People and culture
UWA will be a remarkable place to work, attracting and retaining world-class staff from diverse backgrounds who want to build careers, drive change, provide leadership and create opportunities at an institution renowned for its excellence.
- Priorities
-
- Build a workforce with the capabilities to deliver the objectives of UWA 2030 and develop leadership to motivate and engage colleagues to succeed.
-
- Foster a high-performance culture that is values-led, collaborative and open, and that embraces diversity.
-
- Encourage innovation and development through high-quality training, recognition and reward.
Strategies
Define, create and support the careers of the future that will attract world-class people
We will be renowned for offering our staff exceptional career pathways and opportunities to develop. We will provide a full-career life cycle for staff, so they can grow and adapt with the changing needs of the University, students and the world around us.
Our excellence in career pathway development will excite and attract the very best talent from across the region and the world, ensuring a strong pipeline of talented candidates keen to join a globally influential, values-led institution driving positive, real-world change.
We will actively seek out and recruit, retain, support and develop our staff to become globally focused, partnership- oriented, multidisciplinary educators, researchers and professionals.
Our sector-leading recruitment practices will attract staff from all over the world who will understand the dynamic opportunities working at UWA presents to them and others – ensuring a high-quality reserve of talent is in place to deliver our strategic plan.
Develop an inclusive and diverse workforce that lives its values
We will embrace every opportunity to recruit the most skilled, influential and agile staff of diverse backgrounds from across the region, the world and the communities we serve. We understand that our diversity is a strength that will propel us forward and help us achieve our goals and meet the challenges of the future.
We will attract people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds with diverse intelligence and knowledge, and those with strong ties to the Indian Ocean Rim. Their insights and leadership will drive the success of our research in these key areas and they will feel fully supported and valued.
All staff will have completed cultural competency training and be fully aware of the cultural history associated with our workplaces. We will employ and develop staff from groups currently under-represented in the University.
We will be positive, accountable, open, collaborative, respectful and flexible. We will live by these ideals at both a staff and an organisational level. In doing so, we will improve not just University life but the lives of those we engage with – our communities, partners and those who look to us for leadership.
Drive and reward a high-performing workforce capable of delivering real change
We will create a high-performance culture and energetically grow UWA’s leadership capacity by identifying and developing the most exciting future leaders. We will look beyond traditional backgrounds to find people capable of inspiring and delivering the complex changes occurring within the University.
We will promote and support excellence, encouraging staff to embrace professional development and leadership opportunities that will improve our performance and reputation as a world-leading institution.
All academic staff will be capable of working in and leading large, complex and multidisciplinary teams.
We will pursue excellence, embrace innovation (including the incredible potential of digital technology) and ensure we are just and equitable in everything we do. In demonstrating these values at every opportunity, we will become global partners of first-choice for industry, community and governments.
We will recognise and reward excellence in our professional and academic staff – not just in the work they do but for the way they live by our values. We will enthusiastically recognise the many ways people contribute to the University and to advancing our goals. Our reward processes will be fair and transparent, with the flexibility required to include every member of staff.
Build engagement and motivation of and for all staff
We will create a working environment in which staff are inspired to give their best every day and are motivated to be part of UWA’s success.
Staff engagement with the University will be supported by the development and communication of a strong narrative about the University that is compelling and authentic. Staff will be able to relate to that narrative and will be able to use it to describe UWA as a remarkable place to work.
We will support leaders and managers to encourage transformational engagement with staff to improve the working environment and the student experience.
Staff will have the opportunity to have their say through mechanisms including staff surveys and will be involved in and contribute their own experience, expertise and ideas to make the workplace even better.
We will support and grow the appetite for shared learning across the city and state and opportunities for staff and students to work together in contributing more broadly to the communities we serve.
Measures of success
- Greater diversity of our staff, particularly staff who identify as Indigenous, being from a different cultural background, having a disability, being LGBTIQA+ or female.
- Increased international demand for vacancies, number of employee referrals.
- Broadened academic roles supported and rewarded.
- Expanded opportunities for shared appointments, volunteering, diversity of locations.
- Improved staff satisfaction scores from staff surveys.
- Smaller proportion of voluntary separations.
- Greater number of multidisciplinary clusters actively creating positive impact.