People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
The Queensland public sector diversity target for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds is based on the number of people who speak a language other than English at home, including those who speak a First Nations language.
MOHRI captures two pieces of information to understand performance against this measure – place of birth and language spoken at home. The sector is committed to achieving a diverse and inclusive workforce reflective of the Queensland community. The category of non-English speaking background (NESB) was replaced in the September 2021 MOHRI report with people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD), aligning to national standards.
Progress towards the target
- A target of 12% of the workforce equates to 36,964 employees disclosing that they are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
- At March 2024, 8.24% of employees or 25,386 people disclosed that they speak a language other than English at home.
In the 2023 Working for Queensland survey, 12% of respondents indicated that they speak a language other than English at home.
Like other diversity targets, information in MOHRI, which is captured from payroll systems, is not always complete and, therefore, target progress is impacted.
Culturally and linguistically diverse survey respondents were asked if they had provided this information to their payroll system. Forty-three percent of respondents confirmed they had, while 25% said they had not, 24% were not sure and 9% preferred not to say.
The primary reason respondents had not provided this information to payroll, was because they couldn’t remember being asked for it (48%).
A clear communication strategy could significantly improve this information and progress towards the target.
Employee experiences
Employee engagement among culturally and linguistically diverse groups improved to 67%, a one percentage point increase from 2022.
Source: Working for Queensland 2022 and 2023.
People who speak a language other than English at home have more positive engagement results, than those who speak English at home.
| % positive | ||
|---|---|---|
| Speak a language other than English at home | Speak English at home | |
| I am proud to tell others I work for my organisation. | 75% | 66% |
| I would recommend my organisation as a great place to work. | 70% | 60% |
| My organisation inspires me to do the best in my job. | 65% | 55% |
| My organisation motivates me to help it achieve its objectives. | 65% | 54% |
| I feel strong personal attachment to my organisation. | 62% | 53% |
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
Diversity as a barrier to success
- 69% of those who speak a language other than English at home do not believe that cultural background is a barrier to success, while 11% believe it is.
- 73% of those who speak English at home believe that cultural background is not a barrier to success, while 5% believe it is a barrier to success.
- 17% of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples, who also speak a language other than English at home, consider cultural background as a barrier to success.