People Strategy 2030 Better for Being Here

Yarra Valley Water proudly acknowledges the Traditional Custodians/Owners of the land and water on which we rely and operate. We pay our deepest respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge the continued cultural, social and spiritual connections that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have with the lands and waterways, and recognise and value their care and protection for thousands of generations.

People Strategy 2030 Better for Being Here

The People Strategy 2030 is a critical enabler for delivering on Yarra Valley Water’s (YVW) 2030 strategic plan, ‘A Brighter Future’. It’s through our people that we’ll deliver on our three strategic priorities - transforming around the customer, helping communities thrive and leading for our environmental future.

Our ambition is to stand out as a high-performing organisation which is purpose led, performance oriented and with our values guiding everyday decision making. We’ve developed the strategy in recognition of the vital role we play in supporting the health and wellbeing of our customers and creating a brighter future for communities and the natural environment. We’re facing a period of rapid and profound change – in the communities we serve, in the natural environment and as a workforce. This is an important time to lay out a clear plan for building and supporting our vibrant and successful workforce across Melbourne and potentially beyond.

The People Strategy 2030 identifies actions that will improve employee experiences and wellbeing and maintain our position as an award winning ‘employer of choice’. It is a working strategy, with enough flexibility built in to allow us to adapt as government priorities and the needs of our customers, community and employees change. This document is the second version of this strategy which was first launched in 2020. It documents the progress we have made and also reflects the addition of a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion pillar. This new pillar replaces the previous approach of having a separate stand alone Diversity & Inclusion Strategy, the last of which continued until 2022.

People Vision

Our People Strategy vision is to:

Create a workplace where our employees safely perform to their highest potential, all in support of delivering our 2030 Strategy.

Directly enhance our employees’ wellbeing because they work at YVW (Better for being here).

Improve the collective wellbeing of our community through the extended reach of our partners, stakeholders and immediate families.

As acclaimed American poet, storyteller and activist

reminds us:

‘Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.’

Maya Angelou

Understanding our workforce

YVW is constantly pushing the boundaries of what a contemporary water utility can be.

Our strategic direction focuses on creating greater experiences for our customers every day, helping communities thrive and leading for our environmental future - all while delivering sustainable, high- quality services.

External forces such as Melbourne’s ageing and growing population, a rise in environmental activism, increasing cost of living pressures and changing customer and employee expectations, have all been considered in the development of this People Strategy. All these factors and more will affect the way we deliver services and engage with the community, leading to continual review of the way we work. However, with challenge comes opportunity. This strategy is grounded in optimism and possibility - for us as an organisation as well as for individual employees.

We continue to use our strategic direction to review our operating model in a fluid environment. The foundation created by previous work in culture and engagement, leadership and capability shift the existing paradigm to drive performance and achievement through our unwavering focus on our employees’ wellbeing and prosperity. It is with the above in mind, that we have developed a new Employee Value Proposition that positions YVW as a changemaker where our employees can be inspired, challenged and grow alongside us.

This is summed up by our new tagline:

Led by purpose. Driven by People.

It’s this focus that will ensure our people enable YVW to achieve its 2030 strategic ambition.

Our organisational culture, values and workforce capability are all critical enablers. They also set the path for the People Strategy.

We already have an awardwinning workforce, but we can’t be complacent. We know from the People Matter Survey (2021) and our Organisational Cultural Inventory 2022 that our people enjoy their work and it gives them a great sense of accomplishment. We also know we still have room for improvements in areas such as workplace diversity and providing greater access to employee development.

Who we are

Average age of employees: Gender

5.89% of our employees are under 25

12.14% of our employees are 55+

of roles in technical areas are filled with women

1.31% Employees who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander

of our leadership positions are filled by women

What our people are saying

People Matters Survey 2021

74% of employees believe their group is quick to respond to opportunities to do things better

94% of employees agree we deliver high quality services to our community 68% satisfied with current level of career development

57% all levels of the organisation are involved in the prevention of stress

78% my organisation motivates me to help achieve its objectives

my organisation inspires me to the best in my job

my organisation provides a safe work environment

Defining our approach

YVW’s approach to its People Strategy is founded on the premise that employee wellbeing underpins employee engagement and a high-performance culture.

