- First Australia Post Access and Inclusion Plan to include specific actions for team members who are carers of people with disability.
- Team members with disability make up 5.6 per cent of the Australia Post workforce and have an average tenure of 16 years.
- Largest Australian employer to be certified as a Disability Confident Recruiter.
Australia Post today launched its Access and Inclusion Plan 2023 to 2025, outlining specific commitments to help improve and enhance the experiences of Australia Post team members, customers and communities over the next three years.
Building on its decade-long commitment to support people with disability, the new plan is the first to include specific actions to support carers.
Other commitments include ongoing and increased representation of people with disability through groups such as the Australia Post Stakeholder Council and Accessibility Matters; enhanced accessibility options across Post Offices, websites and mobile apps; and ensuring 90 per cent of customer facing team members complete Disability Confidence training by 2024.
Australia Post Executive General Manager Susan Davies said she was extremely proud of the progress made so far and excited to see what the new plan would achieve.
“Over the past ten years, our Accessibility and Inclusion Plans have helped us create truly meaningful change and improve our team member and customer experiences,” Ms Davies said.
“We’ve introduced new tools to better assist our team members, such as our Workplace Adjustment Guidelines and Digital Passports so people can confidently record their adjustment needs, and haptics on our scanners, ensuring our many delivery team members who are deaf have the tools they need to get the job done.
“We’re also focused on improving accessibility for our customers throughout the communities we serve. We’ll soon introduce a new point-of-sale system to improve the in-store experience and we’re continuing to improve accessibility on our website and in our app so that more people can access our information and services.
“I am really excited to extend our new plan to include specific meaningful commitments for our team members who are carers by 2024. This action came directly from our Accessibility Matters Employee Reference Group feedback and the many team members we have who are parents of children with disability.
“There is always more to do and while this plan helps us articulate what we want to deliver over the next three years, we are always looking to improve and enhance the experience for people living with disability.”
Australia Post team member and former co-chair of Accessibility Matters Kate Havas, who cares for two family members with disability, said she is looking forward to working with Australia Post on the co-design for carers support.
“I’ve been at Australia Post for ten years, and the amount of change we’ve achieved thanks to accessibility plans has been incredible,” Ms Havas said.
“We’re now at a point where many parts of the business are driving change and coming up with new ideas to help the broader community as well as support team members.
“Having been closely involved in the consultative approach of Accessibility Matters to create change for our team members with disability and advise on our overarching approach, I know how much we can achieve.
“Carers are such an important part of supporting people with disability and it means so much that Australia Post has included us in this new plan because it will make a real difference to peoples’ lives.”
Since launching its first Accessibility Action Plan in 2012, Australia Post is now one of the country’s most diverse workforces. 5.6 per cent of team members identify as having disability and they have an average tenure of 16 years.
Previous Accessibility action plans at Australia Post have helped increase representation of people with disability in decision making processes through the creation of the Accessibility Matters Employee Reference Group in 2019. In addition, the appointment of Dr Ben Gauntlett, Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission to the Australia Post Stakeholder Council in 2021 has amplified the voices of people with disability, helping the organisation better understand the needs of stakeholders.
Australia Post is also the largest Australian employer to have successfully completed the Disability Confident Recruiter Program run by the Australian Network on Disability and is proud to be leading the way in ensuring its marketing is accessible for people with disability.
ENDS
Media enquiries, please contact:
Brett Simon, Media Manager, Australia Post
M: 0436 852 198
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Katherine Perry, Senior Media Manager, Australia Post
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