Sometimes life hits us hard, some of us are impacted more than others and some experiences can create barriers and breakdown in relationships professionally and personally and can cause clouded judgement. By creating and building strong relationships with Indigenous employees, businesses will understand how to approach certain topics with their staff, for example:
My grandmother passed away, I needed time off to grieve for an important figure and member of our famiily and attend her funeral back on Country. My nan was like a mum to me, and it hit me a little different.
I had leave and used it, my manager at the time was not aware of other policies surrounding Sorry Business and I wasn't either. It was until months later when another family member passed away I had a conversation with another Indigenous staff member who mentioned leave entitlements. There was a breakdown in communication and no communication to HR from my manager to seek information surrounding this and it could have impacted my health, my family and my relationship with my manager.
Are you aware of the term "Sorry Business"?
Does your business, company or organisation discuss leave policies to Indigenous staff when they need to attend Sorry Business?
Are their support services put in place for Indigenous staff?
Would you be able to answer these types of questions from Indigenous staff needing leave to attend Sorry Business?
This link contains further information from Fair Work Ombudsman and contains content which is useful and culturally appropriate.
Situations like this occur often, Indigenous employees need to go back to Country to attend to Sorry Business and some managers are not aware of leave policies, this can be the start of miscommunication and a break down in professional relationships.
When I write my blogs, I draw from my own experiences, this allows me to connect with people who are on a similar journey that I have once been on. It seems long, it can seem like it will never pass but it will, and you will be a stronger person for it. You'll learn, you'll display perseverance and you'll look back with gratitude and be thankful. Might not be straight away, but eventually you can say thank you for the experiences you handled because you overcame them.
I still look back at parts of my past and think if I did things differently, would my life be different? Where would I be? Some things I didn't realise at the time were:
We all react differently
Understanding reactions and their effects on family can help with coping
Asking for help from professionals is not shame!.
We built our service offerings to suit all Indigenous job-seekers and clients. We assist in creating and building strong relationships within the workforce and community. We understand that people are at different stages in their career, education and life and we all have different life experiences. Part of our mentoring program is building supportive networks within our participants' employment and also community.
We believe in setting our participants up with strong and supportive links to continue to build strong relationships and assist in reaching their full potential whilst breaking down barriers together. We provide mentoring for Indigenous staff as an individual service or as part of our job-ready programs.
Our job-ready programs are built to attract suitable Indigenous candidates where they will work towards an accredited certificate and understand their new employer and employee expectations. On completion applicants will receive a work ready pack to assist in breaking down barriers and ensuring they are work ready.
We start our mentoring sessions as part of our job-ready program and utilise community support and services along with members of the community who are knowledgeable and have life experiences. Creating strong relationships is important and this is our starting point.
We offer value, commitment and transparency throughout our services and work a little different to recruitment agencies. We're there for our participants' employment journey and are there for our clients in assisting them to build strong relationships with Indigenous employees and communities. We offer competitive rates and provide extra support services which are beneficial and rewarding for the long-term.
If you're interested in learning more about our job-ready programs please contact info@barra-gi.com.au
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