We already have an award-winning culture, but as we move closer to 2030 our employees have to continue working at their best, as one team, and performing to their full potential to deliver what we’ve set out to achieve.

Since at least 2018, Deloitte has been highlighting the workforce wellbeing imperative. It found companies that focus on and commit to a culture of wellbeing benefit from a boost in engagement, morale, retention, recruitment and performance.

Striving for wellbeing does not mean you won’t be impacted by life challenges such as illness, injury or stress, but with resilience (which can be defined as “the capacity to prepare for, recover from and adapt in the face of stress, trauma, adversity and challenge”) you’re more likely to thrive at work and in life.

Wellbeing is becoming a core responsibility of good corporate citizenship and a critical performance strategy to drive engagement, organisational energy and productivity. It’s also a growing expectation for the high performers that companies most want to recruit and retain.

This is all about boosting human performance and happiness, keeping the workplace “human” and delivering, with our partners, the greatest value we can to our customers, stakeholders and broader society.

This People Strategy (launched in July 2020, early in the COVID 19 pandemic) has been informed by the seminal model of wellbeing created by Dr Peggy Swarbrick which focused on the integration among the eight essential elements of who we are and what matters to us (see figure 1). This drives our whole of person approach. It is this approach which stood us in good stead to navigate the challenges of the pandemic, and by really looking after our people holistically we were well equipped to deliver on our strategic objectives and core services at a time of immense uncertainty and disruption.

Wellbeing model underpinning this strategy

People Strategy 2030

Better for being here

The eight dimensions of wellbeing are defined as:

Financial

Achieving satisfaction with current and future financial situations; handling finances wisely.

Occupational

Personal fulfillment and enrichment from one’s work and/or responsibilities.

Intellectual

Recognising creative abilities and finding ways to expand knowledge and skills; being open-minded.

Social

Developing a sense of connection and belonging and a sustained support system; having positive relationships.

Spiritual

Having a sense of purpose and meaning in life; establishing peace, harmony, and balance in our lives.

Emotional

Coping effectively with life and expressing emotions in an appropriate manner.

Environmental

Occupying pleasant, healthy and safe environments that support wellbeing; positively impacting the quality of our surroundings (including protecting and preserving nature).

Physical

Recognising the need for physical activity, healthy foods, and adequate sleep; avoiding unhealthy habits.

Our Values

Our values, as set out in the 2030 Strategy, are evident throughout the People Strategy 2030, and will guide us as we deliver into the future.

At Yarra Valley Water

For our customers, communities, partners, the natural environment and each other. Everything starts with putting People First We work as One Team We will Be Brave With clear focus we Deliver what Matters So together, we make a Positive Impact

Five core themes of the People Strategy

The executive has identified five core pillars that underpin the People Strategy

Culture and Purpose Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Workforce of the Future Safe and Well Performance through Potential

Workforce of the Future

We’ll have an organisation capable of delivering on our big shifts and bringing our strategy to life. We’ll have the right people in the right roles at the right time. We’ll have a safe, resilient and flexible workplace for the future, with future fit ways of working embedded.

We’ll have a People, Performance and Culture team which enables our people and organisation to deliver what matters and will identify and remove barriers to getting work done.

Workforce of the Future

We continue to review our Operating Model with the intent to enhance our people, structure, processes, data and systems. The aim is to create improved organisational capabilities and new ways of working to ensure we can deliver the big shifts needed to achieve our 2030 Strategy goals.

With that will come new strategic workforce planning to ensure we have the right people in the right roles at the right time.

Core foundational technology will be crucial to deliver a seamless service to customers and internally we will support the business in coaching and managing the change required with the implementation of these new contemporary systems.

Working in adaptive ways will become increasingly important as we face changing demands. Enhanced employee service, and technology will enable us to do this. The use of workforce data to analyse, predict and help improve performance will also be crucial. These will be a core focus for the People, Performance and Culture Team.

We will continue to embrace hybrid working and continue to offer no set mandated days in the office (for most staff) but rather trusting our staff to choose the best work location for their day, supported with key moments that matter where we all come together onsite to build clarity, connection, culture and collaboration.

