Australian firms work hard to keep staff engaged
Australian companies are among the happiest places to work. They show enormous innovation, drive, resourcefulness and talent to push forward even as the economic landscape is changing.
Several Australian workplaces have very strong credentials to be among the happiest places in Australia.
In its efforts to find the best places to work, The Australian found that many organisations in the nation show enormous innovation, drive, resourcefulness and talent to push forward even as the economic landscape within the nation and in the rest of the world is changing at a fast pace.
TECHNOLOGYONE
TechnologyOne has ambitious plans to scale and double in size every five years, which means its sustainability and prosperity as a business hinge entirely on its people and their ability to accomplish great work, the company chief executive Ed Chung says.
“We want to change the world of enterprise software, that’s no small feat – we’re the Australian success story taking on SAP, Oracle and the Big Four. We want the best people queuing to come and work with us,” he says.
“And we know we need to ensure our people are satisfied, achieving and connected, as it is the only way we are going to deliver on our ambitious goals.”
“One clear theme around employee connection in recent years has been wellbeing. So, we revamped our wellbeing program to really lift the bar on our team members’ experience and ensure everyone is equipped to thrive. The program is threefold – physical, mental and financial wellbeing – and it has been a game changer for us.”
“This focus on holistic wellbeing is absolutely shifting the dial. We know it is also helping us retain staff: our voluntary turnover in the last year was about 10 per cent, beating our internal target and well below industry benchmark,” Chung says.
“I think one thing we also do well at TechnologyOne is to come together as one tribe.
“Yes, we set ambitious targets, we certainly don’t do easy, but we have fostered a great culture that uplifts. And we have great traditions, such as Hack Day, where we all put tools down for 24 hours and work on innovative projects outside of our day-to-day. Or our Company Kick Off, where our entire global team comes together to learn about our future direction. We’ve also developed a great culture of Lunch & Learn events, called ‘OneTalks’ that help us share cross-functional knowledge, and encourage cross-departmental learning and collaboration.
“We also have lots of leadership development opportunities, such as our Leaders Summit and our Top 30 initiative, which gathers emerging leaders from across the business to collaborate and solve business problems. Every team member gets a yearly learning and development budget, and we provide education assistance and study leave for approved courses and qualifications.
“The day we no longer pay a recruiter fees because the best talent will be lining up out the door to come work with us will be a good measure of success,” Chung says.
BUPA
Heath and care company Bupa, which offers health insurance and services in aged care and retirement and various health initiatives, has a diverse and geographically dispersed workforce across Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong that includes a range of roles such as nurses, dentists, optometrists, carers and corporate office employees.
The average tenure across Bupa Australia and New Zealand is five years.
Deciding to leave or stay at an employer is a deeply personal decision and can be influenced by a number of factors, both inside and outside the workplace, the company says.
One of the consistent reasons people provide as to why they join or stay at Bupa is our purpose – helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives and to make a better world, the company says.
“As a diverse, global company, we’re in a unique position to offer a breadth of opportunity for people to grow a career with us,” says Kate Dee, chief people officer, Asia Pacific, at Bupa.
“A career at Bupa is an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of our customers and communities; and be at the heart of transforming healthcare.
“We also know another key reason people stay with us is their relationship with their leader and team. In addition, the way we’ve fully embraced a hybrid way of working, our approach to inclusion and our ongoing commitment to sustainability are high value propositions for our people.
“Bupa has all the things in place to be known as a great place to work through our purpose, inclusive culture, diversity, great leaders (and) opportunities for personal growth.
“There’s just something in our DNA, where people are at the core of the way we think, the way we service our customers, and the way we deal with each other every day. We always put people – be it our customers, residents, or our people – at the heart of every conversation.
“People really go out of their way to welcome you and support one another, and they’re tangibly passionate about what we do. We’re just as passionate about supporting our people. By listening to the feedback from our engagement surveys, we’ve been able to improve our wellbeing programs, add more effective mental health support, improve leave policies and introduce our fully flex approach to work.
“It’s an exciting time to be part of Bupa, as we look to think more outside the box, innovate, keep finding better and more sustainable ways to operate, while making great things happen for our customers and residents.”
