qualification for a position. This applies when services intended to promote the welfare of people with a particular disability can most effectively be provided by a person with the same disability. An example of this is recruiting a person who is blind or has low vision to develop communications materials for people who have similar vision impairment.
What actions can I consider?
Partner with your human resources team to:
- determine whether the position is suitable for targeted recruitment using the exceptions
- determine whether the position needs to be advertised or a person with disability could be appointed to the vacancy following an individual assessment of merit without advertising, taking into consideration reasonable adjustments and opportunities to tailor the role
- consider keeping a fixed number of positions open for applicants with disability if you are advertising for multiple positions such as graduate and traineeship programs and recruitment pools
- identify supported employment opportunities and create open employment pathways for people with disability with high support needs
- provide targeted opportunities for job trials, internships and mentoring by engaging with people with disability through programs such as Stepping Into Internship or Pace Mentoring, Autism Academy for Software Quality Assurance and CEO and Executive Internship.
Where can I learn more?
- Recruitment standard and rules
- Recruitment rules to increase diversity
- IncludeAbility – Guidelines for the targeted recruitment of people with disability
- JobAccess – How to support a neurodivergent workforce
