Diversity, equity and inclusion
In collaboration with Diversity Partners, we are continuously improving DE&I at Bulla. Our DE&I Council and Senior Leadership Team have been trained in Building Inclusive Leadership Capability to respect and create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce. This, along with internal engagement surveys, has led to the development of our DE&I Strategy and Action Plan, which outlines five key areas of commitment, including detailed initiatives to meet these commitments, which we commenced implementing in F23.
Our five key commitments are to;
- Create a shared understanding of why diversity, equity and inclusion are important by having a clearly articulated DE&I Strategy with agreed actions to bring our vision to life, and we have objectives, measure progress and have strong governance.
- Develop visible leadership commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion by actively promoting visible leadership commitment to DE&I. We build the knowledge and capability of our leaders to champion DE&I activity and support the ongoing growth of an inclusive workforce culture.
- Grow our culture of psychological safety and respectful and inclusive behaviours through us all being committed to contributing to a respectful and inclusive work culture.
- Build diverse and future-focused workforce capability to attract, grow and retain diverse talent to reflect our values, customers and communities we operate in.
- Embed DE&I into community, partner and supplier interactions through our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is reflected in our products, brand, community engagement, partnerships and with our supply chain interactions.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
what we’ve achieved
In 2023, we started a partnership with genU– an organisation that helps people with disabilities to be included in the workforce through supported employment 7. Of Australia’s 2.1 million people of working age with disability, less than half are employed (47.8%) compared with 80.3% of people without disability 8. Yet, people with disability have valuable strengths, skills and capabilities to offer employers.
Recognising the desire to elevate and support the diverse communities we are part of, Bulla partnered with the team at genU to identify employment opportunities within the business to identify new opportunities for supported employment in existing business processes, investigating what elements of our production could suit supported employees. Then the genU team very carefully matched people who were the right fit for the work and the working environment.
We are honoured to have supported employees working in our operations. The partnership with Bulla is also an example of how supported employment can be a stepping stone into ‘open’ or general employment, helping people to build skills and confidence to take the next step in their career journey. In 2024 we extended this approach to other Bulla locations, creating additional supported employment opportunities across our teams.
We have now moved one of the supported genU employees who has been with us since the beginning of the program into open employment directly with Bulla which is an extremely exciting milestone. Through expanding the program, we hope to see more supported employees building their skills and self-esteem as well as enjoying the benefits of being part of the Bulla family and ultimately, moving into open employment positions.
8Supported employment is where people with disabilities receive additional support while at work.
Health, Safety & Wellbeing
what we’ve achieved
Bulla has embarked on a journey of ongoing safety maturity, and we are taking a proactive approach to help mitigate injuries by empowering people to gain and maintain knowledge through our behaviour-based safety program.
Across all Bulla sites our total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) has dropped significantly.
When incidents do occur, our ongoing feedback system measures ensure we improve and help to mitigate repeat occurrences. All Bulla Executive Leaders are involved in our Safety Leadership Interaction where they are assigned to site locations to build a culture of visible safety leadership, focus on behavioural feedback, and help improve identification and elimination of hazards.
Bulla’s Wellbeing program is designed to support our team and increase awareness of key health and well-being aspects- in particular, mental health. Bulla now has over 90 trained mental health officers across sites to provide ongoing support to employees. In 2023 we launched the Converge app to better support our people and improve our wellbeing culture in the workplace. Our employees are now able to track key health metrics which will provide us data to further define health and wellbeing programs to overcome challenges identified within our team.
what’s next
Our range of safety programs and measures will continue to be implemented, with ongoing improvements in how we measure and report against health, safety, and wellbeing in the workplace. This will be further guided by our health, safety and wellbeing policy which outlines our commitments and objectives; responsibility and accountability to comply with procedures and processes.
enriching communities
We’ve committed to reinvest $1M every year into existing and new regional development programs that benefit the communities we operate in.
producing safe, quality food
At Bulla, food safety and quality is paramount and has been integral to our approach in producing great Australian dairy products for over 100 years. We will continue to apply best practice food safety and quality standards.