Nearly half of employees in Australia and New Zealand (48 per cent) are experiencing daily workplace stress, according to recent research from Gallup. 

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 report revealed that stress levels in Australia and New Zealand are 17 per cent higher than than the global average. What’s more, just a quarter of employees in this region report feeling engaged at work. Around two thirds (64 per cent) are passively disengaged, while 11 per cent are actively disengaged – i.e., taking actions that directly harm or obstruct the organisation.

“When people are stressed and disengaged, at best, they’re ambivalent, and at worst, they’re actively working against the organisation’s goals,” says Claire de Carteret, Managing Director, APAC at Gallup.

“That can have an impact on customers. It can have an impact on [the employee’s] own feelings of efficacy. And it can even go so far as to impact their physical health.”

Below, de Carteret offers research-backed advice for HR and managers to address workplace stress in the short, medium and long term. 

Short-term strategy: Intervene with the right questions

Short-term exposure to stress at work is unlikely to do serious damage – in fact, some forms of temporary stress have been shown to benefit performance and motivation. However, left unchecked, stress can cause our bodies to be in a constant state of stimulation, increasing the risk of serious harm to our mental and physical health.

In light of employers’ new legal obligations to manage psychosocial hazards at work, it’s particularly crucial for both HR and managers to be vigilant in recognising early signs of stress among employees to address them before they escalate, she says.

According to SafeWork NSW, some of the most common stress symptoms to look out for include: 

• Physical: headaches, tiredness, slow reactions, shortness of breath.
• Mental: difficulty with decision-making, forgetfulness.
• Emotional: irritability, excess worrying, feeling of worthlessness, anxiety, defensiveness, anger, mood swings.
• Behavioural: diminished performance, withdrawal, impulsive behaviour.

Regular, meaningful check-ins with employees are the best way to catch these symptoms early, says de Carteret.

“​They don’t have to be long conversations – just 15 to 30 minutes every week – and then you’ll build a fluency around [that person], which allows you to recognise when someone is struggling.”

To get a well-rounded view of how the employee is feeling and the best ways to support them, you can ask questions such as:

1. Open-ended questions to encourage employees to share their feelings and thoughts in detail.

• How are you feeling at the moment?
• Can you tell me more about what’s been on your mind lately?
• What aspects of your work are you finding stressful?

2. Specific questions to pinpoint particular areas of concern or sources of stress.

• What specific tasks or situations are causing you stress?
• Can you think of any particular moments or events that caused you stress? 
• What was it about that event you found stressful?

3. Supportive questions to show empathy and willingness to help.

• How can I better support you in managing your workload?
• What can we do to make your work environment more comfortable?
• What resources or support do you think would help you manage your stress?

“[These conversations] open up a pathway for the employee to talk about when things are not going right, when they need help, when they’re struggling or when they need time off,” says de Carteret.

When symptoms of stress are identified, interventions should happen promptly to avoid the issue snowballing. Based on employers’ responsibilities under the new psychosocial safety code of practice, WorkSafe Victoria has developed a five-step guide for managers to conduct these short-term interventions: 

1. Make contact. Arrange a confidential meeting time and location and consider what you want to discuss and achieve.

2. Explore the issues. Ask open-ended questions and listen attentively. It’s helpful to state the behaviours you have observed and your concern, and discuss potential factors driving the stress, which could be internal or external.

3. Develop options and offer support. Work together with the employee to explore potential workplace adjustments that could be made to support them, taking into account operational demands. If the employee’s direct manager is the stress source, ensure alternative support is available. Inform them of available resources both in and outside the workplace.

4. Agree on action. Decide on specific steps and agree on follow-up actions and review times.

5. Stay in touch. Follow up regularly, ensuring clear outcomes and agreed follow-up frequency.

Frameworks like this can offer structure to these conversations for managers who might not feel confident initiating them, says de Carteret.

“We need to give them tools to support them in the science of those conversations,” she says. “Because if we just leave it all up to art, some people do it well, and some people don’t – that’s just human nature.”

Medium-term strategy: Empower managers to address workplace stress

Given that managers have a disproportionate impact on employees’ experiences at work, medium-term strategies to address workplace stress should focus on supporting and empowering middle management.

Positive management practices are more than half the battle in mitigating workplace stress; according to Gallup’s findings, those who work in companies with bad management practices are nearly 60 per cent more likely to be stressed than people working in environments with good management practices. 

“We don’t want to villainise managers because they’ve got the toughest job at the moment. When they’re feeling overwhelmed and they’re not supported by their direct manager, then it’s hard for them to cascade [that support] down. They revert back into survival mode, which is the opposite of a growth mindset.

“So [HR should] focus on supporting that manager population first because when they’re engaged, connected and energised, then they will energise, connect and support their teams.”

Beyond providing managers with mental health support of their own, HR can also equip managers to address employees’ needs by providing training in areas like coaching, trauma-informed practice and mental health first aid.

Gain the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct workplace processes in a trauma-informed manner with AHRI’s Trauma Informed HR short course.

Given that managers tend to experience more stress than their direct reports, de Carteret stresses the importance of framing this training the right way so it doesn’t feel like an additional burden on their time or energy.

“They have to believe that it’s going to be an enabler for them,” she says. “They have to see the connection between [reducing stress] and delivering performance and profit. That way, it’s less about giving them more to do and more about giving them skills to be more effective.”

“[HR should] focus on supporting that manager population first because when they’re engaged, connected and energised, then they will energise, connect and support their teams.” – Claire de Carteret, Managing Director, APAC at Gallup.

Long-term strategy: Create a culture of recognition and development

Effectively mitigating stress in the long-term requires a sustainable approach that goes beyond immediate interventions and manager training. 

No matter how effectively managers can respond to stress in the moment, these measures are only a band-aid without long-term cultural change.

One of the most effective ways to mitigate stress in the long term is by creating a robust and meaningful reward and recognition program, says de Carteret.

“Everyone just wants to be acknowledged for their contribution. If you don’t feel like someone’s seeing what you’re doing or acknowledging and appreciating it, it can have such a big impact,” she says.

“[In our research], we see a big gap between how managers rate themselves in terms of recognising their teams and the way their direct reports rate them recognising the teams. It’s a bit of a blind spot for managers.”

It’s in employers’ interests to close this gap, she says, since a lack of reward and recognition is one of the 14 psychosocial hazards put forward by SafeWork Australia as part of the new code of practice. 

Another important long-term stress management strategy is ensuring employees feel challenged in a healthy way.

Read HRM’s article on how to push employees out of their comfort zone (without pushing them too far).

“Something else we’ve seen in our research is that when people can use their strengths, they are three times more likely to report having an excellent quality of life, and they’re six times more likely to be engaged,” says de Carteret. 

“So if people understand what their strengths are, and they can find a way to use them every day, then they’re energised through that.”

Leveraging recognition and opportunities for growth helps ensure that any pressure employees experience is temporary and productive rather than prolonged and draining. 

Driving these cultural shifts while ensuring that immediate support systems are in place is the key to alleviating workplace stress and, crucially, improving employees’ overall quality of life, says de Carteret.

“The workplace can be so fulfilling and developmental, and it should have a positive impact on people’s lives,” she says. “The only thing we do more than work is sleep, so we have to [make sure] it’s fulfilling.”

Improve your ability to recognise the signs and symptoms of mental health conditions and learn effective strategies to manage health and wellness in the workplace with AHRI’s Mental Health at Work short course.

