Australian Agriculture – an opportunity for women

With the race for talent tight across all industries, it’s clear the agriculture industry must tap into the experience and skills of people that have traditionally been underrepresented in agriculture. New voices, new ideas and new experiences will be a key part of boosting innovation and underpinning the industry’s growth.

It seems obvious, but the opposite of inclusion is exclusion. So, if we aren’t actively striving to be inclusive, then we are probably excluding people and ideas. To overcome that, Nutrien Ag Solutions has developed a comprehensive plan to help realise our ambition of creating a sense of belonging for everyone.

Increasing the opportunities for new people to join our workforce isn’t just the right thing to do, it also has proven benefits for the industry and strengthens our business through new ideas and perspectives. Just as importantly, a diverse workforce also reflects the diversity of our customers and the rural and regional communities in which we operate.

?Ag is a modern and vibrant industry to be a part of, so it’s about time we changed the perception about what you need to look like or who you need to be to make a positive contribution and have a successful career in this sector.

Rob Clayton and Georgia Gorham, Tasmania

What is Nutrien Ag Solutions doing to support and diversify the workplace?

In 2021, Nutrien Ag Solutions welcomed 800 new people to the business in locations right across Australia, and I’m proud to say that more than half of those roles were filled by women.

We’ve also established a program to support women into leadership roles. The Nutrien Ag Solutions Women’s Leadership Mentoring Program is a 12-month opportunity for women in the business to develop their skills to progress their careers and participate at senior leadership levels.?

We recognised that career planning for the whole workforce is key to ensuring employees fulfill their potential, consider all the career pathways on offer and continue lifelong learning. Nutrien employees access a variety of education opportunities and training tools to improve and develop new skills to advance professionally and personally.

As part of the plan to better reflect and support family-friendly practices, we recently launched its improved parental leave policy. Under the new policy, we’ve increased the paid parental leave period for primary carers (both women and men) and partner carers. Paid parental leave is also available for adoption, surrogacy and foster care, and there is greater support and flexibility in place for returning parents to support the transition post parental leave.

There is much to be proud of and more work to do, but we are all empowered to make a difference and be part of the change.

Visit our website for more information on growing your career with Nutrien Ag Solutions.