Workforce Risk, Organisational Capability and Retention in Complex Industries

This session explores workforce retention, psychosocial safety and organisational capability through the lens of current federally funded workforce reform programs and large-scale industry initiatives across Australia. It examines the growing gap between policy intent and practical implementation, including the emerging challenge of practitioner capability uplift, organisational readiness and translating workforce equity objectives into sustainable operational practice across complex workplace environments.

About the Speaker:

Abby Kempe MBA, MICDA is National Lead – Workplace Equity at Tradeswomen Australia and Chair of HerSpace, a not-for-profit supporting survivors of modern slavery and exploitation in Australia. Originally engaged by Tradeswomen Australia as an external consultant, Abby now designs and leads workforce equity methodologies, organisational capability frameworks and psychosocial risk approaches applied across unions, industry and major employers. Her work focuses on translating complex workforce reform objectives into practical organisational systems, particularly within high-pressure and traditionally male-dominated sectors where leadership, governance, psychosocial safety and operational capability intersect. Her work increasingly centres on practitioner capability uplift and the challenge of building organisational reform models that are both strategically ambitious and operationally achievable across evolving Australian workplace environments.