To ensure we are resilient enough to withstand unforeseen challenges to our essential operations, we will consciously create new, resilient workplaces safe and fit for now and beyond while maintaining the cultural core that makes us great.

Areas of continual focus

Provide change management coaching and support for critical projects related to our 2030 Strategy.

Review People, Performance and Culture team processes and systems with a focus on reducing barriers to effectiveness and productivity.

Renew our Human Resource Information System (HRIS) infrastructure with new technology supporting a diverse and dispersed workforce and creating great experiences every day for our employees.

Continuously review our Operating Model to ensure it supports effective delivery of our core services and 2030 aspirations.

Train our people in tools and practices for sustained and effective hybrid working.

Enhance workforce reporting and analytics to enable effective planning, strategic decision making and tailored program options in pursuit of improved organisational productivity.

Greater leverage business partnering expertise to improve business outcomes.

Culture and Purpose

We’ll continue to evolve our award winning and industry leading workplace culture to maximise engagement and ensure our people can be at their best by fostering purpose and meaning at work and, autonomy and inclusion. We’ll reward and recognise individuals and teams who deliver results for our customers, community and the natural environment.

Culture and Purpose

The key to driving innovation and maintaining our exceptional workplace culture in periods of unprecedented change is by connecting people to our purpose, providing autonomy (the need to direct your own life and work) and opportunities for mastery (desire to improve and learn). These are key inputs to self-determination and workplace motivation, as outlined by Dan Pink in his book Drive (drawing on research undertaken by psychologists Harry Harlow and Edward Deci in 1971). When people are motivated they provide discretionary effort, driving engagement and high performance.

Embedding our new organisational values has been critical to driving cultural alignment, with the desired behaviours being brought to life by each person every day. Importantly, this will be about employees knowing and connecting with our values. It’s about the right people with the right mindset applying our values by seeing themselves and others consistently behave in a way that’s aligned to them.

We’ll measure our culture and engagement levels through a continuous listening strategy which informs ongoing improvements and in time interventions. Leaders will be continually supported to drive engagement in their teams and be informed by personalised data and business partnering support.

A refreshed total rewards strategy will be crucial to ensure our people feel valued and their contributions are seen and acknowledged.

Areas of continual focus

Embed a leader-led approach to engagement recognising the high impact direct leaders have on individual employee engagement and their teams exercising discretionary effort.

Continue to listen to our employees and measure our Culture and engagement.

Embed our values into the employee lifecycle.

Embed inclusion and employee wellbeing into our Operating Model.

Focus on strengthening our Constructive Achievement behaviour and organisational norms.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We’ll continue to work to ensure our workforce composition more closely reflects the communities we serve. We’ll continue to build on our inclusive working environment, so all our people feel a strong sense of belonging whilst working with us and able to bring their best self to work. Our employees should all experience equal access to support, systems and workplace benefits so they can thrive here with us. Our leaders have the ability to lead diverse teams and are held accountable for their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) outcomes.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

At Yarra Valley Water, we celebrate what makes us unique and commit to always working to build a more equitable and inclusive environment, where everyone can belong and thrive together. Building on our focus and work on Diversity and Inclusion since 2015 we now expand this approach to additionally focus on equity as we mature in our approach and adapt to the ever-evolving landscape. Equity focuses on treating people in a flexible way that addresses their individual needs. It takes into consideration that everyone does not start on an equal playing field and special measures may be required to achieve equal outcomes.

To enable us to make real and sustainable change with the resources we have available, we will focus on five key diversity areas: Gender, First Peoples, Disability and Neurodiversity, LGBTIQ+ and Multicultural.

While we are committing to five focus areas, we are also aiming to take a broader lens to our work, as we recognise that overlapping forms of inequality or discrimination can often occur at the same time. For example, we tend to talk about gender inequality as separate from inequality based on someone’s race, sexuality or age etc. What’s often missing is how some people are subject to multiple forms of discrimination, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts. This focus on intersectionality and inclusion will maximise our impact so our employee’s full selves are considered and cared for.

