The new Australia Post Access and Inclusion Plan 2023 to 2025 is the first to include specific actions for team members who are carers for people with disability.
Other commitments include ongoing and increased representation of people with disability through groups such as the Australia Post Stakeholder Council and Accessibility Matters, ensuring 90 per cent of customer-facing team members complete Disability Confidence training by 2024.
Australia Post executive general manager Susan Davies said over the past decade Accessibility and Inclusion Plans have helped create a meaningful change to improve team member and customer experiences.
“We’ve introduced new tools to better assist our team members, such as our Workplace Adjustment Guidelines and Digital Passports so people can confidently record their adjustment needs, and haptics on our scanners, so delivery team members who are deaf have the tools to get the job done,” she said.
“We are also focused on improving accessibility for customers and will introduce a new point-of-sale system to improve both the in-store experience and accessibility to our website and app.”
Australia Post team member and former co-chair of Accessibility Matters Kate Havas, who cares for two family members with disability, is working with Australia Post on the co-design for carers support.
“Carers are an important part of supporting people with disability and it means so much that Australia Post has included us in this new plan because it will make a real difference to peoples’ lives,” she said.
Australia Post has 5.6 per cent of team members with disability with an average job tenure of 16 years.
The appointment of Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Ben Gauntlett to the Stakeholder Council in 2021 has amplified the voices of people with disability, helping the organisation better understand the needs of stakeholders.
The organisation is the largest Australian employer to have successfully completed the Disability Confident Recruiter Program run by the Australian Network on Disability.