Post People 1st
In September 2013 we launched our Post People 1st initiative, to develop the skills and experience of our employees and give them the confidence to have successful and fulfilling careers. The program ensures that available positions are first advertised internally, guaranteeing priority consideration for our people before we seek external candidates. Since launching our Post People 1st initiative, 2,705 jobs have been filled by internal applicants.
“For my new job, I was provided with extensive training, including how to handle parcels safely. I really enjoy this position.”
Image: Sandra Bambery used Post People 1st to find a job closer to home as a mail officer at the Underwood Parcel Facility in Queensland.
As our business evolves, we are engaging our entire workforce in the need for change – and supporting them as we transform our services and operations.
We are committed to communicating openly and providing the support our people need to adapt to operational and service changes, while never compromising on safety.
Strengthening our safety culture
Ensuring a safe working environment is Australia Post's highest priority. We believe that everyone deserves to go home at the end of their day as healthy as they were when they came to work, so our safety program supports our ongoing vision for zero injuries and zero tolerance of unsafe acts in our workplaces.
Recently our safety strategy has matured from one of compliance to a focus on leadership commitment, and an increased level of personal accountability. This is promoting a culture where everyone takes ownership of safety in their workplace by making positive changes that reduce risks to themselves and their colleagues.
We saw a continued decline in workplace injuries, demonstrating the sustained benefits of our safety strategy. Our All Occupational Injury Frequency Rate decreased to 22.8 from 25.6 (down 10.9 per cent from last year), while our Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate reduced to 8.0 (down from 8.2 last year), a 2.4 per cent reduction.
Engaging our workforce
During the year we continued the journey of engaging with our employees on the current state of our business and future direction.
Between March and April 2014, our Managing Director & Group CEO and members of the Executive Committee travelled to all major capital cities where they held briefing sessions with managers and supervisors and visited employees at more than 30 mail facilities and post offices. These events were an opportunity to celebrate the successes we've achieved through our Future Ready strategy over the past four years, while importantly encouraging some 2,000 attendees from across our business to speak frankly with senior leaders about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
We recognise the need to foster ongoing discussions about our business transformation. To support this approach, this year we introduced the Workforce Conversation portal, a secure website providing employees with access to important business information.
Prioritising our people
Australia Post is committed to managing change in a way that is fair and reasonable for our people.
As we implement more efficient ways to run our business, it's vital that we provide our employees with access to career development opportunities and support, so that they can make an informed choice about their future. Central to the way we implement change is the notion of a well-planned and respectfully implemented career transition.
We have launched a number of initiatives to help our people transition into growth areas of our business, which includes providing training and re-skilling through our Post People 1st program (see above). Career development programs such as these will be integral in developing and preparing our people for future roles, ensuring that they have the skills, experience and confidence they need to have a successful and fulfilling career.
Supporting licensees and Community Postal Agencies
In recognition of the shared challenges Licensed Post Office (LPOs) and Community Postal Agencies (CPAs) face, this year we made a commitment to strengthen the viability of these business partners with a $40 million package of initiatives.
This rural sustainability package, which will increase the minimum guaranteed annual payment for LPOs and introduce a minimum payment for CPAs, is the latest in a series of initiatives that will contribute $40 million on top of around $338 million already paid annually. The announcement followed other measures introduced earlier in the year such as additional scanning payments for trackable articles, a $25 million (16.7 per cent) growth in payments related to the basic postage rate increase (see Postal Services) and new services and payments for the MyPost Account.
Record 80% response
for our employee engagement survey
Our annual say2action employee engagement survey, conducted in April and May 2014, achieved a response rate of 80 per cent, representing the views of nearly 30,000 of our people – a record number for Australia Post.
Through the survey, many of our people demonstrated their understanding and willingness to accept change as we transform our business to deliver on our customer commitments (see Supporting our people for more).
More than 25%
of parcels delivered by posties
We're implementing wide-ranging operational changes to build flexibility in our delivery network as we make the shift from delivering small, thin letters to handling parcels.
As just one example of this shift, three years ago our posties did not deliver many parcels at all. Today, more than a quarter of our regular parcels are delivered by posties.