Diversity is a fact, Equity is a choice, Inclusion is an action, Belonging is the outcome.

Further we will continue to specifically target high priority groups (such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with a disability and women in leadership and Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) positions to join us so we continue to create a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve.

Areas of continual focus

Equip leaders to champion Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and measure their positive impact within their area.

Increase our diversity through inclusive recruitment practices to more closely reflect the community we serve.

Support employees to practice inclusive behaviours, underpinned by our organisational values.

Develop targeted and specific career pathways for underrepresented groups.

Work closely with our peers, partners and suppliers to increase diversity within the sector and create equitable and inclusive outcomes.

Listen and learn from the diverse voices in order to prioritise our work on things that will have the most impact.

Address systemic (and unintended) barriers to our employees accessing support, systems, career opportunities and workplace benefits so they can thrive here with us.

Safe and Well

We’ll continue to enhance the safety and wellbeing of our employees, contractors and those whom we partner with to deliver our services. We will focus on high potential hazard identification and rectification. We’ll support early intervention and prevention of physical and psychological injuries.

Safe and Well

YVW is committed to achieving the highest levels of safety and wellbeing for all those who help us deliver services to our communities. Recognising that health, safety and wellbeing is a shared responsibility, we aim to help each person take control of their total wellbeing and to support leaders to create safe work environments where the welfare and safety of all is paramount. YVW is adopting an integrated model of health, safety and wellbeing and is certified to the international standards ISO 45001. This approach ensures compliance regimes are maintained and preferences early intervention and prevention which are the focus of many of our programs and activities.

By focusing beyond regulatory compliance and placing people at the centre of all our activities, our employees, contractors and partners will be able to better serve the needs of our customers, community and natural environment.

With the increased prevalence of mental health injuries in our communities, YVW will take further steps to protect our employees’ mental health by reducing psychosocial work-related risk factors (e.g. job design, psychological job demands and others) and to continue to proactively address mental illness or injury by providing pathways to appropriate support, promoting recovery and continued connection to work.

Further, as the line between work and life continues to blur (especially in the current global environment), a robust suite of wellbeing programs becomes a corporate responsibility and a strategy to drive employee productivity, engagement and retention. We’ll expand our existing formal wellbeing program to focus on the eight dimensions of wellbeing providing greater support in areas of mental health, resilience, mindfulness and financial literacy as well as offering greater workplace flexibility in terms of schedule and work location.

By embedding our Contractor Safety Partnering Framework throughout all our engagements with partners and contractors, we will clearly distinguish between OH&S duties owed by YVW from those owed by our partners and contractors, as well as identifying shared duties throughout the contractor engagement cycle. Our people-based safety model will remind our internal stakeholders to recognise and acknowledge the skills and experience of our contractors in the identification and mitigation of safety risks, as we approach contractor safety management through a partnering lens.

Areas of continual focus

Build leadership capability and workplace culture to support the safety and wellbeing of our people.

Continue to develop our management systems, and our targeted focus on near misses, hazards, and incidents that have a high potential for significant injury.

Promote safety and wellbeing integration into business processes.

By evolving our in-field safety programs across YVW sites, we will target onsite hazard rectification, improve clarity on safety responsibilities, mature our safety climate, improve our safety systems, and operationalise our people-based safety model by involving field staff in the identification of safety solutions.

Maintain a strong focus on engaging with our contractors, suppliers, and broader sector to share learnings, innovations, and place the highest priority on safety and wellbeing.

Continue to evolve our approach to infield safety.

Ensure psychosocial risks are captured, reviewed and mitigated in our operating model.

Performance through Potential

We’ll leverage the strength of our award-winning reputation and refreshed employer brand in the marketplace, to attract the best people and retain them. We’ll onboard our new employees well and set them up to achieve. We’ll foster all of our employees’ potential, capability and performance all day in every way.

Performance through Potential

Our great reputation in the water industry helps us to attract top people – our employees are some of the best in the world at what they do. Our ongoing success will depend on us leveraging recent work to update our Employee Value Proposition.

Led by purpose.

Driven by people.

