Davidson is thrilled to have been awarded an Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) Australia Award for Excellence for their work in promoting diversity and inclusion within the public sector at a gala dinner on Thursday October 18.  

These national awards are committed to identifying, promoting and celebrating best practice and excellence in the recruitment and professional staffing sector.

Davidson was awarded in the category of Diversity and Inclusion for its industry-leading project, the Top 50 Public Sector Women, designed to shine a light on the inspirational female leaders working in the public sector in Victoria and NSW and to help increase gender diversity and inclusion in leadership roles.

Australia’s public sector records a high proportion of female staff, yet the number of women in executive roles remains disproportionately low. Reports across all tiers and divisions of the public sector reveal female representation drops off between middle management and executive levels.

Anecdotally, one of the reasons for this is that emerging female leaders do not feel they have the skills, suitable opportunities or confidence to progress their careers.

Based on this alarming information, Davidson’s Executive & Boards Group Manager Clare McCartin was invited to sit on a Ministerial roundtable to assist in developing diverse leadership teams across the public sector.

After the roundtable, Clare saw a need and an opportunity to use her team’s skills, knowledge and standing in the business community to develop an innovative new project that would assist to meet key objectives and targets.

The overarching objectives of the Top 50 Public Sector Women’s list are to:

Now in its second year, the Top 50 Public Sector Women list is designed to help identify emerging female leaders in the public sector, provide development opportunities, assist with building networks and industry associations and provide formalised learning experiences.

The list recognises exceptional female leaders already working within the public sector, highlighting their achievements and placing them as role models for future generations.

Davidson launched the Top 50 Public Sector Women’s List in Victoria in August 2017.

The project is an educational process for women, as well as an awards ceremony recognising the most inspirational women leaders in the sector. Davidson created an event which had never been staged before, and used it to grow confidence, business outcomes and gender diversity. It is a unique approach and ensured that the project stood out within the public sector.

The project immediately gained the support of a series of high calibre women and men in the sector who agreed to act as judges.

The project also attracted the attention of key partners such as IPPA Victoria (Institute of Public Administration Australia - Victoria), LGPro (Local Government Professionals) and Seek who assisted in raising the profile of the event even further.

Since August 2017, the innovation has grown significantly and in early 2018 it was extended into NSW. The NSW Government partnered with Davidson for the first NSW event this year and the project attracted a record number of entries.

We are very proud to have won such a prestigious award for a project that is very close to our hearts. To find out more about the Top 50 Public Sector Women list click here.