COVER STORY
2O15 HR HOT LIST
KELLIE EGAN
HR DIRECTOR AUSTRALIA AND APAC ATLASSIAN 2015 has been Atlassian’s year in terms of HR accolades. Not only did the Australian IT juggernaut pick up three awards at the Australian HR Awards (including Employer of Choice <1000 employees), but it also took out the number one spot as Australia’s Best Place to Work, for the second year running, in the 2015 BRW Best Place to Work list. The Sydney office has expanded from 100 to 650 employees in the last five years alone, and global expansion continues apace. Atlassian is renowned for its innovative recruitment methods – including a European recruitment bus tour – and a monthlong ‘bootcamp’ for new graduates (40 new grads joined in 2015), so industry observers will be keen to track the company’s next move: Atlassian has filed for an initial public offering in the US in a crucial step toward a $3bn-plus listing.
MELISSA DAVIDSON
HR DIRECTOR BOEING DEFENCE AUSTRALIA After 18 years in IR roles in significant companies, Melissa Davidson made the move into HR, and eventually found her way to Boeing Defence Australia. BDA employs 1,300 people – a small proportion of the 175,000 employed by Boeing globally – but this means Davidson and her team are able to tap into the company’s world-leading HR initiatives. Indeed, Boeing is consistently ranked among the top 10 companies for leaders (Chief Executive Magazine). Key to this success is consistency: across the 65 countries in which the company operates, all leaders are assessed twice a year against the same six Boeing leadership attributes – but Davidson also notes the importance of “the X factor” for future leaders. In addition, the Boeing Leadership Centre in St Louis is an L&D hub for the company’s best leaders. Closer to home, Davidson is working on strategies to bolster female engineers in the company above the industry average of 14%. “We don’t want to run just at the average. We want to be the place where the limited number of female engineers choose us over everyone else,” says Davidson.
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SYLVIA BURBERY
GENERAL MANAGER MARS PETCARE AUSTRALIA From dynamic office floor plans that encourage collaboration, to team cooking classes and – naturally – the opportunity to bring pets to the workplace, a strong company culture has been the lynchpin of Mars Australia’s success over the past 60 years. For the fourth year running, the company was recognised as one of Australia’s best workplaces by the BRW Great Place to Work Awards, being ranked as the 15th best place to work in the country. Burbery says Mars makes a conscious effort to create a “collaborative and energetic” culture. The company, which has also been credited for its wellness programs as well as local and global volunteering opportunities, has a long-term commitment to manufacturing and investment in Australia’s regional areas.
IT’S BEEN A TOUGH YEAR FOR… Samantha Liston, director of people and learning, ABC A $254m budget cut meant the ABC recorded a spate of redundancies throughout the 2015 financial year. The media reported that the redundancy process was nicknamed ‘The Hunger Games’ because it pitted staff against each other. The tough times will continue: the ABC’s industrial agreement is due for renewal in 2016. Penny Cervetto, national HR manager, 7-Eleven Between July and August, a review found payroll compliance issues in over two thirds of the company’s 225 stores. The hearing was part of an enquiry into Australia’s temporary work visa program, which found the franchise chain had underpayed staff over an extended period. Senior management have made a promise to fully refund underpaid staff, apologising “unreservedly” to the company’s exploited workers. Harriet Mihalopoulos, general manager – HR and industrial relations, Hutchison Ports Australia A media and union firestorm erupted in August when Hutchison Ports made almost 100 employees redundant via text message. Hutchison Ports claimed that “severe financial pressures” forced it to make “hard decisions”. Mihalopoulos told the media that extensive consultation with staff and unions had taken place prior to the messages being sent, and that an EBA negotiated by the company and the Maritime Union of Australia had made text message and email an agreed means of communication between the company and staff.
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22/10/2015 11:20:52 AM