We recognise that the capability of our staff is at the heart of our success. That is why our organisation’s business plan identifies investing in our people and culture as one of our three key strategic priorities.

Progress in 2018-19

During the year Richard Large, Chief Technology Officer, Sue Brake, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Portfolio Strategy, and Daniel Doyle, Head of Investment Data Management joined our organisation, further strengthening our investment, data and technology functions as the organisation matures and goes into its second decade.

Investing in our leaders

We recognise the critical importance of leadership in building and maintaining a strong culture and positive working environment, and in extracting the best from our workforce.

Over the last three years we have increased our focus on leadership development, reflecting that leaders of a growing organisation face new demands. This has included delivering in-house training for managers on leadership fundamentals and project leadership.

In the year ahead, we will build on this investment in our leadership layer through a comprehensive, multi-module leadership program designed specifically for our context and needs.

Developing our people

We have a well-established training policy with professional development budgets available for all staff.

In 2018-19 we launched a new online tool called mylearning which has become the central location for employee development. Through this tool we are delivering online training modules to assist new starters during their onboarding and induction. We have also developed a set of compliance training modules for ongoing staff on a broad range of topics, including information protection and disclosure, dealing with inside information, and reputation risk awareness.

Through mylearning staff can also access an online training planner where they can capture all external development activities they have undertaken. This professional development record will assist our staff to track their development as they move through their career.

Bedding down the organisation of the future

In 2017-18 we were focused on designing how our organisation needed to operate going into the future. This included making a range of changes to our structure to strengthen our investment, technology and risk functions as the organisation matures and goes into its second decade.

In 2018-19 we focused on bedding down the restructure, including appointing internal staff and external hires to key leadership positions.

Flexible working

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels that there is a healthy balance in all they do. We believe this will support a culture of inclusion, trust and respect and will encourage innovation, creativity, productivity, discretionary effort and focus.

Our mytime policy enables staff to make choices about when, where and for how long they engage in work-related tasks, supporting staff to manage their own time to balance the multiple demands from life and work. During 2018-19, 13 employees accessed mytime arrangements.

In addition to mytime, formal flexible work arrangements are available to all staff. This includes personal leave arrangements for primary and secondary carers. At 30 June 2019, 21 employees had flexible work arrangements in place.

Diversity and inclusion

We focus on diversity and inclusion because it’s the right thing to do. We also believe the best business and investment decisions are made by teams that can bring together diverse views.

We continue to make good progress against our Inclusion and Diversity Plan, which provides a framework for how we will achieve an inclusive and diverse culture.

The strategies and initiatives we have put in place include:

• encouraging females within our organisation to apply for senior roles
• encouraging the executive recruitment agencies we work with to provide balanced shortlists in terms of gender representation, as well as a greater mix of cultural backgrounds
• implementing our flexible work arrangement, mytime, which allows our people to manage their time in a way that works for them
• improving our technology capability to support flexible work practices
• delivering interview training for hiring managers which includes unconscious bias training to raise awareness which can lead to changes in behaviour.

Work, health and safety

Employee safety and wellbeing continues to be a focus for the organisation.

Our Work Health & Safety Committee operated throughout the year and undertook safety audit reviews of the office spaces.

We ensured new staff were informed of our ergonomic principles of work space management. First aid and fire warden training was also provided.

A range of wellbeing initiatives including health checks and awareness programs were delivered throughout the year.

We recorded no lost-time injuries for the period.

Our workforce

Our workforce at 30 June 2019 was 155 staff.

We welcomed 22 new starters during the year: 13 were replacements for existing roles, and nine were for new roles. We had 25 internal promotions and five internal secondments.

Our central office is located in Melbourne. We have an office in Sydney and a small number of staff have arrangements in place to regularly work across both locations.

A strong positive culture and high level of engagement is reflected in the Human Resource statistics: lost time injuries – nil; absentee rate – 1.7%. We anticipated that our turnover rate would increase as a result of our restructure. Typically it is single figures, however this year it was 18.6%. This includes positions made redundant as a result of the restructure.

Human Resource statistics

A full breakdown of our workforce in accordance with the reporting requirements under the PGPA Act is on the following page.

All Agency staff are employed under the Public Service Act 1999.

Ongoing employees at 30 June 2019

Non-ongoing employees at 30 June 2019

Ongoing employees at 30 June 2018

Non-ongoing employees at 30 June 2018

Employees by full-time and part-time status at 30 June 2019

Employees by full-time and part-time status at 30 June 2018

Employment type by location at 30 June 2019

Employment type by location at 30 June 2018

Employment arrangements at 30 June 2019

No employees identified as indigenous in 2017-18 or 2018-19.