Performance with purpose: how Amazon Australia and RGF Staffing/Chandler Macleod are developing overlooked talent in Australia

Through the RGF Connect program, Amazon Australia and RGF Staffing ANZ have set up a unique partnership, aimed at dismantling barriers for people with disabilities (PWD). A cohort that represents 21% of the Australian population but continues to face significant hurdles in accessing the labor market¹.

The journey started in 2023, when Amazon Australia established a partnership with Chandler Macleod (an RGF Staffing brand), which from the outset included the specific goal to increase representation for this underrepresented cohort. As Wayne Angus, Director of Operations, Amazon Australia reflects, this was more than a diversity initiative. “Amazon has a leadership principle called 'Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility’. That means making sure we not only have a social license to operate, but that we create an equitable and diverse environment for people to thrive, develop, and grow.”

Wayne Angus: “Amazon has a leadership principle called 'Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility’. We create an equitable and diverse environment for people to thrive, develop, and grow.”

Focusing on untapped talent

Aravind Kumar Mallada, Amazon’s Director Workforce Staffing, Asia-Pacific, points out that by reaching out to this particular cohort, the company is also addressing a “genuine business need. Our business is growing rapidly and we need talented, committed people. And we realized that we could leverage an entire talent pool which is untapped. This was actually a hard-to-miss opportunity.”

The resulting initiative is expansive, with RGF Staffing working closely with Amazon Australia’s local workforce staffing and HR teams to place candidates in a wide range of roles. Shanelle Lowe, RGF Staffing’s National Account Manager for Amazon Australia: “That includes work at fulfillment and sorting centers, logistics sites, but also support roles in IT and HR. We have a whole range of opportunities, so when people start in any given role, there are opportunities to learn, develop skills and move into other roles, departments or career paths with Amazon Australia.” And to ensure these placements are more than just short-term roles, the collaboration includes comprehensive work-readiness training and post-placement support.

Aravind Kumar Mallada: “Hiring the best means looking beyond where everyone else fishes. It means finding exceptional people everywhere. And we have found that PWD associates consistently outperform other employees, because they're so disciplined and focused.”

RGF Connect milestones

It’s a partnership that fits seamlessly into RGF Staffing's own strategic priority to build bridges for underrepresented cohorts through its global social program, RGF Connect. Cynthia Andrews, Director of Social Impact at RGF Staffing ANZ, observes that this program has evolved significantly over the last year. “RGF Connect is now embedded into all of our brands and it is almost considered business as usual.”

And the figures tell their own story: “In the last 12 months alone, we've been able to place over 12,000 candidates from underrepresented communities with employers across Australia and New Zealand. Over 4,000 candidates have participated in work readiness programs, and 737 have been placed into our clients into ongoing and sustainable roles. And we aim to significantly increase those numbers, which is why we’re so happy to have a strong partner like Amazon Australia to work with.”

Securing a safe environment

One of the key success factors in the partnership is the effort both companies are putting into securing a safe and supportive environment, even before the candidates actually start work. Crucially, RGF Staffing’s Fifita Allen-Kepu was recently assigned as as a dedicated Social Impact Consultant for Amazon Australia, fully focusing on onboarding people with a disability. In that role, she has noticed how difficult it can be for candidates to even disclose the challenges they face. “So we need to make them feel that it’s OK to do that, that in fact it is a positive thing. After all, it allows us to put in any specific accommodation requests and assess these with Amazon Australia, to ensure that when a candidate is deployed, they have the support they need, right from the start.”

Fifita Allen-Kepu: “We have noticed how difficult it can be for candidates to even disclose the challenges they face. So we need to make them feel that it’s OK to do that. It allows us to put in any specific accommodation requests and assess these with Amazon Australia.”

Building an inclusive culture

Accommodating this cohort requires practical adjustments, from adding subtitles to training videos to modifying physical workstations, but the most profound changes are cultural. As Wayne Angus points out: “Changing processes and infrastructure is easy. The biggest change, however, comes from people being more sensitive to the needs of these candidates and the value they can add. So that is something we have invested in. Along with making sure our learning and development pathways are accessible to these people and to ensure that they have opportunities for career development.”

According to Cynthia, it’s hard to overstate the impact of such efforts. “Amazon Australia has really created a psychologically safe environment for candidates, even before they start work. And that’s crucial. Unless there’s a really strong and consistent tone from the top, you’ll never achieve the successes we have been able to register together.”

Shanelle Lowe: “We are working closely with Amazon Australia’s local workforce staffing and HR teams to place candidates in a wide range of roles. There are opportunities to learn, develop skills and move into other roles, departments or career paths.”

The power of this sensitive environment is vividly illustrated by an experience Fifita relates, about a candidate with neurodiversity, who was placed at a robotic fulfillment center but really struggled. The onsite team discovered he was overwhelmed by Amazon Australia’s engagement tools and needed help to make them work for him. “Once we organized that support, his confidence grew. Now he is not only a permanent Amazon Australia employee, but one of their best workers. And he absolutely loves his job.”

What ‘hiring the best’ really means

For Aravind Kumar Mallada, this experience highlights why drawing talent from these pools makes perfect business sense. “For us ‘hiring the best’ means looking beyond where everyone else fishes. It means finding exceptional people everywhere. And we have found that PWD associates consistently outperform other employees, because they're so disciplined and focused,” he says, pointing to lower defect rates and significantly higher retention levels. At the same time, he emphasizes that this is about more than performance metrics. “I like to think of this as ‘performance with purpose’. The work we do has to impact people’s lives.”

Cynthia Andrews: “We've placed over 12,000 candidates from underrepresented communities with employers across Australia and New Zealand. We aim to significantly increase those numbers, which is why we’re so happy to have a strong partner like Amazon Australia.”

As far as Cynthia is concerned, that’s exactly what this collaboration is achieving. “As with other programs under the RGF Connect umbrella, whether aimed at women, youth, people of a mature age or, in this case, people with a disability, we’re starting to shift trends that haven’t changed in a decade.”

Testing your assumptions

Can these successes be replicated elsewhere? Wayne Angus is emphatic that the key lessons from this collaboration apply universally. “My advice to any company would be: test your assumptions. Ninety-nine percent of people are more than capable for a whole range of careers. We restrict their capability by our paradigms and biases. Once you test those, you will find many of them to be false, and that opens up the way to tap into a whole new pool of talent.”

¹⁾ Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/disability/disability-ageing-and-carers-australia-summary-findings/latest-release