Further enhancing the capability of our people

Overview

We started the year by implementing a new Collective Agreement that has been designed to provide competitive remuneration, mechanisms to reward performance and opportunities to enhance the capabilities of our staff through skills development.

Our focus on improving our organisational culture continued, with a staff survey being conducted to measure the effectiveness of initiatives that we had put into place following our ‘Culture Print’ in 2007, and to inform future activities aimed at making further inroads.

During the year we developed and implemented an action plan designed to address specific issues that were identified in our staff survey results. We designed and launched a leadership program, which is being delivered ‘from the top down’, with the aim of encouraging high performing and consistent leadership that is supported and well understood across the organisation. We have continued to offer learning and development opportunities that address the specific needs of our staff and business operations.

The introduction of more two way internal communication opportunities has also been a focus in response to our staff survey findings. We have been actively encouraging feedback from staff and provide a range of opportunities for staff to give direct and indirect feedback to our senior executive.

The announcement of a review of the administration of Commonwealth superannuation schemes in October 2008 presented a significant challenge for us, particularly with the associated cancellation of our Administration Modernisation Platform (APM) project. Our staff were provided with a comprehensive range of information and support to help them understand the impact of the decision; and transition plans were provided for all staff, including contractors and non-ongoing staff who were working on the APM project. Feedback from staff was generally positive in relation to how the information was communicated.

Although our ongoing staff turnover rate has increased from 10.6% to 12.7% in 2008-09 we were able to continue to attract high performing and experienced staff.