To develop and invest in leaders that will genuinely challenge the status quo.
We achieve this by
Investing in our people is key to creating an organisation where people embrace and accept those who aspire to bring innovative ideas, skills and perspectives to work. We seek to ensure that the right people are attracted and retained to address our future skill requirements. We are in the process of identifying new skills aimed at finding innovative solutions that will enable us to adopt world class practices that are right for Western Australia. This section includes information on our equity and diversity, attraction and retention, learning and development and restructuring for the future.
|
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Full time equivalent (average) |
1,039 |
1,043 |
1,030 |
|
Women in leadership Level 5 and above |
109 |
114 |
119 |
|
Total employee retention rate |
95% |
92% |
92% |
We strive to create a rich, diverse workforce and we have a strong emphasis on promoting equality to ensure our workplace is free from harassment, discrimination and that all employees have access to training, progression and promotion. The following is an update on some key achievements in this area.
We recognise and value the role of women in the workforce and gender diversity at all levels of the organisation. We are committed to increasing the number of women in management roles. Our Diversity Committee supports the implementation of the Women in Management Action Plan which attracts, retains and develops women within the organisation, particularly in technical and professional areas. We have reached the target we initially identified for “proportion of women in our workforce” and have exceeded the targets for “women working in Level 6 positions and higher”.
By having an action plan it has:
Our Reconciliation Action Plan can be found on our website and Reconciliation Australia’s website. Our Diversity Committee finalised a Welcome to Country and Acknowledge of Country Statement, which is now required for all major Main Roads events. The Plan is currently being reviewed and updated to outline practical actions we can take to build stronger relationships and contribute to enhancing respect between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians.
We celebrated the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples during NAIDOC Week. Our Managing Director opened the event and a welcome to country was delivered by an Aboriginal elder. Some of our contracting partners talked about how they support Aboriginal engagement by working with Main Roads and an informative bush tucker presentation was given by Aboriginal elder, Jim Maher.
The ROADS Foundation is an independent not for profit charity, supported by Main Roads and West Australian Local Government Association. It is focused on getting young people into jobs and traineeships in the civil construction sector and aims to build a sustainable workforce for the future by engaging with and providing opportunities for people within local communities. The ROADS Foundation’s intensive operating model is driven from community engagement. It includes a range of advice and support to employers about training options, delivers extensive preparation programs before people enter the civil workforce, and provides a high level support network for organisations and individuals engaged in training and new employment. The development and expansion of this model aims to increase the quality of people entering the civil workforce, develop high levels of retention and completion of traineeships, maximise the investment of employers in training, and increase the awareness and interest in civil careers within schools and the broader community.
Our annual event, Family Day, promotes a healthy work-life balance and recognises the contributions staff make to the organisation. It involves each directorate and region putting together displays for visiting family and friends outlining past achievements, current and upcoming projects, and events. We also seek involvement from the community. The day helps us to demonstrate our Family value.
Our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Management Plan is developed in accordance with Part IX of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 and aligns with the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity’s outcome standards framework.
The following shows our statistics in various area’s.
|
Areas of Diversity |
2013 (%) |
2014 (%) |
2015 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Women |
29.1 |
29.8 |
30.0 |
|
Culturally diverse background |
17.5 |
17.4 |
18.8 |
|
People with disabilities |
3.6 |
3.2 |
1.1 |
|
Indigenous Australians |
1.8 |
1.8 |
0.7 |
Our workforce planning process is continually improving to respond and be flexible to changing demands and service delivery pressures. The implementation of functional based profiling, along with open communication on knowledge management and strategic capability requirements, has built a culture of future planning and sustaining the right skills for the future.
The annual workforce planning cycle helps key areas of our organisation formulate a five-year forecast by prioritising risk factors and developing strategies that support a diverse and sustainable future workforce such as:
Through the cycle, we’ve developed a functional and innovative approach to workforce planning which has enabled us to manage its workforce effectively.
We are moving towards a business partnering approach for human resource services to build relationships, enhance strategic alignment, increase manager engagement with selection, aid in the retention of internal knowledge and increase expertise in selection processes. Over the past year we advertised 117 positions receiving more than 2,300 applications.
Positions Advertised
Applications Received
Average Applications per Position Advertised
Our Development Employee Program provides recent engineering, technical and business graduates with structured development via job rotations across the organisation, ongoing formal training, coaching, and mentoring with senior leaders and technical specialists. The program is designed to internally develop talent for our next generation workforce and has an excellent retention and success rate.
TechXchanges are a one-hour, monthly forum that provide an opportunity for technical experts to share their knowledge and experience with other employees and technical partners. The sessions are designed for staff and stakeholders looking to improve their technical skills and network with our technical gurus.
Our Individual Performance Agreements provide the basis for regular and frequent conversations about performance, behaviour and development. They help staff understand how their work fits into the bigger picture and assist in clarifying the roles and expectations of managers and employees. The agreements also support a strong manager-employee relationship and high performance culture. Participation in IPA conversations has been outstanding, with a 95% completion rate last year. A series of training sessions were rolled out and aimed at both managers and employees to assist with skill development in having difficult conversations and managing performance.
All our corporate training and leadership programs are evaluated for return on investment against our evaluation framework that enables us to adjust the content and focus of programs based on feedback. This ensures programs continue to align to our learning objectives and corporate strategic direction. During the year, we benchmarked our training program against other organisations through the 2014 Training Awards. We won the Western Australian Employer of Choice category and were a finalist in the Australian Employer of Choice category.
Our Innovation and Research Program launched in February 2015 and aims to encourage and promote innovative ideas, assess those that propose or require research and development, and capture the research and development effort across the organisation. Many innovative ideas and research proposals have been submitted since the program’s commencement; several of which are currently in progress. All staff can submit an innovative idea or research proposal under the program, via an Ideas Forum on our intranet site. An Innovation and Research Panel evaluates and prioritises ideas and project proposals, recommends downstream initiatives or investment, and endorses innovation strategy. Panel members represent expertise from across the organisation who advocate innovation and improvement.
To support our aspiration and strategic direction we have made structural changes to enable the outcomes we are seeking to be achieved. Addressing congestion remains one of our highest priorities and our new Network Operations Directorate has a specific mandate to optimise the metropolitan road network. This is a key element of the Movement area of focus which is about improving the mobility of people and the efficiency of freight. We have also created a Metropolitan and Southern Regions Directorate that reflects the urbanisation of the State’s southern corridor. Equally a focus for the new Central and Northern Regions Directorate ensures that we will meet the unique customer needs in these areas which continue to be so important to the State’s future.
Amalgamations have occured for our two Wheatbelt Regions, and our Midwest and Gascoyne Regions, to improve efficiencies of delivery, the ongoing attraction and retention of staff and to get the best management arrangements in place.
To provide our Customers with a transport network centred on what they need and value we have centralised our communications and strategy focus into a single business unit. We are also focussing on creating skills sets to leverage off how we collect and disseminate data to improve customer journeys with a focus on real time information.
These new structures, coupled with a greater focus on asset management planning ensure that we can meet the changing demands on the transport network and develop a Sustainable network that meets social, economic and environmental needs.
To provide improved Safety outcomes for all road users we have also relocated our safety team into the Planning and Technical Services Directorate as we focus on a shared responsibility for creating a safe system. This will also assist in leveraging off technology to deliver leading safe road infrastructure design.
These changes will ensure our structure supports clear accountabilities aimed at achieving our strategic direction. The new structure will come into effect as of 1 July 2015.
We are in the process of identifying capability and new skills aimed at finding innovative solutions that will enable us to adopt world class practices that are right for Western Australia
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