If we are true to our purpose to provide a brighter future for communities and the natural environment, we have an obligation to value excellence in those who work with us today, and those who we seek to attract tomorrow.

Our onboarding and orientation processes have been reviewed and updated to reflect the increasingly hybrid nature of work, (where work can be completed at home, in the office and in other spaces such as our treatment plants and in the field), with a view to driving inclusion and rapid speed to productivity. New employees need to be set up in the virtual world to feel connected, valued and clear on what is expected of them.

We’ll continually seek to build brave transformational leaders who want to make a positive impact. Leaders will be nurtured and developed at all levels, strengthening their ability to promote a culture of accountability, transparency and collaboration.

Continue to identify critical roles and the succession pipelines for them so our operational and commercial risks are minimised through planned continuity. We’ll provide our best talent with a series of developmental experiences, each offering the opportunity to acquire new skills, perspectives and judgement.

The organisation we need for the future requires collaboration, resilience and agility. This means teams are more important than ever before and we must support all individuals to be highly effective in driving network contribution where the sum of the parts is more powerful than the individual.

An employee-centric performance management process that adds value and drives improved performance outcomes for YVW is also crucial.

Areas of continual focus

Build a learning and development curriculum to support the capabilities needed for the future.

Refine our sourcing channels for critical roles.

Upskill leaders to drive high performance in their teams.

Identify critical roles and nurture high potential employees.

Develop succession plans at all leadership levels.

Refine our performance management process to be more employee centric.

Continue to build our Employer Brand.

Ensure our employees have the right skills to do their jobs effectively as they continually evolve and change.

Measures of success

Workforce of the Future

Future Fit Ways of Working Index - People Matters 2023 Baseline.

Culture and Purpose

The success of this People Strategy will be based on the organisation delivering on its ambitions in the 2030 strategy. However, measures specific to this strategy are outlined below.

≥ 75th percentile for all Groups Organisational Cultural Inventory in each of the constructive styles (SS).

≥ 82 overall Employee Engagement Index (SS).

≥ 10th percentile of Victorian Public Sector Respondents (SS).

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

≥ 48.5% Women in Leadership.

≥ 2% Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander employees.

≥ 40% Women in Technical.

DEI Index - People Matters 2023 Baseline.

Safe and Well

< 5.5 Combined YVW and Contractor Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) (SS).

Wellbeing Index.

> 70% Positive emotion related to work.

< 15% High stress.

≥ 80% Safety Climate Index.

100% of High Potential hazards have interim controls in place (SS).

>70% Safety Hazards rectified (SS).

Performance through Potential

Leadership Excellence Index - People Matters 2023 Baseline.

Learning and Growth Index - People Matters 2023 Baseline.

Workforce for the future

Two year workplan

(In addition to the Continual Areas of Focus we will focus on the following outcomes)

2023-24

• Review and adjust overtime practices as needed to ensure compliance and efficiency.

• Update employment contracts to ensure compliance with new Fair Work obligations.

• Embed obligations relating to employee security checks under the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act.

• Leverage Enterprise Change Support to enable successful implementation of Enterprise Delivery Framework.

• Leverage Enterprise Change Support to enable business success in our Future Customer Experience and Digital Metering Programs.

2024-25

• Implement our refreshed vacation-studentto-graduate program, strengthening our engineering pipeline.

• Commence negotiations for our next Enterprise Agreement.

• Continue to leverage Enterprise Change Support to further enable business success in our Future Customer Experience and Digital Metering Programs.

• Extend our new Strategic Workforce Planning activities to another priority Group.

2023-24 2024-25

Two year workplan

(In addition to the Continual Areas of Focus we will focus on the following outcomes)

• Use our People Matters Survey 2023 results to adjust programs as required to ensure we achieve intended cultural improvements.

• Improve our leadership selection to ensure greater diversity in leadership levels and greater quality hires.

• Successfully hold the Organisational Cultural Inventory survey in November 2024 with strong participation rates.

• Implement a leadership 360 tool to drive more data-based decision making on leadership effectiveness.

• Continue to progress our new in-house Leadership Growth Program to ensure it embeds YVW leadership capabilities and behaviours in our organisation.