The post A guide to responding to workplace stress in the short, medium and long term appeared first on HRM online.

Fifty-four years ago, best-selling American futurist Alvin Toffler wrote: “The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”

Today, his prediction seems remarkably prophetic. The skills landscape employers are facing in Australia and globally is dynamic, unpredictable and rife with opportunity.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the average half-life of a skill is currently about five years. Skills that would have carried previous generations through a career of 40 years now require endless updates and expansions to keep pace with technological advancement. 

As a result, the importance of technical skills has been eclipsed by the importance of skills adaptability, says Ravin Jesuthasan, author, Senior Partner and Global Leader for Transformation Services at Mercer.

“The only thing that will keep us relevant is the ability to keep reinventing ourselves,” he says. 

“The skills where the premium is going to go up exponentially will be things like learning agility, curiosity, the willingness to look around corners and anticipate, the ability to see connections across two or more disparate domains – those are the skills that are really going to stand us in good stead.”

Building skills security

While much has been made of the potential negative impact of new technologies on job security, the WEF’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 found the majority of technologies being implemented across organisations are anticipated to create more jobs than they will displace over the next three years.

Artificial intelligence, arguably the defining aspect of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is expected to generate a net increase in jobs of 26 per cent by 2027. Meanwhile, big data analytics is set to create a net 58 per cent increase.

The only technologies forecast in the WEF’s data to have a net negative overall impact on employment data were robots; both humanoid (designed to mimic human behaviour) and non-humanoid (machines devised for specific tasks, such as drones and industrial automation).

In light of this, future-proofing the workforce will mean focusing less on job security and more on skills security.

“It’s much easier and more important to understand how work is changing, rather than looking at what new jobs are being created,” says Jesuthasan, who will be a keynote speaker at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition⁠ in August. 

“A job is a blunt instrument. It contains so many different things. But if you can understand how the work is changing, that gives you a precise view into the types of skills that are going to be in demand because it’s much easier to map skills to tasks than to understand the myriad of different skills that might underpin a job.”

“The only thing that will keep us relevant is the ability to keep reinventing ourselves.” – Ravin Jesuthasan, Author, Senior Partner and Global Leader for Transformation Services at Mercer

Shifting towards skills-based hiring and mobility

When organisations are facing skills challenges, employers often assume that targeting candidates with qualifications from familiar institutions will be their safest bet, says Jesuthasan.

“In my industry, there’s an old adage, ‘No one ever got fired for hiring McKinsey,’” he says. “If you think about how talent is resourced today, it’s largely based on credentials and what you’ve done previously. Those two things reduce the risk to an employer that a person can’t do the job. 

“But if we move to a skills-based approach, it takes us from competing for the five per cent of people we might have traditionally looked at to looking at the 20, 30, 40 per cent of the population who could actually do the work.”

Rather than adhering to rigid roles, a skills-based approach breaks down the individual capabilities required to perform a given task and assigns them to employees with the appropriate skills and capacity, regardless of whether it’s part of their job description.

With skills shortages increasing in severity and complexity, this approach is likely to grow in popularity over the coming decade. We’re already seeing companies becoming more flexible in the qualifications they consider, says Jesuthasan. For example, in 2021, IBM announced it had stripped bachelor’s degree requirements for more than half of its US openings. At Google, job postings requiring a bachelor’s degree fell from 93 to 77 per cent between 2017-2021. 

At banking and financial services company ANZ, the benefits of a shift towards skills-focused hiring and mobility are already beginning to shine through. 

“I think that job roles will persist as a means to organise work, but now we’re getting a deeper skills-based view of what’s behind each role,” says Arun Pradhan, General Manager of Learning at ANZ, who will also be speaking at AHRI’s Convention.

“We’re developing the frameworks and investigating the technology that will allow us to look at a role and see that it’s 40 per cent adjacent to that role over there, even though it doesn’t look like it. And we’re trying to provide a faster way for people to match up those skills.”

Ravin Jesuthasen and Arun Pradhan will both be sharing their insights on future-ready HR practice at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August. Don’t miss the chance to hear from inspiring thought leaders and master practical strategies for now and the future. Secure your spot today.

Planning for the skills needs of the future

During the past decade, we have witnessed immense shifts in our ways of working, from mass digitisation to the proliferation of hybrid working. With the pace of change accelerating, it’s safe to assume future decades will bring even more transformative developments. 

For many employers, this begs the question: If we don’t know what tomorrow will look like, how can we equip our people to succeed when it arrives?

According to Adina Leu FCPHR, Director of Workforce Strategy and Planning at the Australian Public Service Commission (APS), the difficulty of answering this question deters many employers from investing enough strategic thinking into their skills development. 

“Across the economy, there is little incentive for employers and managers to look at longer-term skills planning and invest in their current workforce to build the skills they’ll need, or that the sector or Australia will need, in five to 10 years’ time. Because of the high levels of turnover, they think, ‘Why should I? They’re not going to be here anyway.’”

As a result, future-focused employers must find ways to convince leaders to plant trees under whose shade they might never sit.

“It’s about moving away from [the mindset of], ‘I’m going to look after my own interests,’ and towards being part of a bigger ecosystem – whether it’s at an industry level or in the Australian economy,” says Leu.

As a government organisation with a workforce of over 170,000, the APS recognises the strategic imperative of mapping future skills needs by conducting in-depth scenario planning based on a variety of potential workforce futures.

“Of course, there’s a need to prioritise, because you’ll be generating 10s of scenarios, but you can’t plan for all of them,” says Leu.

In order to identify and plan for the most likely outcomes, the APS refers to the ‘megatrends’ published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the long-term insights briefs developed by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.  

From digitisation to the global push to reach net zero, these trends are predicted to be the main drivers of evolving labour markets and skills demand over the coming decades.

“We are building out the workforce implications of some of those scenarios,” says Leu. “For example, we’re looking at the green transition, and the skill sets we’ll need in government to progress that transition and the green economy agenda for the country and globally.”

The APS is also actively engaging with educational institutions and early career programs to address skills shortages from the ground up. 

Exposing young people to career pathways available to them is particularly important to ensure skills pipelines are as diverse as possible, says Leu. “For example, we know there are shortages in some occupations and roles which are highly male-dominated – [things like] construction, engineering, cybersecurity and so on,” she says. 

“We also know that the seed for some of those career decisions is planted with kids as early as five. So, we need to have more interventions to get girls passionate about occupations like these ones in early childhood.”

“Learning is most effective at the point of need. The opportunity to immediately and constantly apply learning provides a reality check, learning reinforcement and a feedback loop.” – Arun Pradhan, General Manager of Learning, ANZ

An upskilling strategy fit for the future of work

One challenge that often arises with big-picture upskilling and reskilling strategies is push-back from employees asked to take part in them. 

In recent years, the speed of transformation has left some employees experiencing varying levels of ‘change fatigue’. According to Gartner, employees’ willingness to embrace change has dipped sharply, from 74 per cent in 2016 to 38 per cent in 2022.

To avoid employees feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of upskilling and reskilling required, getting the timing right is crucial, says Pradhan.

“Strategic workforce planning can mean developing three-year modeling, but we need to consider an overlay of how early we can initiate upskilling before those skills become relevant,” he says. 

“Learning is most effective at the point of need. The opportunity to immediately and constantly apply learning provides a reality check, learning reinforcement and a feedback loop to accelerate learning.”

