Communities and Justice

Engaging staff through emotional intelligence

Business area: Organisational Development & Learning

Directorate: People Branch

Division: Corporate Services

Project summary

People will partner with the DEN and an external provider (Global Leadership Foundation) to roll out Emotional Intelligence workshops. These workshops will be designed to increase the level of empathy demonstrated by managers and support them to more effectively engage staff with a disability.

Focus Area:

  • Supporting access to meaningful employment.

Project objective

  • Improve engagement and the employee experience for people with a disability.
  • Increase the inclusiveness of teams by better supporting people with a disability.
  • Increase manager awareness and confidence in working with people with disability.
  • Improved manager confidence and decision making when responding to requests from staff with a disability.
  • Improve feedback to/from the Disability Employee Network (DEN) around manager capability in working with staff with a disability.

The challenge

Repeated feedback from the DEN has highlighted the need to build manager capability in working with employees with a disability. This could be due to a lack of ability to put themselves in the shoes of others and understanding of how their own behaviours impact on the experience and performance of their team and individuals (particularly those with a disability). By leveraging emotional intelligence to address this capability gap DCJ will be able to build more inclusive teams and a better employee experience.

Why is this important?

Repeated feedback from the DEN has highlighted the need to build manager capability in working with employees with a disability. This could be due to a lack of ability to put themselves in the shoes of others and understanding of how their own behaviours impact on the experience and performance of their team and individuals (particularly those with a disability). By leveraging emotional intelligence to address this capability gap DCJ will be able to build more inclusive teams and a better employee experience.

What will success look like?

Success would see employees with a disability having a better employee experience, be more engaged in their work, and feel as through their disability is not a barrier in their role. Employees with a disability would also experience increased inclusiveness within their teams and feel more supported by their manager through quicker and more meaningful responses to requests.

Success would also see managers reporting an improvement in disability awareness and understanding of the needs of employees with a disability through their increased understanding of emotional intelligence and how to apply it.

How will you measure success?

Success would see employees with a disability having a better employee experience, be more engaged in their work, and feel as through their disability is not a barrier in their role. Employees with a disability would also experience increased inclusiveness within their teams and feel more supported by their manager through quicker and more meaningful responses to requests.

Success would also see managers reporting an improvement in disability awareness and understanding of the needs of employees with a disability through their increased understanding of emotional intelligence and how to apply it.

Summary of key stages

Key Actions Outcome Due date Status

Scope project

Project scope completed

17/11/20

Completed

Seek endorsement and budget

Endorsed project scope and budget

30/11/20

Completed

Create project plan for delivery

Project plan, schedule and other documentation completed

11/3/21

Completed

Implement project (procure, schedule and run workshops)

Emotional intelligence workshops run


Progressing

Review and evaluate project outcomes and success

Project evaluation report completed



Status report

Current Status: Progressing

Date: April 2023

Status Notes:

2023

Content provided by Global Leadership Foundation (GLF) on Emotional Health and Leadership will be included in the upcoming Thriving Leaders playbook on Thrive. A number of workshop series on Emotional Health run by GLF will commence from April 2023 targeted to leaders across DCJ.

July 2022

  1. DCJ's new enterprise wide LMS was procured with a focus on accessibility. 
  2. The system offers learners the opportunity to request adjustments to enhance their learning. 
  3. An accessibility checklist has been developed to support the development of all digital learning for DCJ. This forms part of the consultation process undertaken by OD&L when developing digital learning conte

May 2021

Discussions with GLF occurred in April about the use of resources. Scoping will occur in June on inclusion into leadership programs and standalone supports on the consolidated Learning Management System (LMS). 

Last updated:

22 Feb 2024