• Continue to focus our efforts on our inhouse Leadership Growth Program to ensure it embeds YVW leadership capabilities and behaviours in our organisation.

2023-24

Two year workplan

(In addition to the Continual Areas of Focus we will focus on the following outcomes)

2024-25

• Enhance roles and reporting platforms that help people to speak up safely to report behaviours relating to sexual harassment.

• Create a plan to collect intersectional data of our employees to further inform the design of our internal programs.

• Establish an Employee Reference Group to hear and learn from the lived experience of our employees living with a Disability or Neurodiversity.

• Launch a Cultural Learning Strategy to support our commitment to honouring and healing Country.

• Explore an “all roles flex” approach within YVW aiming to remove barriers to greater workforce representation of our community

• Continue to refine and enhance our approach to First Nations hiring, listening and learning from our Aboriginal partners like Mullum Mullum Indigeneous Gathering Place.

• Commence implementation of our next Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) action.

• Continue to embed our Cultural Learning Strategy to support our commitment to honouring and healing Country.

• Continue to implement our Gender Equality Action Plan commitments.

Performance through Potential

Two year workplan

(In addition to the Continual Areas of Focus we will focus on the following outcomes)

2023-24

• Launch a refreshed Performance Effective Program (PEP) aligned with our new One Plan. Conduct greater performance conversations which provide improved role clarity and meaningful feedback along with a focus on wellbeing and growth.

• Improve our strategy and governance around learning investment ensuring greater value and alignment to key capabilities is delivered.

• Deliver evidence-based Mental Health Training to leaders in recognition this is an emerging competency required in modern workplaces.

2024-25

• Support the Board to select and successfully transition to our next Managing Director.

• Commence building key enterprise capabilities such as project management, sourcing/procurement and commercial management.

Impact Achieved to Date

• Provided Executive Sponsorship and program leadership on enterprisewide Future Operating Model project. An Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO) has been created as a direct result of this work.

• Delivered Change Management support for strategic technology programs with ServiceNow, MuleSoft and Salesforce platforms now successfully deployed in the business.

• Transitioned our employees safely back to our offices and tested out new ways of

working. Our efforts in building resilience in our workforce and workplace meant we responded safely and seamlessly to new and ongoing government restrictions.

• Automated PP&C processes such as exit interviews, diversity data capture and flexible working arrangements.

• Completed a strategic review of current Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS).

• Introduced HR Analytics by Power BI to manage people reporting and dashboards.

• Negotiated a successful Enterprise Agreement and took steps to becoming a

more inclusive employer, introducing Sorry Business Leave, Gender Affirmation Leave, Family Violence Leave for Support Persons, Foster & Kinship Care Leave, Surrogacy Leave and Paid Superannuation on Unpaid Parental Leave.

• Implemented Yammer as an online communication channel to support new ways of working.

• Provided support via our people partners to Service Futures with a localised structural refresh.

• Established a learning community of practice bringing the voice of our customer to help us activate and shape the learning strategy at YVW.

• Implemented a new Shared Service structure in PP&C, improving cost and in turn supporting self-service.

• Formally launched our new Hybrid Playbook. We were invited as keynote speakers to a NZ CEO forum event on the topic.

• Delivered the HR Optimisation Project, completely refreshing our HRIS system PEEPS. New functionality included a fully automated onboarding and offboarding process, ticketing functionality to support operational adoption, increased efficiency and reduced cost to serve.

• Through a deliberate effort to change how we market for Customer Care roles, the quality and quantity of candidates improved significantly and we no longer have a workforce shortage in this area.

• Identified critical roles and key people risks as part of delivering our first Strategic Workforce Plan for Distribution Services.

• Created an organisational learning and compliance framework to ensure appropriate governance and maximise allocation of learning expenditure to where it matters most.

• Developed a new process for managing and monitoring our organisational establishment headcount.

• Provided joint Executive Sponsorship and Program Leadership with F&CS on the engagement with KPMG to develop a productivity plan for Pricing Submission 23.

• Re-established our Enterprise Change function, launching a new operating model and tools and templates to support change efforts across the business.