To provide this opportunity, ANZ will be rolling out a new Academy for foundational skills around data, digital and human skills.

“The ANZ Academy has team-based learning at its core, so people can apply what they learn immediately in their work with their peers,” he says. “It’s getting away from having a learning bubble over here and a work bubble over there, which forces busy people to make their own connections.

“Instead, we’re using blended experiences, team activities and contextualised stories to reduce the friction of on-the-job learning.”

In order for HR to formulate and deliver upskilling and reskilling strategies effectively, it’s imperative that they lead by example. 

“Use every opportunity to build a new skill,” says Pradhan. “Be that curious person who collects skills from work, parenting, hobbies or anywhere else, and is creatively combining those skills to deliver your unique value proposition and greater adaptability.”

A longer version of this article first appeared in the June/July 2024 edition of HRM magazine. Sign up to become an AHRI member to receive a bi-monthly copy.

Hear more from Ravin Jesuthasan on the shift towards skills-based hiring in the latest episode of AHRI’s podcast, Let’s Take This Offline. Listen to the episode below.

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The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has made its first ruling under the new Same Job, Same Pay framework, after finding that the labour hire workers employed by a Queensland coal mine performed essentially the same work under the same conditions as the mine’s permanent employees.

As a result, more than 300 labour hire workers servicing the mine are set to receive pay increases of up to $20,000 per year as of November this year, when Same Job, Same Pay orders will come into effect.

Particularly for organisations in heavily unionised sectors, this decision serves as a reminder to evaluate employment practices to ensure compliance with the new legislation.

Labour hire workers perform the same work, argues union

The employer in this case, a Queensland-based open-cut coal mine, currently employs approximately 350 permanent employees who are covered by an enterprise agreement, and supplements its workforce with approximately 320 labour hire workers. 

Earlier this year, the Mining and Energy Union (MEU) put forward an application under the Same Job, Same Pay framework arguing that the labour hire workers’ roles were indistinguishable from those of the permanent employees, and they were thus entitled to the pay rates set out in the host employer’s enterprise agreement.

In its ruling, the FWC noted that the labour hire workers and permanent employees attended the same pre-start meetings each day, performed the same production work using the same equipment, wore the same uniforms and followed the same procedure for requesting annual and personal leave, among other similarities.

“If they’re being treated the same as employees on the site in terms of the nature of the work itself and the operational aspects, that’s where it becomes very compelling,” says Aaron Goonrey, Partner at Pinsent Masons.

The FWC was ultimately satisfied that the labour hire employees were entitled to the same rate of pay as their permanent counterparts.

Significantly, neither the labour hire company nor the host employer opposed the application, acknowledging these similarities and accepting the order to bring the labour hire workers’ pay rates in line with the host employer’s enterprise agreement.

“The decision is not contentious in the facts – these people did the same role,” says Goonrey.

“But there will likely be some upcoming applications which will be more complicated because they will be defended by labour hire companies or by the host company.”

The MEU has expressed its intent to assess the circumstances for labour hire workers at each work site and make further applications under the Same Job, Same Pay framework.

“This decision is going to be part of the case law that helps guide employers who use labour hire companies in terms of how they can avoid an order like this being made,” he says.

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Understanding the Same Job, Same Pay framework

The Same Job, Same Pay legislation was passed by the Albanese government in December last year as part of the Closing Loopholes Bill. The laws are designed to prevent employers from using labour hire to undercut the wages and/or conditions afforded to permanent employees via their enterprise agreements.

The legislation applies to businesses which have 15 or more employees, are covered by an enterprise agreement, and whose workforce is supplemented with labour hire workers. Sectors like construction, manufacturing, transport and healthcare in particular are likely to be impacted.

Under the new laws, the FWC can order labour hire companies to pay workers the same amount that would be paid to them under the host employer’s enterprise agreement, if they have been working for the host employer for more than three months and perform the same work as permanent employees.  

While Same Job, Same Pay orders will not kick in until November this year, applications can still be submitted beforehand, as occurred in this case. Any pay increases ordered by the FWC will become effective in November.

Anti-avoidance provisions have also been put in place to prohibit schemes that prevent the FWC from making a Same Job, Same Pay order or avoid the application of an order. 

A possible example would be trying to engage labour hire workers as contractors to deprive them of the new protections, or intentionally turning over the workers to stay under the three-month placement period. Deliberate attempts like this to skirt the new laws or game the system could attract significant civil penalties. 

“If they’re being treated the same as employees on the site in terms of the nature of the work itself and the operational aspects, that’s where it becomes very compelling.” – Aaron Goonrey, Partner at Pinset Masons

Is this the end of labour hire? 

This ruling signals the first of many decisions with significant financial impact on employers who use labour hire, particularly in heavily unionised industries like mining. Goonrey says this may prompt some employers to reevaluate their use of labour hire and its benefits.

“A lot of companies that use labour hire may be resigned to the fact that they will now have to pay a premium for that labour hire. Or, they’ll go to market and employ employees directly, which is part of the reason [why this policy was introduced] – to try and give more permanency.”

With that said, he disagrees with the notion that this policy will signal a “death knell” for labour hire. 

“There will still be a place for labour hire. I think a lot of companies will simply say, ‘We’re willing to pay the premium just for that flexibility.’ And there are a number of companies that are already paying their labour hire providers the same as what they’re paying their employees.”

For employers who engage labour hire workers and have an enterprise agreement in place, Goonrey suggests conducting a thorough analysis of the makeup of the labour hire workforce and the potential ramifications of a Same Job, Same Pay order to determine whether it would be beneficial to adapt or reduce the use of labour hire.

“It will become a finance issue, an operational issue and ultimately a business issue… [So], realistically, what you should be doing is bringing all the relevant business stakeholders together – finance, HR, operational – and working out, if an application was made, how much would this cost you?

“You’re better off being armed with the information about what the ultimate cost could be, as opposed to saying, ‘Let’s wait and see what happens.’”

Take your employment law expertise to the next level with AHRI’s new Advanced HR Law short course.

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To excel as the architects of workplace culture and the designers of the employee experience, HR practitioners need to design HR strategies that resonate with their workforce. This often requires a creative approach, such as applying design thinking to their initiatives, says Lisa Burquest, Chief People Officer at Virgin Australia.

“In a world where you’ve got finite resources, you’ve got to be able to work yourself through a process of prioritising your focus areas very quickly,” she says. 

“The design thinking model approach allows you to get quick cut-through. It creates relevance because it’s built in the context of who you are, what you’re doing and where you need to go.”

What is design thinking?

Design thinking is a creative approach to problem-solving which originated in product development as a way to understand and meet the needs of consumers. IDEO, a global design and consulting firm, is credited with popularising the application of design thinking to a broad range of industries. 

“Design thinking has its origins in the training and the professional practice of designers, but these are principles that can be practiced by everyone and extended to every field of activity,” said IDEO’s CEO Tim Brown in 2009. 

Employers are increasingly recognising the value of human-centred design thinking to inform the development of HR initiatives. Global leaders such as AirBnB, Apple, Bank of America, Google, IBM, Nike, and Uber have all adopted design thinking to address a range of workforce challenges, including workplace culture change, skills building and organisational transformation.

At Virgin Australia, following the disruptions to the airline industry brought by the pandemic, the HR team used a design thinking mindset to help navigate a period of significant transformation. 

