Annual Report 2018-19

Promoting flexible work opportunities, enhancing health and wellbeing, and developing our people.

Our 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. 

Leadership and management development

Our executive leadership team have been involved in essential leadership, a strengths based leadership program designed to strengthen and grow executive leadership within the commission. We implemented our first ‘manager skills’ sessions and have begun development of a whole-of-commission leadership program to support delivery of our three year strategy.

Capability and performance

Performance and development system

We implemented a new performance and development system in 2018. This system supports managers and their team members to hold regular conversations and recognise achievements against goals. 

Workforce planning

Recruitment

Our people and culture team supported 58 externally advertised recruitments in 2018–19. The team continually reviews our recruitment practices and policies and will continue developing knowledge and skills for recruiting within the Victorian Public Service via manager skills sessions. 

Graduate program and internships

We recruited one graduate for 2019. We support internships through work-integrated learning in universities and in partnership with the Department of Treasury and Finance for summer interns. In 2018–19, we employed four interns through our various programs.

The people and culture team has formalised our graduate program by providing a structured induction process and ongoing support to graduates. This includes monthly catch-ups between the graduate coordinators and graduates, and a ‘meet and greet’ session with the CEO and Chairperson when graduates start.

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 a number of initiatives with the aim to keep our employees healthy and well. Some of the initiatives include organising teams and activities for Steptember, organising flu shots, and promotion of our ‘employee assist’ program, which offers counselling, career and skill development services. 

Reducing sedentary risk

We are committed to reducing sedentary risk in our workplace. As part of this commitment, we installed standing desks for staff upon request and installed several electronic rising desks.

Occupational health and safety committee

Our occupational health and safety committee met four times during 2018–19. Attendees include health and safety and organisational representatives, members of our people and culture team, and a representative from the Action OHS organisation. 

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. 

Our people as of 30 June 2019

• 50:50 gender split – There were 59 women and 60 men working at the commission. 
• 119 people – We had 119 people working at the commission. 
• 40% in flexible work – Almost 40 per cent of our employees had formal flexible work agreements to suit their personal commitments.

_{Note: We did not employ any VPS 1 employees in 2018–19.
Chart source: *Includes ongoing and fixed-term and casual employees as at 30 June, excluding commissioners (includes personnel on paid leave arrangements, but excludes those on unpaid leave.)}

Diversity and inclusion

Flexible work 

We support and promote flexible work practices to help employees balance work and life. We continue to promote flexible work through a toolkit we launched in April 2018. The toolkit is designed to provide guidance and knowledge on why working flexibly can be important. It also outlines flexible work options available to employees to ensure they apply for working arrangements tailored to their individual needs. 

The commission currently has 47 (almost 40 per cent) of employees with formalised flexible work agreements. Of these employees, the type of flexible work requested varied and included working from home, flexible start and finish times, compressed hours, and part time. 

Empowered Women’s Network

The Empowered Women’s Network formed in November 2017 after employees attended the ‘Empowering Women for the Future’ summit. The network aims to be an inclusive space made up of women and those who value and support women. The network aims to promote, empower and recognise the women who are part of the commission workplace. 

This year the network again hosted an International Women’s Day event at the commission, with the Energy and Water Ombudsman (Victoria), Cynthia Gebert, as the main speaker on the topic of ‘balance for better’. To kick off the week leading up to International Women’s Day, the network and social club hosted a joint quiz night at the commission, focusing on women and women’s achievements.

Pride network

Our pride network was launched in 2017. The network aims to: 

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

In 2018–19 the pride network organised activities for ‘wear it purple’ day and the international day against homophobia, biphobia, intersexism and transphobia (lDAHOBIT). Our network promoted LGBTIQ events such as Midsumma and pride march, the ChillOut Festival and transgender day of visibility.

Developing our people and supporting great performance

Enhancing executive development – Our executive team are participating in our leadership essentials development program.

• 58 recruitments – We advertised externally in 2018–19.
• 1 new performance & development system – We launched the system in 2018.

Executive numbers

Annualised total salary for senior employees of the commission, by $20,000 bands*

Income band (salary)	Executives	Senior Technical Specialist	Principal Scientist	Senior Medical Adviser	Senior Regulatory Analyst	Other
$<160,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
160,000 – 179,000	1	3			3
180,000 – 199,000	-	-	-	-	2	-
200,000 – 219,000	3	-	-	-	-	-
220,000 – 239,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
240,000 – 259,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
260,000 – 279,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
280,000 – 299,000	1
300,000 – 319,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
320,000 – 339,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
340,000 – 359,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
360,000 – 379,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
380,000 – 399,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
400,000 – 419,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
420,000 – 439,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
440,000 – 459,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
460,000 – 479,000	-	-	-	-	-	-
480,000 – 499,000
TOTAL	5	3	0	0	5	0

_{*The salaries reported above are for the full financial year, at a one-full-time-equivalent rate, and exclude superannuation.}