How Downer Reached Untapped Talent with Women on Track
Downer needed to fill entry-level rail roles in an industry where women are still significantly underrepresented, and standard recruitment channels weren't reaching them. Many of the women who would go on to thrive in rail had simply never considered it as a career option.
WORK180 partnered with Downer to design and deliver a multi-channel employer brand campaign that challenged perceptions, reached women beyond traditional talent pools and helped connect them with opportunities they may never have previously imagined.
In this session, Jaye Lanigan, who has led Downer's Women on Track program from the ground up, and Gemma Lloyd, CEO and Co-Founder of WORK180, unpack that collaboration end-to-end: what they built together, why it worked, and what happened when it ran.
That partnership also highlights a much bigger challenge facing employers today.
More people are rethinking what they want from work, whether they're entering the workforce for the first time, returning after a career break, changing industries or looking for a fresh start. At the same time, traditional entry-level pathways are evolving, and employers are competing harder than ever to attract future talent.
In response, WORK180 has launched the Early Careers Pledge, a public commitment to help one million young Australians into work by 2032, alongside a new early careers platform designed to connect employers with future apprentices, trainees and early-career talent.
Jaye and Gemma will cover:
How WORK180 and Downer partnered to reach women outside traditional talent pools
Unpacking Women on Track
A first look at the Early Careers Pledge and WORK180's new early careers platform
Practical lessons for attracting talent through alternative career pathways
Attendees will gain insight into how a WORK180 partnership works in practice, along with fresh ideas for reaching overlooked talent, broadening candidate pools and creating pathways into industries people may never have previously considered.
About the speakers
Jaye Lanigan is a Learning and Development leader at Downer, known for turning diversity and inclusion ambitions into structured, working programs. She leads Women on Track and Indigenous Pathways to Success, building pathways from attraction, training, coaching and ongoing development, that help women and other underrepresented groups enter, participate and progress in rail and infrastructure careers. Jaye works closely with project leadership, government bodies, training providers and community stakeholders to embed these programs into everyday project delivery.
Gemma Lloyd is the co-Founder and CEO of WORK180, the platform raising the standard of workplace equity for women and underrepresented groups. She co-founded the company with Valeria Ignatieva after both experienced significant discrimination in the technology industry, and has led it as CEO since 2015. As a regular media commentator and speaker on gender equity, Gemma has built WORK180 into a global voice for holding employers accountable, and celebrating the ones getting it right