“Our strategy post-administration was repositioning Virgin Australia as a value carrier in the market. Our strategy specifically puts our people at the centre. We call it Virgin Flair,” says Burquest, who is speaking at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August.

“It’s all about how we work with our people to rebuild the business in a way that delivers for our customer, [leads to] financial and operational outcomes and makes us a better, more focused business as we move forward.

“Some people thought, ‘How can you possibly get that business back on track?’, but we had a methodical and aspirational strategy that we were chasing [to rebuild the business].”

“Human-centred design thinking forces you to think back on what the business is here to do. It’s not creating a plan that’s HR for HR’s sake.” – Lisa Burquest, Chief People Officer at Virgin Australia

The five stages of design thinking

There are a number of frameworks employers can use to guide them in the design thinking process, including the British Design Council’s Double Diamond framework and American Institution of Graphic Arts’s Head, Heart and Hand model. 

Among the most popular frameworks is the five-step design thinking model developed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, which offers a formula for effective human-centred design thinking.

“Human-centred design thinking forces you to think back on what the business is here to do. It’s not creating a plan that’s HR for HR’s sake, it’s creating focus areas and priorities that are directly linked to what the business needs to achieve,” says Burquest.

The Hasso-Plattner Institute’s framework breaks down human-centred design into five distinct stages: 

1. Empathise

Human-centred design must begin with empathy in order to ensure solutions align with the needs of people who will be impacted by them, which are employees in this instance.

By forefronting the voices of employees, employers can get their buy-in and ensure they feel like the changes are happening for them, rather than to them.

In recognition of the diverse needs of different cohorts of employees, Virgin Australia first broke down its workforce into employee personas, from new starters through to long-standing employees close to retirement. Segmenting the workforce in this way helped the team empathise with each group and ensure everyone felt heard and understood.

“During this early stage of transformation, we thought about the moments that matter for our people,” says Burquest. “As we designed our programs, we were taking into account all of these groups and how they might play into the initiative, and making sure it was something that would be engaging for them.”

Download a template to create employee personas here.

2. Define

During the define stage, HR practitioners will converge to determine specific workforce challenges to address, and/or gaps in current HR practices. Framing the challenge in this way can provide structure to the next phase, ideation, and ensure objectives remain consistent, even when methodology changes.

For Virgin Australia, a data-driven approach was key to defining the specific challenges faced by the different employee personas they had formulated. 

“[Data] allows you to dissect your workforce and look at it from different angles, whether its turnover or diversity, [et cetera],” says Burquest. “It’s really important because it helps you build a real case for change. I can’t encourage people enough to look at the data and use the insights to drive how you build out your strategies.” 

3. Ideate

The ideation stage of the design thinking process tends to involve brainstorming sessions and collaborative workshops to generate practical solutions to the defined issues, with input from both employees and leaders.

“[At Virgin Australia], we went through a collaborative process with all of our people around resetting our values, resetting our identity and resetting our expected levels of behaviour,” says Burquest. 

Guided by the objectives set in the Define stage, brainstorm participants should be encouraged to pitch out-of-the-box strategies and build on one another’s ideas. Creativity is a cornerstone of design thinking, and it should be made clear from the outset that innovation and lateral thinking are welcome in these sessions.

4. Prototype

Creating and piloting prototypes of HR programs on smaller employee groups is crucial, since it allows adjustments to be made before the full-scale rollout.

Virgin Australia uses its employee personas to guide the prototype stage of design thinking, which helps them tailor equitable and effective strategies for each cohort, says Burquest.

“We have half a dozen different personas that make up our workforce. We test each of the initiatives against those personas to see if this is going to drive the right outcomes for those team members,” she says.

5. Test

By gathering data and continuous feedback to refine initiatives, HR will continually adjust and test to ensure strategies evolve based on real-world, real-time experiences.

While HR should not be afraid to make changes to their strategies when tests demonstrate deficiencies, Burquest says practitioners should ensure the defined challenges and objectives should always be kept consistent and front-of-mind to ensure the process does not become erratic.

“Sometimes, you might have to make a radical adjustment in some part of your strategy. But you don’t want to be doing that around all of your strategy. You don’t want to be chopping and changing, you want to be evolving,” she says.

“It’s about creating processes that allow you to focus on the business context that matters. In a finite world of resources, what are the priorities that matter most? That helps you control your environment in a sensible way as you move through the process.”

Lisa Burquest will be speaking on navigating todayʼs capability challenges while building for tomorrow at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August. Sign up today to hear from Lisa and other experts, including Seth Godin, Ravin Jesuthasen and more.

The post How to use design thinking to enhance your HR strategies appeared first on HRM online.

With productivity pressures growing, many global leaders are investing huge amounts of time and resources on cutting-edge tools to enhance their efficiency, from generative AI to virtual and augmented reality. 

With that said, for leaders to make the most of the opportunities presented by these new tools, they first need to turn their attention to the wellbeing and efficacy of the employees using them, said Dr John Chan, Managing Director at Infinite Potential, during an address at AHRI’s recent NSW State Conference.

“[As leaders], we can’t do all the great things that we want to do and help people unleash their potential if the environment they’re working in is not healthy or sustainable,” he says.

“Look within – look at the policies, the processes, what you’re doing. If you can improve that, you’ll instantly improve [employees’]  activity and quality of life.”

Chan recently co-authored a global report on the state of workplace burnout, which found that almost two in five employees (38 per cent) currently report experiencing burnout – a similar level to last year, and a 27 per cent increase since 2020.

Significantly, the report also uncovered a gap between how managers perceive their people’s wellbeing and how employees themselves reported on their wellbeing.

The report, which surveyed over 2000 participants across 43 countries, found that almost seven in 10 managers (68 per cent) say employees’ wellbeing is the same or better compared to 12 months ago. Meanwhile, 45 per cent of employees said their wellbeing is worse in the same period. 

“There are two reasons that we’re seeing this,” says Chan. “One is that managers are much more likely to be burned out themselves, so they don’t have time to actually [address it]. The other one is about education and training. 

“[Many] managers weren’t trained to look for burnout or stress. They weren’t trained to know how to mitigate these kinds of things. They were promoted because they’re really good at what they do… but they don’t have these abilities.

“If we’re going to put the onus of taking care of people’s wellbeing on managers, we need to make sure they know what to do and have the tools to do that.”

“Look at the way a job is structured or designed, and [ask yourself], ‘Can one person actually do that job within the time allocated? Are they getting paid enough that they can live and not [worry about] the rent?’”  – Dr John Chan, Managing Director at Infinite Potential

Three dimensions of burnout

Part of supporting managers to address burnout is helping them understand what it looks like, says Chan. Many see burnout as simply a synonym of ‘feeling tired’, but the condition is a multifaceted one that must be understood in its entirety in order to be managed effectively, he says. 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), burnout is “a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” and is characterised by three dimensions: 

1. Exhaustion

Exhaustion can take a number of forms, including physical, mental and emotional depletion. 

Levels of exhaustion often correlate to the volume of an employee’s workload, but can also be exacerbated by factors such as low job control, which can drain employees’ sense of involvement and engagement with their work.

“Exhaustion is the one we all know, and a lot of the time people think burnout stops here,” says Chan. “But if you’re exhausted but love what you’re doing and you’re [achieving] goals, you’re not [necessarily] burned out.”

Rather, burnout is the combination of exhaustion with the other two dimensions, he explains.

2. Cynicism

Employees experiencing burnout often develop a cynical outlook, mentally distancing themselves from their work and their colleagues and approaching tasks with negativity or even callousness.

