The Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV) conducted consultations on strategies to increase culturally diverse employment in local councils across Victoria. The consultations uncovered an intergenerational fissure over the benefits of diversity for Human Resources (HR) managers.

A group of HR managers from a range of local government councils including inner urban and outer growth areas, met for a roundtable discussion on increasing cultural diversity in the workforce. ECCV conducted the roundtable hosted by the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) in November 2015 in Melbourne. Those at the meeting discussed how to achieve greater cultural diversity in the local council workplace while dealing with intergenerational sector challenges.

There was a general feeling that people from culturally diverse backgrounds were under-represented in the local government workplace. The HR managers represented a change in generational attitudes as they wanted to open up local government workplace recruitment to greater cultural diversity. As one person put it, “most of the change needs to be internal”.  The attitudes of HR managers in the discussion reflected a generational schism between enthusiasm for new ideas, innovation and creativity and a perceived "cradle to the grave career" culture in local government.