‘Building the Bush’ is an Aboriginal Employment and Training program implemented by Harvey Developments to grow employment opportunities for Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory.

The major goal of the program is to see our Indigenous employees succeed through their apprenticeship and training programs and move onto leadership training to position themselves for management positions within our organisation. This will provide our employees with the opportunity to lead their own teams of tradesmen and apprentices, creating a positive cycle of success and self-confidence.

The program is also a commitment from the company that they will work closely with CDP’s to employ people from the local community, providing training where required in an endeavour to leave each community stronger than when they arrived. They hope that training provided to individuals who are employed for the life of a project are able to use these skills to better support and grow their community. From years of working across remote communities in Central Australia, Harvey Developments has built incredibly strong relationships with residents and there are multiple success stories of engaging employees from community who are now long standing employees within the company.

Strategy:

Harvey Developments ‘Building the Bush’ Aboriginal Training & Employment program adopts a 3 P’s strategy for employee success through the program, which is:

1.     PEOPLE - Recruitment
2.     PREPARATION - Training & Mentoring
3.     PRESERVATION – Retention and career management

The program is sensitive to cultural needs in engaging Aboriginal employees and fosters an environment for our Indigenous employees where their cultural values and traditions are respected, and include flexible working arrangements for reasons such as:

•     Sorry Business
•     Child Care Responsibility
•     Cultural Responsibilities

A dedicated mentor is also provided to employees involved in the program to help them succeed through training on to achieve other personal and workplace goals.