“When you see people starting to hate their job, hate the people that work with and hate everything about their role…that’s a lot more problematic than the exhaustion piece when we’re trying to fix the situation,” says Chan. 

“Once someone grows that cynicism, it’s a really difficult road [to come back from].”

3. Reduced professional efficacy

This dimension of burnout could involve increases in mistakes and feelings of incompetence, which are often not grounded in truth, says Chan. 

“You might be very capable, but because of burnout, and because of the pressures that you’ve been put under or the culture you’re under, you’re starting to make mistakes and you’re starting to doubt your capabilities,” he says. 

Given that employees experiencing this symptom tend to take longer to complete tasks, it can create a vicious cycle of playing catch-up and lead to a “burnout spiral”, he adds.

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Combating burnout through sustainable work practices

Managing the dimensions of burnout explained above requires transparency and open communication from leaders to ensure employees don’t begin to self-blame, which only exacerbates the issue, says Chan.

“Burnout is not the fault of the individual. It’s not something that they have or haven’t done that has called them to burnout. It’s not that they aren’t good at prioritising. It is chronic workplace stress, and so it’s the structure and culture within the organisation that’s creating this environment.”

Based on Infinite Potential’s research, Chan’s team has devised a five-part framework for creating a sustainable workplace – i.e., a workplace where burnout is less likely to occur. 

The five foundations of a sustainable workplace include personal growth through training and career development, protection from harm and strong connections among teams. 

See the full framework below:

One of the most important aspects of this sustainable workplace model is people-centred structures, says Chan. 

“This has so much to do with an employee’s wellbeing. Look at the way a job is structured or designed, and [ask yourself], ‘Can one person actually do that job within the time allocated? Are they getting paid enough that they can live and not [worry about] the rent?’ [Thinking about] all of these structural things will do much more for wellbeing than other initiatives,” he says. 

While providing career development opportunities to employees whose workloads we are trying to reduce might seem counterintuitive, Chan stresses that these opportunities are essential to give employees a sense of purpose and thus mitigate burnout. 

“They still want to grow. They want to do less work, but to keep growing professionally and as a person. So don’t think that if we want to improve people’s wellbeing, it’s all about just taking stuff away from them,” he says. 

Instead, it’s about providing opportunities for meaningful work and reducing the volume of stress-inducing tasks.

To effectively apply this structure, Chan says employers need to be willing to trial and test sustainable work strategies that work for them. 

“No one knows the right answer. There is not going to be one right way [to approach] the future of work. It’s going to be different within organisations and within teams, and it’s going to change. So be open to experimentation.

“If you’re engaging with people on how you should try something, and [telling them], ‘This is an experiment and it might not go well,’ people really buy into that. So don’t be afraid to try it.”

Learn to design a wellbeing strategy tailored to your organisation’s unique needs with AHRI’s Implementing Wellbeing Initiatives short course.

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Australia’s ongoing skills gaps are hampering productivity for over half of employers (57 per cent), according to a recent report from AHRI.

The report, based on insights from 607 senior business decision-makers across a range of sectors, also found that almost one in five workers (19 per cent) are considered “not proficient” in their role by their employer, a statistic which is consistent with AHRI’s most recent Quarterly Work Outlook report. 

This problem is more significant in the public sector, where 24 per cent of employees aren’t fully proficient, compared to 18 per cent in the private sector.

With the integration of AI and other complex technologies moving at a rapid pace, it’s unsurprising that employers are lacking essential capabilities within their workforces. 

Skills and qualifications that previously sustained a career spanning 40 years or more now demand continuous updates and to remain relevant, posing significant challenges for learning and development teams to keep up with the speed of change. According to the World Economic Forum, the half-life of a skill is currently about five years. 

With that said, AHRI’s findings demonstrate that employers are not resting on their laurels. More than three quarters (77 per cent) are taking active steps to strengthen their talent pipelines. 

Below, HRM unpacks AHRI’s key findings on the driving forces behind Australia’s capability gaps, and how employers are responding.

Common causes of skills gaps

Employers identified a range of driving forces behind current skills gaps, mostly related to the rapid evolution of skill and business needs.

Figure 1 shows that evolving business or strategic needs are cited by 44 per cent of employers, while 42 per cent point to the constantly evolving skills landscape as a significant factor.

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With our ways of working changing rapidly, relying on traditional leadership approaches could put organisations at risk of falling behind in the future of work.

Some aspects of the traditional leadership model, such as command-and-control structures and rigid roles, are slowly losing relevance as organisations traverse the rapidly evolving technological and economic landscape, says Ravin Jesuthasan, Senior Partner and Global Leader for Transformation Services at Mercer and upcoming speaker at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August.

Below, Jesuthasan unpacks four key capabilities leaders of the future will need in order to navigate emerging disruptions and harness the opportunities presented by technological advancement.

1. Shift from hierarchical authority to empowerment and alignment 

There are several forces at play in the current business environment which make the traditional hierarchical model of leadership difficult to sustain, according to Jesuthasan.

One example is the shift towards hybrid and remote work models, which challenges traditional dynamics of control and requires a more trust-based approach to management.

Another is the emerging shift towards more agile ways of working. 

With skills shortages continuing to impact employers, many are recognising the value of a skills-based approach to work, where work is allocated to employees and non-employees based on their capabilities rather than whether it’s part of their job description. The rapid shifts in the skills landscape mean this strategy is likely to become more prevalent in the coming years.

While this approach allows employers to allocate resources more efficiently, effectively and with greater impact, the move away from rigid roles requires a significant mindset shift on the part of leaders.

“As we move towards these more agile, skills-based ways of working, leaders’ ability to empower teams and align them to a mission becomes increasingly important,” says Jesuthasan.

“And leading through empowerment and alignment has one prerequisite, which the hierarchical model doesn’t. And that’s trust – trust in your people that they are motivated to accomplish the same things you are and their trust that you have their best interests at heart.”

HR should keep in mind that this transition might be uncomfortable for leaders who might be used to functioning under a command-and-control model, he says.

“All of this is a reversal of about 140 years of learned behaviour on the part of leaders. So it’s really important that they have the space to experiment, practice and fail.”

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2. The ability to redesign work

With the shift away from rigid roles and towards skills-based ways of working, leaders will need to hone their ability to redesign work so talent (and AI and automation) can flow to it, says Jesuthasan.

“[Leaders need] that skill of being able to take an emerging body of work, deconstruct it into its elemental tasks, understand the skills required and the work options available, and figure out how to deploy that work,” he says. 

“For example, where should I use automation versus using the skills of an employee? Where should I use a gig worker or shared services? And then continuously reconstructing new ways of working that optimise speed, profitability and the workforce skills.” 

With work being resourced based on skills and capability rather than roles, leaders will need to adapt to having fewer dedicated teams, he adds.

“[There needs to be] a pivot from leaders who are really good at process execution to leaders who are increasingly exceptional at project guidance.”

3. Humanistic automation

With technological advancement moving at an unprecedented rate, it’s no surprise that digital literacy is projected to be a critical leadership skill of the future. To remain competitive, leaders need to constantly ask themselves if they are going far enough in understanding and leveraging emerging technologies, says Jesuthasan.

“What the past two years have taught us is that just being digitally savvy is too low a bar. We need business leaders who really understand AI in all its forms, understand the tools available and understand how it’s going to reshape their operating models.”