BUNNINGS
Australian DIY, hardware, household and garden centre chain Bunnings has a high retention rate of more than 80 per cent permanent staff, the company says. It has more than 2800 team members who have been with the company for 20-plus years.
“A phrase you’ll often hear around Bunnings is ‘we live here too’, which is in reference to the fact that many of our team live, work and raise families in the roughly 400 communities where we operate,” says Damian Zahra, Bunnings’ chief people officer.
“Many of our team members feel a real sense of pride and connection by working in their own local communities, which we find naturally helps them stay engaged, productive and happy. We’re really fortunate to be in this position and we certainly don’t take it for granted.
“We’re also proud of the collective attitude of our support centre team who work hard each day to help set our stores up for success. They all really embrace the diverse and fast-paced nature of the retail industry and enjoy the cross-collaboration between the many different functions that support the business.”
Culture is the core of staff engagement.
“Culture and attitude mean everything at Bunnings,” says Zahra. “For our store teams in particular, we always look for people who love working in a team and providing customers with great service, as we know these attributes help us deliver strong results and make Bunnings a great place to work.
“One of our core HR philosophies is ensuring we maintain a multi-generational workforce. Age is not a barrier at Bunnings and we have really strong team cohorts across all age demographics – from young people still in school to mature-aged team members, some even into their 90s.”
Caleb Whitaker, a supervisor at Bunnings Maitland says he has worked at more than 10 Bunnings stores across Australia.
“Each one of them has a friendly, welcoming and supportive team,” he says.
“The culture that Bunnings has built really stands out and is something customers often appreciate.
“I’ve really valued the flexibility that’s come from working at Bunnings. This is my 10th year at the business and during this time I’ve been able to work after school, during uni and even while I travelled. The business allows you to work around your life schedule, which has been great.
“As part of Bunnings’ Travelling Team Member program I was able to continue working while touring around Australia with my wife for 14 months – which was honestly one of the best experience of our lives.
“We travelled over 40,000km in total, and during that time I worked shifts at eight Bunnings stores across six different states. I don’t think many other workplaces could’ve facilitated something like that – it was amazing.”
JUDO BANK
“We try and push the boundaries of traditional thinking around ‘strategies’ for engagement and productivity in the workplace, and instead, are laser-like on how we can build the very best, industry leading culture that we can,” says Jessica Lantieri, chief people and culture officer at Judo Bank.
“There are three things we have built into our cultural DNA at Judo that ensure our consistently high levels of team engagement and productivity.
“The first is a clear company purpose and strong values. Judo’s purpose is clear – to be the most trusted SME (small/medium-sized enterprise) business bank in Australia. Not the biggest, but the best.
“We work to bring back the craft of relationship banking to unloved and undervalued SME businesses in Australia. It’s with this purpose at the helm, that we recruit, structure, work and make all our business decisions. We also measure the performance and reward our team according to our values of trust, teamwork, accountability and performance.”
The second is empowering every team member with an “owners’ mindset”.
“Judo’s ownership mindset is a fundamental tenet of our culture,” Lantieri says. “As Australia’s most successful challenger bank, we want every team member across the business to make decisions and challenge the status quo, like they are an owner of the business. We embed this thinking through very high levels of equity ownership across the company, but also through a relatively flat organisational structure, with easy access to the management board.”
The third is active listening and feedback through JEDI.
“We nurture our culture with consistent active listening and feedback, checking in with the team through our weekly pulse check called the Judo Employee Delight Index. We’re incredibly proud of this unique, industry-first tool,” Lantieri says.
“Judo has a lower-than-industry voluntary attrition rate – so I would say that our people are inclined to stay.
“We work hard to make Judo a ‘game changer’ for the careers of our people. We truly want Judo to be the best place our people have ever worked.
“We invest in career progression. One example is our J-Factor program, where analysts have the opportunity to accelerate their development and begin their career as bankers, should they want to. For us it’s also the little things that matter. The cumulative effect of the small things we do, from grabbing a coffee and a chat, saying thank you, building relationships and connections – add to our unique culture and work environment, and our team’s positive experiences.
“Our people come first – and part of our culture is that we treat them like adults. This means being open and transparent in our communication, even when we don’t have the answers.
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