Annual Report 2019-20

People strategy 2020+

We commenced the development of our next people strategy in 2020. We are undertaking a human-centred design approach to create a dynamic strategy that will grow and change as we do.

We started with the discovery stage, engaging our leaders and staff focus groups in understanding the current state of the organisation. We will be including all staff in the creation of the strategy and look forward to launching it later in the year.

Our existing people initiatives are structured around three areas: learning and development, capability and performance and workforce planning.

Learning and development

Mentoring program

For the past three years, we have participated in a combined mentoring program with the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Department of Treasury and Finance. This combined program allows for a greater breadth of mentors and mentees, and encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing between the three organisations.

Participation in the program was strong again in 2019, with seven mentors and 12 mentees.

Training and leadership development

We made a strong commitment to learning and development this year. Our executive team completed the Potential Life program, which focused on self-awareness and leveraging individual strengths when leading teams.

We designed and launched the leadership essentials program, a leadership program to define and accelerate leadership at the commission, building skills in self-awareness, leading teams, and taking accountability for organisational culture.

Our most senior people leaders (senior regulatory analyst and senior technical specialist ) completed the program first and then supported the next group of VPS 6 leaders through their program.

We increased our in-house training, focusing on resilience, effective performance conversations and mental health and wellbeing. We also partnered with Black Dog to deliver training to support the implementation of the VPS mental health and wellbeing charter.

We successfully switched to virtual delivery of all training during the remote working period and offered regular sessions on mindfulness to support employees.

Capability and performance

Performance and development system

We continued to improve our performance and development system in 2019, encouraging employees and managers to have regular discussions about goals and learning and development aspirations.

Workforce planning

Recruitment

Our people and culture team supported 61 advertised recruitments in 2019–20 with 20 of these externally advertised.

With the introduction of the Jobs and Skills Exchange recruitment policy in October 2019, 41 recruitment cycles went exclusively to the platform to attract internal VPS candidates. Of these cycles, 18 were re-advertised externally due to low candidate applications or candidates who lacked the core skills for the role.

The team continually reviews our recruitment practices and have simplified our recruitment forms and processes as well as consulting with hiring managers to develop their knowledge and skills.

Graduate program and internships

We recruited three graduates for 2020. We support internships through work integrated learning in universities and in partnership with the Department of Treasury and Finance for summer interns. In 2019–20, we employed three interns through our various programs.

Who we are – As of 30 June 2020

• 51:49 gender split – We had 70 women and 68 men working at the commission.
• We had 138 people working at the commission.
• Our organisation grew by 13 per cent in 2019–20, reflecting our increasing role supporting Victorian consumers.

Health and safety

Health and wellbeing committee

Our health and wellbeing committee is led by an executive sponsor and consists of divisional representatives and people and culture. The committee has rolled out several initiatives with the aim to keep our employees connected, healthy and well.

Reducing sedentary risk

We are committed to reducing sedentary risk in our workplace. As part of this commitment, we encourage staff to take regular breaks and alternate their working hours.

OHS committee

Our occupational health and safety committee met four times during 2019–20. Attendees include health and safety and organisational representatives, members of our people and culture team, and a representative from Action OHS.

Our health and safety representative and deputy health and safety representative, undertake a pivotal role in ensuring our workplace is safe and hazard free. They also help to ensure our committee considers new ideas and perspectives.

Diversity and inclusion

Flexible work

We support and promote flexible work practices to help employees balance work and life. There are various flexible working arrangements available to employees to ensure their working arrangements are tailored to their individual needs.

We were able to quickly transition the entire workforce to working from home during the pandemic and have received feedback that many employees would like to continue to work more flexibly moving forward.

Empowered Women’s Network

The Empowered Women’s Network is a staff led initiative that aims to promote, empower and recognise the women who are part of the commission workplace.

This year the network hosted an International Women’s Day event, with a panel compromising of Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change and for Solar Homes, the Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio, Victoria’s Energy and Water Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert and our chairperson Kate Symons. The panel spoke of their experiences in seeking to realise gender equality. Following this, the network hosted an International Women’s Day quiz night and a masterclass with Kate Reader and Morag Bond from ACCC on flexible work.

Pride network

Our pride network aims to promote workplace inclusion of LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer) employees, to provide a space for the commission’s LGBTIQ people to come together and raise issues of importance to them in the workplace and to provide a formal avenue to connect with the broader Victorian Public Service pride network.

This year the network celebrated Midsumma through ‘Trivi-yaasss’. This quiz tested the teams LGBTIQ+ knowledge and raised $54.50 for Switchboard Victoria, a community-based not for profit that provides peer-led, volunteer run support services and suicide prevention initiatives for LGBTIQ+ people, their friends, families and allies.