In the future, it will become increasingly important for leaders to strike the right balance between harnessing the capabilities of AI alongside the capabilities of their workforces.

“[Ask yourself], ‘How do I automate in a way that ensures that I’m not compromising ingenuity and innovation in my business? How do I automate in a way that makes the most of the human skills I’ve invested in for decades?’,” says Jesuthasan.

As AI takes on more and more of our repetitive, rules-based work, leaders should be placing more focus on cultivating human skills such as communication, problem-solving and critical thinking in both themselves and their people.

According to research from the World Economic Forum, the half-life of a technical skill is currently about five years. While it remains crucial to develop technical skills to navigate emerging technologies, employers should remember that the so-called ‘soft’ skills will always be necessary for success.

“What the past two years have taught us is that just being digitally savvy is such a low bar. We need business leaders who really understand generative AI.” – Ravin Jesuthasan, Senior Partner and Global Leader for Transformation Services, Mercer

4. Cultivating diversity of thought, experience and perspective

The most effective leaders in the future of work will be those who can leverage the benefits of diverse workforces, says Jesuthasan.

“A key skill is managing diversity, equity and inclusion – not episodically like we typically do when we hire someone or promote them, but continuously by opening the aperture to having different skills, different perspectives and different experiences being deployed to work,” he says. 

“Because that’s the only way any business stays ahead of the competition – that diversity of thought, experience and perspective.”

Inclusive hiring practices are essential not only to innovation, but also to business stability, he says. He offers the example of a US airline that set up its own flight school as its traditional talent pool of ex-military pilots began to dry up. 

“Because of who was accepted to fly in the military [in the past], most of their pilots, unsurprisingly, were older white men. But with their own flight school, their first class was 80 per cent female and minorities. 

“By opening the aperture and creating their own school, they know that in less than two years, they’ll have a flight crew that is exponentially more diverse than the talent that they’re going to be replacing. It’s a win-win – we secure our supply, and we ensure that the supply is more diverse than the legacy supply chain.”

This strategic approach to diversity ensures that organisations are not just keeping pace with change, but are actively shaping the future of work.

As we move into the next iteration of work, HR plays a critical role in cultivating this next phase of leadership. As the champions of human-centred ways of working, HR practitioners are in a unique position to support leaders as they develop the skills to lead through empowerment, implement humanistic automation and enhance their approach to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Ravin Jesuthasan will be speaking on the deconstruction of jobs and the reconstruction of work at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August. Sign up today to hear from Ravin and other experts, including Seth Godin, Dr Pippa Grange and more.

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In an increasingly divided world, fostering inclusive workplaces is more challenging and more crucial than ever before. 

According to Edelman’s 2023 Trust Barometer, which surveyed more than 1150 Australians, Australia is currently considered “moderately polarised” and on the brink of “severe polarisation”. Nearly half of Australians (45 per cent) feel the nation is more divided now than at any other time in history.

When this polarisation creeps into our workplaces, it can create a plethora of psychosocial risks, including interpersonal conflict, negative stereotyping and poor communication. 

“The risk is that people form themselves into these binary oppositional groups, and there’s this mentality of, ‘If you’re if you’re not with me, then you’re against me,’” says Dr. Juliet Bourke, Professor of Practice at UNSW Business School and upcoming speaker at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August.

“But that’s not what the world is really like. There’s a broad spectrum of views. And part of the skill is not getting sucked into that narrative, but to stand back and understand the individuals on a broader spectrum.”

Bourke, who has researched and written extensively on inclusive leadership practices, spoke with HRM to discuss the most effective strategies for leaders to foster inclusive workplaces within a seemingly polarised society.

1. Recognise the spectrum of attitudes towards DEI

An essential step in ensuring that polarisation does not damage organisational culture is engaging employees in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. However, Bourke stresses that there is no one right way to engage employees in these conversations, given that employees can hold vastly different attitudes and opinions on the subject. 

To help leaders decide the right way to communicate with employees about DEI, Bourke has broken down employees’ typical attitudes towards DEI into a spectrum of six archetypes.

“At one end, there is an oppositional response. That person brings a level of anger or negative emotion to the topic. At the other end is the person who’s really passionate and positively disruptive,” she says.

The archetypes she has formulated are as follows:

• Oppositional: These employees are strongly against DEI, often expressing anger or negative emotions towards it. They might feel that they are losing privilege or being left behind.
• Disengaged: This archetype is indifferent to DEI. Their eyes may glaze over when DEI is discussed, and they’re unlikely to attend events or workshops. They may say DEI is not “their thing”.
• Ambivalent (two types): In Bourke’s view, there are two forms of ambivalence to DEI. The first type is somewhat supportive of DEI, but fears making a misstep and therefore remains silent. The other is fatigued – while they may once have been committed, they now lack the energy to engage.
• Supportive, but not leading: These employees have a fairly positive attitude to DEI and are willing to follow others in their efforts, but don’t take the initiative themselves.
• Champions: This archetype is passionate about DEI, actively contributes to the organisation’s inclusion efforts and pushes boundaries in a positive way.

The goal for leaders, says Bourke, is to meet people where they’re at and move them up the engagement curve. Understanding the spectrum above is crucial to matching the message to the person, since different archetypes will require a different approach. 

She also notes that while employees on the champion side of the spectrum are already fully engaged in DEI efforts, this does not mean leaders can ‘set and forget’ this cohort; they still need to ensure the efforts of these employees are in fact contributing to a more inclusive workplace.

“Sometimes when people are champions, they can also be tone deaf. And they can be like bulldozers. I don’t think that that’s helpful either,” she says. “So leaders have a role to play in keeping champions connected and curious.”

On an individual level, employees are also influenced in different ways by different means of communication. 

Bourke suggests thinking of information in terms of content that engages the head, heart or hands. For example, some employees will be more affected by hard facts and data, while others will be swayed by heartfelt stories with real emotions. Others learn from doing and want to be guided on the actions they should take. The trick to influencing others to be more engaged in DEI is understanding the person’s archetype and the type of information that is most suited to the person.

She also says that leaders should ask themselves whether they are the best person to deliver that message, or if there is another person who is more suited, perhaps because they have a closer, stronger and more trusted relationship.

“I would say to leaders, step back from the black and white and see [your people] through a lens of colour,” says Bourke. “See the person in front of you with a bit more nuance, think about who influences them and [the way] you’re trying to influence them, and experiment with that.”

2. Facilitate open dialogue

Once leaders have established the most effective ways to communicate with their teams about DEI, a crucial next step is to ensure employees feel safe to express their perspectives at work.

Of course, facilitating open dialogue in a workplace where employees have polarised views creates the potential for conflict, meaning leaders may be reluctant to initiate these difficult conversations. However, allowing polarisation to simmer unaddressed is not conducive to a psychosocially safe work environment.

“I would say to leaders, step back from the black and white and see [your people] through a lens of colour.” – Dr. Juliet Bourke, Professor of Practice at UNSW Business School

In facilitating conversations between employees with differing views, one strategy Bourke has found particularly effective is to try and establish common ground between the parties involved to help them understand each other’s perspectives.

“This strategy is about bringing together those two people who are opposed and saying, ‘Well, what do we agree upon?’ And it is unlikely that you won’t find some commonality.”

For example, she says, while there may be polarised views on current geopolitical issues when it comes to religion or political ideology, employees on both sides are likely to agree that family is important and that peace is the end goal. 