Impact Achieved to Date

• Developed a new continual listening measurement strategy with multiple pulsechecks to get feedback on how we were managing the transition to remote working and then to hybrid ways of working.

• Conducted our first post-pandemic OCI and implemented new culture coaches to assist in action planning and ongoing employee advocacy.

• Created new monthly Leader Labs to enhance our people’s experience of their leaders.

• Launched a host of new events and engagement activities with Strategy and Community to connect with our purpose and build our culture.

• Refined our formal recognition and reward program to be more transparent and linked to strategic objectives, with the introduction of two new categories of winners –Everyday hero & Leadership Legend.

• Reinvigorated our yearly kick off event and modified it to meet new ways of working.

• Workshopped opportunities with our culture champion community to enhance the current Performance Effectiveness Process (PEP).

• Held tailored workshops to assist Service Futures in promoting a more constructive culture across core delivery teams.

Impact Achieved to Date

• Introduced a new Diversity and Inclusion Committee to elevate the focus our efforts across the enterprise.

• Created and launched our inaugural Gender Equality Action Plan in accordance with the new Gender Equality Act.

• Expanded the diversity data being captured during our recruitment process to help inform areas for further intervention and work.

• Achieved our Women in Leadership Target of 45% through a deliberate effort to increase YVW brand presence and create more rigour and engagement in the recruitment process.

• Conducted a talent mapping process which identified over 300 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates for roles in our organisation.

• Developed and implemented a new Remuneration Strategy, Business Rule and annual processes for contract staff to ensure our employees are paid fairly regardless of gender and compared to key external market sectors.

• Supported our six cultural support officers to complete their training. These employees are now being promoted internally as another avenue of support for First Nations employees.

• Delivered our first Gender Intelligence Program with People and Culture program support and guidance.

Impact Achieved to Date

• Introduced our new People Based Safety approach.

• Established the psychology of safety program to build leadership capability.

• Created three Safe and Well committees to address emerging safety and wellbeing issues, promote safety and wellbeing integration into business processes, build psychological safety and progress our first Safe and Well Plan.

• Commenced psychosocial risk assessments with Retail Services, PP&C, and the Doncaster Hill Project Team.

• Redesigned our hazard management process to address issues related to accountability and timely closure of safety hazards. This involved a software redesign of departmental hazard dashboards, escalation pathways, and a centralised approach to hazard management to ensure all hazards are triaged and mitigated within assigned timelines.

• Developed a replacement to the existing Managed / Monitored framework with Sparke Helmore supporting the proposed approach.

• Established a Retail Services action group progressing their first Group Psychosocial Action Plan.

• Implemented targeted deep dives on our performance against eight fundamental safety obligations.

• Matured the way we as an organisation relate to and mitigate psychological risks to our employees with our first psychosocial risk review and enhanced Board reporting.

• Implemented our new Contractor Safety Management Framework after 6 months of planning and change management. This established new contractor monitoring activities to YVW and clarified years of confusion about accountabilities for safe operations with our contractors.

• Developed new and highly engaging Safe and Well induction modules for staff and contractors with 100% completion rates. This further ensures our compliance with OHS legislation.

• Created a new Safety in Design framework to identify and mitigate the health and safety risks which can be overlooked in the design of assets, involving end users in the process.

• Commenced work to create our first Psychosocial Risk Management Plan to ensure we are legally compliant with new obligations under section 5A of the OH&S Regulations.

Impact Achieved to Date

• Commenced provision of more tailored support to Aboriginal applicants through our Graduate recruitment program.

• Developed a new leadership framework outlining consistent expectations of leaders.

• Launched a new hybrid onboarding and orientation process to enable strong engagement with our culture, strategy and peers from commencement.

• Delivered a new pilot growth program for high potential specialists focusing on an individual work purpose and the creation of work growth experience plans to enable greater self-actualisation.

• Launched a pilot in-house leadership program in Retail Services underpinned by our new Leadership Framework.

• Continued to develop the new Employee Value Proposition (EVP). The program is in its final stages and will be launched externally in August 2023. This will support our market positioning and brand awareness as a great place to work.

• Refined our end of year PEP process to support organisational data capture of performance ratings and the growth objectives of our people.