Remarkable

Staffing and recruitment

During the year, we increased our staff numbers to meet a significant rise in demand for our services. We recruited 117 new employees during the year, increasing total staff from 138 to 255, including temporary staff. The organisational realignment and increase in staff also resulted in a growth in opportunities for advancement for current staff. The staff turnover rate for the past year was just 7%, compared with 16% from the previous year.

In March 2009, 83 per cent of staff completed our second staff satisfaction survey. The survey asked people to rate our performance on three criteria that an organisation needs to be successful. They are: strategic capabilities; processes and systems; and cultural capabilities. Each criterion was further broken down into a series of categories that have been identified as crucial to driving continuous improvement in organisations and teams worldwide.

Strategic intent

This category identifies staff perceptions of the organisation’s strategy, its purpose and vision, strategic initiatives and resource allocation. The TIO’s score was consistent with the Australian benchmark across this category. The result, though, suggests that improvements can be made in communicating to staff our purpose and vision and linking this to each person’s day-to-day job tasks.

Engagement, culture and behaviour

We performed well in this category, with best practice scores achieved in four of the seven sub-categories. The results suggest that the organisation needs to improve its development, empowerment and training and its sense of purpose, confidence and ability.

Business processes

Scores in this category varied widely with best practice achieved in some sub-categories, but scores well below best practice in others. The reporting and performance measurement sub-category, which measures staff perceptions about how they are measured on their performance, was the one area of the survey where we scored below the Australian benchmark. It will be a key area on which we will focus our efforts to improve over the next year.

The TIO last undertook a staff satisfaction survey in 2006. Although the questions differed from those in this year’s survey, some comparisons can be made as individual questions relating to staff perception of working at the TIO were unchanged.

The next steps

As a follow-on from the 2009 survey, the human resources team organised 10 focus groups, which allowed about a quarter of the staff to discuss what they valued about the organisation and what could be improved.
One of the themes that came through in several sessions was a clear need to clarify the links between our business plan, vision, strategy, values, mission statement and what they mean to our staff.

In each of the sessions the focus groups developed action plans to address the underlying causes of the issues identified. Each group will receive a copy of their action plan, and progress in implementing actions will be monitored and regularly reported to the TIO executive. Action plans will also be posted on the TIO intranet and updated monthly to enable all staff to view and track progress.

Workplace and environment

The TIO continues to focus on providing a safe and healthy workplace and the addition of another office building has created new occupational health and safety (OHS) issues and the need for more OHS-trained staff.
In May 2009, we temporarily relocated about 90 people to 477 Collins Street, given there was no more space at 595 Collins Street for the new staff we recruited to meet the growing demand of our services. The relocation to 477 involved the co-ordination of many activities to ensure that the workplace was safe and suitable. The OHS committee inspected the site before the move to ensure any risks or hazards had been addressed or were made safe.

The OHS committee meets monthly and has developed and implemented initiatives and activities including:

• providing free flu vaccinations to all employees
• undertaking eight risk assessments related to new or changed work activities or equipment
• briefing all new staff of the OHS committee’s role and procedures for emergency evacuations
• undertaking ergonomic assessments for new or relocated staff
• regular workplace audits to identify potential hazards or risks
• participating in an audit to identify improved measures to protect staff from perceived security risks
• participating in the review and implementation of a pandemic response plan in response to the threat posed by the H1N1 virus (swine flu).

Psychological consultant

Fielding significant numbers of telephone complaints can be stressful for our call centre and investigation staff. As a result we have employed a consultant to assist us in assessing the psychological risks this poses for our employees. This initiative was as a result of an action resulting from an OHS audit. Our aim is to identify any risks and then develop an appropriate prevention plan to eliminate or mitigate these factors.

We are also developing a corporate wellness program, which will help us increase our focus on the health and wellbeing of all TIO staff.

Swine flu

We developed a pandemic response plan to help us assess and monitor what impact the H1N1 influenza virus (swine flu) might have on the organisation. Our pandemic response co-ordination team met regularly to determine appropriate actions to be taken by the TIO.

Employee assistance program

All employees and their families have access to a confidential counseling service. This year, 22% of our staff used the employee assistance program.

Learning and development

While a key focus for the learning and development area for a good part of the year was inducting new staff, we also instigated other development activities.

In January 2009, we started a monthly training session for all staff. Each month an expert in a particular area presents a training session to relevant staff to ensure that they maintain their knowledge and skills needed to effectively handle complaints and comply with various legislative obligations. Topics discussed over the past six months include conflicts of interest, occupational health and safety, and the Mobile Premium Service Code.

The TIO has continued to support the development of its staff through the study assistance program where financial assistance is given to staff who are undertaking external studies to assist in their personal or professional development. This year we granted financial assistance to 47 staff to support their studies.

Employee advisory bodies

As well as the OHS committee and various focus groups run throughout the year, employees may make a contribution to the organisation through our staff advisory committee ADCOM or social committee SWAT. ADCOM was set up to consider and provide advice to management and the Ombudsman on matters affecting the whole office. It is made up of people from across the organisation and meets fortnightly. ADCOM is not a decision making body but provides feedback to senior management, so they may make informed decisions on matters affecting staff.

ADCOM also initiates and organises a bi-annual awards night,called the ‘golden O’s’, which recognises exceptional work by individuals in areas across the organisation. The awards include categories such as the Most Exceptional Complaint handling by an Enquiry Officer, the Investigation Officer Who Strives for Improvement, and the Non-Investigation Staff Member Who Contributes Most to the Culture of the TIO, ADCOM also organises the annual Ombudsman Awards, which include the award for the person who best demonstrates all of the TIO’s core values in their internal and external relationships, and the best new idea award.

SWAT organises regular social gatherings and various other activities. One significant event organized by SWAT and ADCOM this year was the TIO workgroup films. Nine work groups each made a three-minute film about the TIO’s mission statement.

The paperless office

During the course of complaints we correspond regularly with members and consumers and generate a fair amount of paperwork.

The TIO is exploring ways to reduce our use of paper through increasing our electronic storage and replacing correspondence by letter and fax with communication by electronic fax and email.

• Any hard correspondence we receive is now scanned and e-mailed to an appropriate complaints queue or staff member. This also reduces the risk of lost correspondence.
• In May 2009 we began sending all level 1 correspondence to TIO members through an electronic fax system. In addition, we have begun trialling the use of email with some TIO members, and anticipate expanding this trial in 2009-10 to other members and to consumers who opt-in.

Any solutions we adopt in the long term will not compromise our accessibility to our various stakeholders.

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