Finding this common ground not only helps prevent conflict, but can also help bust misconceptions employees might hold about their colleagues.

“If we have an open conversation and get an empathetic understanding of the other person, it’s harder to hold onto the stereotypical view you went into the conversation with because you realise that person is a person, a whole person, not a cardboard cutout picture.” 

3. Demonstrate curiosity

When facilitating open dialogue among their teams, it’s important for leaders to model the curious mindset that will help employees understand each other’s points of view.

To demonstrate this curiosity, Bourke suggests leaders take part in regular ‘perspective taking’. Within the workplace, this might look like talking directly with employees about their unique experiences, showing genuine interest in their perspectives and asking thoughtful questions to gain insight and build stronger connections.

Leaders can also immerse themselves in other cultures and communities outside of the workplace to gain a better understanding of a particular cohort’s perspective, she adds. This could be as simple as exploring books and films from other cultures or attending community events.

It’s also important for leaders to demonstrate healthy curiosity about themselves.

“The skill of self-reflection [is important],” says Bourke. “As a starting point, [ask yourself], ‘How am I coming across? How am I influencing this conversation, [maybe] in ways that I didn’t intend?’”

Given that it can be hard for anyone to view their strengths and weaknesses objectively, Bourke suggests leaders get input from trusted people in their circles on where their communication styles might show room for improvement.

“You can also look at other people whom you admire,” she says. “If you look at someone and think, ‘I want to be like that person,’ then ask, ‘What is it they are doing that I want [to mimic]?’”

4. Prioritise self-care

Dealing with a polarised workforce in a turbulent business environment can take its toll on HR’s, managers’ and leaders’ wellbeing. 

These difficulties are reflected in multiple research reports from the past two years showing that managers and leaders are experiencing higher levels of burnout than their junior counterparts.

This is an important issue to address since, according to Bourke, inclusive leadership is only possible when leaders have the space and balance in their own lives to approach this complex issue with energy and curiosity.

“For me, when I come across those challenges, I make sure I balance it in my life with situations and people who give me energy because sometimes dealing with entrenched resistance is very draining.

“Giving yourself time to regenerate and [participating in] positive activities is a way to support yourself to be an inclusive leader.”

Dr. Juliet Bourke will be speaking on inclusive coworker behaviours at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August. Sign up today to hear from Juliet and other experts, including Seth Godin, Dr Pippa Grange and more.

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An employee’s first few days in a new organisation can have an enormous impact, particularly during periods of change.

In 2021, ASC, which has served as Australia’s sovereign submarine builder and sustainer for almost 40 years, was faced with the challenge of onboarding hundreds of new employees during a period of intense change and against the backdrop of pandemic lockdowns. 

This challenge prompted ASC to devise a refreshed onboarding program with a more strategic, innovative and supportive approach. The success of the new program saw the company win the Best Learning and Development Strategy Award at the 2023 AHRI Awards.

“This program has resulted in a much better experience for all employees joining the business,” says Sally Renshaw, Talent and Organisational Development Manager at ASC. 

“We continue to run the induction program today, and ASC’s Executive Committee and senior leaders are very much invested into it. It’s not just an HR initiative – it’s actually how we as ASC care for our people as they join our business.”

Renshaw spoke with HRM to provide an in-depth look at the strategy that led to the program’s success.

Responding to change with a revamped onboarding process

The decision to develop a new onboarding program was made in 2021 in response to the announcement that approximately 350 employees would be joining ASC from other shipbuilding employers. 

This change came about as a result of a Government decision to cease the Attack class submarine program and the need to retain Australia’s submarine skilled workforce, which solidified plans for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. 

“It happened very quickly,” says Renshaw. “A number of people were essentially losing their jobs, and even though it was great news and they were being offered employment with us, that’s a huge change. We were thinking about that as part of our design – we really wanted to help people navigate that change and help them have some tools to be able to support themselves.”

Previously, explains Renshaw, ASC’s onboarding process consisted mostly of eLearning modules on safety and compliance. But, with so many new starters joining the organisation, the HR team recognised the need for a more consistent and well-rounded onboarding process that increased speed to competence and offered a real taste of the company’s culture and operations. 

This would also ensure leaders were not overwhelmed with having to onboard dozens of new employees from scratch. 

Based on these needs, the team devised the new Corporate Induction Program in just six weeks. They took care to ensure that the program offered a balanced view of the organisation’s mission and values to build an early sense of connection and belonging.

“We talk about our strategic pillars  and what this business is here to do – so the why of our business – but also it helps them understand the how of the business, the different structures, the different teams and how they interface with each other,” says Renshaw.

“[For example], we take them to the shipyard as part of this experience and get them to touch and see the submarine and understand what it really looks like… And I think it helps them understand our deeper purpose.”

Prioritising wellbeing during onboarding

Many of the employees who were redeployed faced sudden and unexpected changes to their careers, so it was important that the program addressed their wellbeing and readiness to join a new team, says Renshaw.

This led to the decision to structure the induction program around two distinct pillars: ‘About ASC’, and ‘About You’.

“[The ‘About You’ modules] supported people to learn some coping strategies and understand that change and loss are normal, and that, actually, they had a lot to gain as they were joining our organisation,” says Renshaw.

While the ‘About ASC’ sessions provided an understanding of the company’s history, mission and operations, the ‘About You’ sessions, interspersed throughout the program, covered diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, networking and personal development through tools such as the Team Management Profile (TMP).

TMP is a psychometric tool used to help individuals understand their work preferences, strengths and areas for development within a team context, explains Renshaw. It’s designed to enhance teamwork and communication by providing insights into how team members can best collaborate and support each other.

“It removes the hierarchy because we’re all new and we’re all here to learn together. And that creates a nice safe space for people.” – Sally Renshaw, Talent and Organisational Development Manager, ASC 

During the program, each participant completes a detailed questionnaire, which is analysed to create an individual profile. This profile highlights their work style and preferred roles in a team, and how they collaborate best. Participants are then given the chance to apply their unique work style in a group workshop.

“It helps them understand what their own preferences are, and then how they can work with others more effectively. That is always a huge hit,” says Renshaw.

Another popular aspect of these sessions is the use of device-based simulations to help employees understand the importance of strategic networking.

“It’s essentially gamification,” she says. “Everyone sits with a laptop, we set up the simulation and they are provided with a scenario. It’s nothing to do with submarines, or our business per se, but everything to do with understanding that if we’re just thinking about ourselves and our own needs, we’re not going to be able to move ourselves forward collectively. 

“At the start, people think it’s all about them and winning. And then, at some point, they realise it’s not, and they need to bring others along on the journey to succeed. It becomes more of a team approach, and you see the people who have a ‘we’ mindset are the ones who get further along in the game.”

Crafting a consistent onboarding experience 

As well as making new starters feel welcome and valued, one of the team’s key objectives was to ensure the program was as flexible as possible. Given the scale of onboarding required, it was important to ensure the program was suited to employees from all levels of the business.

“Whether you’re an apprentice, a graduate, an executive, or anywhere in between, you come into the organisation the same way. So it’s really consistent, and everyone gets to have the same experience when they join,” says Renshaw.

“They’re also from a diverse range of departments – we have engineers, supply chain professionals, project managers, et cetera… So there’s opportunity for people to start building a network, which is one of the key differentiators of the program. It removes the hierarchy because we’re all new and we’re all here to learn together. And that creates a nice safe space for people.”

