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 A Leader’s Round Table
A Leader’s Round Table Dinner kicked of the 4th Annual Disability Professionals Victoria Conference in style, setting a precedent for what was bound to be the best DPV Conference yet.
With an emphasis on tackling the most important issues, the speaker for the night, Sharn Chisholm, provoked thoughts and passions of those influential people that are vital to the disability sector.
 Sharn has a background in human resources, having worked for Myers, Sterling Pharmaceuticals, Phillips Corporation and as HR Director for Optus Communications, overseeing the growth of the company. Starting with 140 employees in 1992, Sharn helped to expand the company to 8,000 employees in 1998 when she left. Download Sharn's presentation.
Sharn also has an 11-year-old daughter with a disability, which has increased her understanding of hard how it is to find the appropriate staff, as she has had her own difficulties in finding a suitable bus driver to take her daughter to and from school.
In her speech, Sharn spoke of ‘Making Disability an Industry Choice’, and gave a detailed account of the problems regarding recruitment today, the perceptions people have of the disability sector and the key areas of change that need to take place, including how to market jobs to specific groups of people.
 “In New South Wales the supply shortage of workers means companies will probably pick not quite the person they would really like to have had, but take the person that is available. Because they just need to hire somebody,” she said.
So with an expertise in hiring the right people, Sharn challenged the audience into thinking about what they were doing wrong within their own businesses, and the changes they can make to attract a more diverse and skilled workforce.
“There is an industry perception that working in the disability sector is a depressing environment, from people looking from the outside looking in, not really understand what’s going on,” she said.
With a focus on attracting men, young people, highly educated people as well as older people, Sharn asked questions, and inspired the leader’s of the sector to really consider whether their current methods of attracting staff was actually working.
 “We’ve got to find ways of debarking some of the myths that lie around this particular industry sector and look at ways to attract more interesting candidates to it.”
Money seemed to be the issue of the evening, with some industry professionals expressing their despair that although they would like to reward their staff with higher wages, their companies had to stay financially viable.
Although there are no clear cut answers, a forging of minds and ideas took place, which sparked fervour in the Medallion Room at Melbourne’s Telstra Dome.
At the end of the evening, the audience was full of character, discussing I great depth their opinions, ideas and problems with others in a similar situation. There is no doubt the dinner set the mood for the conference, a chance for great minds to come together to help solve the problems within the disability sector.
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