Congratulations to our valued clients, Alex Fraser and Hanson, who won this year’s CCAA Innovation Award for Diversity & Inclusion through the success of their Woman Driving Transport Careers program. Employment Office was so pleased to play a part in attracting and shortlisting the best talent for this fantastic initiative. 

With the future of work constantly evolving, a number of industries are facing tough recruitment challenges – particularly the driving and construction industry. But with smart recruitment advertising, attraction strategies, and screening processes, it’s possible to secure the best talent. 

Hanson Southern Region and Alex Fraser secured new talent through their Woman Driving Transport Careers program through a partnership with Transport Women Australia Limited and Volvo Group Australia and Wodonga TAFE’s Transport Division DECA.

Jeff Burns, HR Manager Hanson Southern Region and Alex Fraser Group, shared their reason for launching the program, and its success.

“We have 4000 employees and 1800 truck drivers, so our pipeline for drivers needs to be solid, particularly as the business grows and we add trucks to our transport fleets. So, we really had to understand what was changing in the transport driver marketplace.”

“Our Australian CEO for Hanson, Phil Schacht, has joined Male Champions of Change which enables male business leaders to champion gender diversity in their organisation. He felt we could do something in our driver workforce through our recruitment.”

Burns started conversations with Wodonga TAFE and DECA who mentioned their upcoming driver training programs. The WDTC program was, therefore, an opportunity for Alex Fraser and Hanson to secure eight new trained employees. Participants in the program receive support and training to prepare them for their driving tests. They also have the opportunity to drive the same trucks as they would be when employed.

Hanson and Alex Fraser engaged Employment Office as their trusted recruitment partner, to run recruitment advertisements on traditional job boards, complemented with targeted social media advertising campaigns. They promoted the campaign through their company’s social channels. 

“It was, by and large, a very positive and widely-shared social media post,” said Burns. “We were really surprised by how many thousands of people looked at it, and how far around the world it went!”

Alex Fraser and Hanson were able to target their advertisement at women, as the opportunity qualified under equal opportunity legislation. (Note, if your organisation is looking to recruit a certain demographic, ensure your advertisement is not discriminatory. Equal opportunity law is state-based, so check the law in your location before you advertise, or book a discussion with one of our recruitment specialists.)

Recruitment was challenging, as they were seeking passive candidates who didn’t necessarily have a commercial driving background. Instead, they had to assess for qualities to shortlist instead, such as adventurousness and willingness to have a go.

Employment Office’s recruitment advertisement also included a number of screening questions, which drastically streamlined the shortlisting and selection process. 

Alex Fraser and Hanson received approximately 260 applications for their eight roles. From this talent pool, they invited 30 candidates to attend a group assessment day which was run by Employment Office.

After the group assessment day, seven candidates were offered employment.

“We had a challenging timeline of six weeks from advertising to making the offer, including comprehensive truck driver medicals. Some of our candidates had to provide notice at their other organisations, but we had to complete training before the end of the year! We managed to secure seven new hires. The instructors at Wodonga TAFE gave glowing praise for all our candidates.”

Winning CCAA’s Innovation Award for Diversity and Inclusion 

The CCAA Innovation Awards are a two-year program of annual state awards, the winners of which compete for the National Awards biennially. The awards recognise innovation in the way the construction materials industry is committed to continually improving its performance in a range of areas. CCAA promotes innovative thinking and leadership to inspire others to deliver improved performance in their businesses and across the industry.

Congratulations Hanson Southern Region and Alex Fraser for winning the Diversity & Inclusion award, which recognises the outstanding contribution they have made in improving the level of Diversity & Inclusion in their workplace and the industry more generally. 

Hanson and Alex Fraser received the award for their Woman Drivers Transport Careers program, designed to bridge the gap between licensing standards and professional industry requirements and increase the participation of women drivers across the Australian Road Transport industry to address the shortage of drivers in this sector. 

The State Awards were hosted at the annual CCAA Awards Dinners which was attended by over 1100 representatives of industry, government, suppliers and sponsors. The National Awards will be hosted at the Construction Materials Industry Conference, the industry’s premier biennial event. 

The state winners will now go as finalists for the biennial National Awards in 2020. Congratulations Hanson, Alex Fraser and Employment Office, and well done to all the winners.