This has had the knock-on effect of improving cross-departmental collaboration, she says, as employees feel comfortable reaching out to familiar faces from their induction regardless of where they sit in the business.

The team also had to take into account the fluctuating levels of new starters coming through the program, as well as adjustments to accommodate remote onboarding during the 2021 lockdown periods. 

While ASC’s preference is to deliver most of the program face-to-face, the individual workshops and sessions with expert speakers were designed to easily migrate online when necessary, and were made available on-demand to accommodate changing schedules.

In order to ensure the program was adaptable enough to withstand further periods of transition, it was broken down into flexible modules, which build on each other to create an overarching company story, but can be completed in any order. 

“We simplified our operating model into a one-page document, and the whole program has been built around that,” says Renshaw. “So, we’re slowly sharing the operating model and how each piece fits in, giving them bite-sized pieces of information that they could retain and understand, and then building on that for the next piece.”

An empathetic approach

For organisations looking to embark on similar initiatives, Renshaw stresses the importance of taking the time to understand the unique needs and circumstances of participants when crafting an onboarding program like this.

“Part of our design was taking an empathetic approach,” she says. “It’s really important that we put ourselves in the shoes of others and that time is spent connecting with stakeholders to understand the challenges and the opportunities through their eyes. Then we design solutions that meet those needs.”

The value of this approach has shone through in feedback from new hires. Following the induction, 93 per cent of participants agreed or strongly agreed that they felt more comfortable about starting at ASC, and 99 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that the program provided them with key information about ASC and how the business operates. 

The fact that the program had been designed and implemented in a very short timeframe in a turbulent environment made its success all the more rewarding, says Renshaw, and having this achievement recognised with an AHRI Award last year was an immensely satisfying moment.

“We were quite a small team – there were just four of us,” she says. “We put our heart and soul into developing this program, so to get that recognition of our work was fantastic.”

Know someone who has made award-worthy contributions to their organisation or the HR profession? Applications for the 2024 AHRI Awards are open until 21 June. Read more and apply here.

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As Australia’s largest seafood producer, with more than 35 years’ experience in aquaculture, Tassal Group is no stranger to the challenges of retaining employees in a demanding and complex industry.

After skill shortages necessitated bringing in more entry-level staff, Tassal’s people and culture team and Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) trainer noted that the volume of required training was overwhelming new starters in the organisation’s farming teams and leading to high levels of turnover within their first year with the organisation.

To address this challenge, the team developed and implemented the Accelerate program, a dynamic onboarding process designed to equip new farming employees with the skills and confidence needed to thrive on the job from day one.

The program has transformed the organisation’s approach to recruitment and training, significantly improving safety and overall job satisfaction among new recruits and contributing to decreasing voluntary turnover among first-year employees by 40 per cent.

“[The program means] they’ve got the confidence to know how to handle themselves when they’re on the water, and that ability to be integrated into a team quickly has made a huge difference,” says Liz Luck, Senior Manager of Organisational Capability and Development at Tassal.

The success of the program saw the 1700-strong business win Best Attraction, Recruitment and Retention Strategy at the 2023 AHRI Awards.

Know someone who has made award-worthy contributions to their organisation or the HR profession? Applications for the 2024 AHRI Awards are open until 14 June. Read more and apply here. 

Accelerated onboarding

Learning the ropes of a role in the aquaculture industry can be a complex and lengthy process.

A combination of factors such as safety risks, complex equipment and strict regulatory requirements means it can take a farming employee between 18 months and two years to become fully proficient and comfortable in their role.

“Previously, we’d been able to employ people who had experience in similar roles, but it was becoming a challenge to source anyone with any experience,” says Luck.

“We were faced with hiring people who had never worked on the water, and sometimes hadn’t really been out on boats before.”

This meant new employees sometimes felt lost when they started, she says, which impacted retention and integration into the broader team. This was exacerbated by the fact that new team members were starting sporadically, making it hard for WHS trainers to provide suitable training. This tension led to the decision to develop the Accelerate program.  

Launching with two pilot programs in 2021, which ran for two weeks each, the training program is conducted in a controlled environment, offering new farm attendants exposure to various aspects of their roles before joining their permanent teams. This includes off-the-job training for necessary licenses and hands-on practice in a safe setting. 

“They’re learning the basics of the job. It’s a sampler, but it’s got lots of variety that helps them hit the ground running,” says Luck.

“It also does amazing things for the confidence of these participants, as they’re learning in a safe space, and then they can go out and actually hold their own and feel that they’re contributing [from the start].”

Safety is at the forefront of every decision at Tassal, she says. The Tassal aspiration of ‘Zero Harm’ extends to everyone, not only direct employees, and the Accelerate program is no exception. 

Leveraging onboarding to boost belonging

After outstanding feedback from participants in the pilots, the program was developed into a six-week onboarding course, which has now been completed by around 75 employees. The program has also been very well-received by existing employees, who no longer feel they have to start from scratch when training a new starter.

The success of the program has led to plans for expansion across other divisions. One of its most significant achievements has been fostering a strong sense of belonging among new and existing team members, says Luck.

During the Accelerate program, there is one week dedicated to learning “the Tassal way”, where participants can see the full salmon life cycle and meet the teams associated with each stage. This helps them see their place in the larger puzzle and feel more connected to the organisation, says Luck. 

“It does amazing things for the confidence of these participants, as they’re learning in a safe space, and then they can go out and actually hold their own.” – Liz Luck, Senior Manager of Organisational Capability and Development at Tassal

The program has also allowed Tassal to change its approach to recruitment, with a shift from seeking people with previous experience to actively promoting the role as having little or no experience required. This has led to an increase in female employees applying for farming roles, with 19 per cent of participants in the program being women compared to six per cent in the overall workforce.

In the past, female applicants with previous experience in farming roles had been limited, and Accelerate allows them to begin their career with established skills and licenses, and feel comfortable and confident working in what has historically been a male-dominated area, says Luck.

She recalls a particularly rewarding instance where a stay-at-home Mum was empowered by the program to pursue new career opportunities with Tassal. 

“She had always wanted to do something that wasn’t an office-based job, but had never applied because she didn’t have experience,” she says. “And so she was able to apply and do [the program]. And she’s great – she’s out there and just loving it. It’s so nice to see.”

Challenges and reflections from the program

Getting buy-in from management on an extended onboarding program like this was somewhat challenging at first, says Luck. Tassal’s workforce is fairly lean, she explains, and the number of new recruits is generally aligned to current needs. 

“But, with the Accelerate program, we were having to employ people before they were needed,” she says. “It was a really big mindset change for our managers.”

This is part of the reason why the initial pilot programs were only two weeks long.

“At first, there was a bit of weariness about it. But even those two weeks made a huge impact, and so managers decided they would be happy to expand it… It was just a case of needing to demonstrate that it was working. Once we got through the pilot, it was much easier.”

The success of the Accelerate program is a valuable reminder of aligning training and retention efforts with an organisation’s strategic goals. For Tassal, these goals included having world-class engaged teams delivering optimal performance, and establishing psychosocial safety as a foundational component of its safety strategy, both of which guided the rollout and continuous improvement of the Accelerate program.

Tassal is proud to have the people and culture and WHS team’s achievements recognised with an AHRI Award at last year’s ceremony.

“It was such a fabulous sense of recognition for the people that have put in so much work to get it up and running,” she says. “It was nice to have them recognised as having done amazing work because they really have made a difference in the way that we operate on the water.”

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