Class At Work – Diversity Council Australia

The Diversity Council Australia’s Class At Work – Does Social Class Make a Difference In the Land of The “Fair Go” Report researches the influences of social class on employee inclusion experience at work and what motivates employers to give thoughts to class at work. The data from this report was gathered from more than 3,000 Australian employees.

Some main findings from this research includes:

  • In general, lower class employees in inclusive team can work more effectively with others, more innovative in solving problems, provide better customer service, and are willing to give more effort to improve team performance than lower class employees in non-inclusive team or in somewhat-inclusive team.
  • Overall, the majority of non-inclusive team are lower class employees. Most of them have a non-inclusive manager and are working in a non-inclusive organisation.
  • While most higher class employees believe that they are treated fairly by the employer, most lower class workers don’t believe the same. Lower class employees also don’t believe that they have the same opportunities as other team members while higher class employees strongly believe so. Less than half of the lower class employees think their managers are looking for ways to improve diversity within the team.
  • Lower class employees are twice more likely to be discriminated against or harassed at work compared to higher class employees. Most lower class employees also claimed that they are more likely to be ignored at work, missing out on opportunities or privileges, or being left out of a work social gathering.
  • When combining with gender, lower class female employees are more likely to be discriminated against or harassed at work in comparison with higher class female employees. However, in general, female employees are more likely to experience discrimination and harassment at work.
  • Lower class female employees are often discriminated against or harassed due to their caring status and gender. Some of them experienced these because of their age.

Full report here.