On the 27 March 2018 the ACT DEEP Taskforce (Diverse Equitable Employment and Practice) held a breakfast with 19 directors from the largest architectural practices in the ACT, with the intent of creating the tools and momentum for change amongst this local leadership group.

The DEEP taskforce formed with the goal of reducing barriers to engaging with, and implementing, the research and guidelines produced by the national Parlour group. The result is a short booklet which introduces key issues, presents local stories from our architecture community, prompts objective reflection and analysis of practice, and provides immediately actionable steps that firms can take.

Each director was presented with a full copy of the Parlour Guidelines, and a copy of the ‘Get DEEP’ Booklet, and were taken through the booklet, stories, and exercises provided. The event concluded with directors sharing some of their firm’s identified strengths, opportunities for improvements, and goals set, as a result of the workshop. The most popular self-identified strengths related to flexible employment options and a balance of female representation in the office. In contrast, the common themes identified as opportunities for improvement and goal setting related to creating office pay scales to address pay inequity, improving staff performance review systems and management of career progression, and better managing employee workloads and overtime.

The DEEP taskforce plan to follow this local leadership group over the following 12 months to encourage accountability and measure equitable employment improvements made in our local architecture community.

To download the getDEEP booklet, click HERE