Description

The coffee roulette program was introduced to build connection of women across the organisation as part of the Council’s gender equity work. The program pairs two employees together and provides them with ideas for conversation starters. Staff then organise to catch up over a coffee or online for a chat. It provides a mechanism for staff members to connect who may not have otherwise connected within the organisation.

Who

The Community Partnerships area (Gender Equity Officer) established an internal ‘Women in Leadership Network’ as an action of their Gender Equity Plan. The network was open to all women employed in the organisation, of any position, from any area of Council, there are no exclusions. The Coffee Roulette program is an initiative of this network and was open to any of the ‘Women in Leadership Network’ members. There are 100 staff participating in the Coffee Roulette program. The People in Culture staff manage the program and engage an external provider for some of its implementation.

How

The Coffee Roulette program was originally organised and implemented by the Gender Equity Officer in Community Partnerships, with support from the Women in Leadership organising group. The program continues to be supported by Community Partnerships and People and Culture with a third-party provider online portal utilised. This has been extremely cost effective and efficient for the Council – staff are able to self-manage the process using the portal. The costs associated with the women in leadership network are shared across the organisation’s directorates.

Outcome

An evaluation was undertaken with 100% of respondents saying they would recommend coffee roulette to a colleague. Some benefits recognised by participants included: learning more about Council services and internal processes, hearing different viewpoints of Council, gaining greater confidence to pursue opportunities, meeting staff members they didn’t know before and broadening their networking across Council.

The program has supported people to get to know each other better across the organisation. Participants now know people in other areas of Council so can contact them confidently, they have a starting point to progress conversations and it has taken away the ‘cold calling’ element of contacting someone in another team. These connections have also helped conversations within the organisation start earlier.