Our people
There is no question that it’s our people who make Australia Post what it is. When we have happy employees, it translates directly to a better experience for our customers and the community. We create value by working with more than 50,000 people nationally, empowering a skilled, diverse and engaged workforce.
It is clear that employee satisfaction and engagement must remain a key priority for our business. So, in our desire to help everyone be part of tomorrow, we always strive to create a safe, secure and inclusive workplace.
During the year we introduced a number of programs for our employees, including:
- new Shared Values (see 2016 performance highlights) which are promoted throughout the year; and living them is part of our performance gateway
- a new online jobs, careers and development portal called Post People 1st
- our first gender action plan to publicly address the gender diversity issues
- a new Domestic Violence Leave policy
- programs to support our people as we implement the operational changes that flow from the reform of our letters service
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Our people represent
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140 different nationalities
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and speak more than 64 different languages
Total workforce
By region
By type
By gender
Turnover rate (%)
Data based on average headcount for permanent, full
time and part-time employees only (Excludes StarTrack,
redundancies and fixed term contracts.
Safety – a core value
Safety, as the first consideration in every decision we make, is core to a successful workplace. We reward safety initiatives and run a range of programs to raise awareness about people’s role in influencing the safety culture and reducing exposure and risks. In acknowledging the imperative for a leader-driven safety culture, safety is a key performance indicator on the Executive Scorecard.
In 2015/16, programs ranged from enterprise-wide programs such as annual Safety Time, Safety Leadership and Health and Wellbeing, to grassroots initiatives such as videos explaining hazards on postie routes and facility safety teams to drive positive safety outcomes at a local level.
The enterprise-wide focus on safety shows that everyone has a role to play in safety leadership and it starts with a mindful approach to safety. We need to be fully conscious about the way we work and look for ways to manage exposures and prevent incidents from occurring.
In 2015/16, we equalled our all-time record low LTIFR of 6.6.
The incidence of lost-time injuries in our workplaces is 43 per cent less than four years ago. This is a considerable achievement and testament to the success of a wide-ranging and long-term focus on the safety culture within our business. While our results once again show an encouraging trend, they still require significant improvement and indicate that we are only part-way through our vision of creating a truly safe working environment for our people.
In 2015/16, we continued to invest in Safety Leadership programs across the business, with over 1,000 leaders trained in Safety Leadership over the past 12 months. We also had 118 of our most senior leaders across the enterprise (including StarTrack) involved in safety investigations to gain a deeper, practical insight into risk management and safety processes.
Regrettably, there were two public fatalities connected with Australia Post this year. A customer suffered a medical emergency while in a Post Office and an elderly pedestrian was injured in a vehicle collision and subsequently passed away. Community safety remains a key priority for us, as demonstrated through our ongoing public safety campaigns.
Total workforce
| Safety performance | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|
| Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) where next shift could not be worked due to injury/occupational disease (i.e lost time, per million hours worked) | 7 | 6.6 |
| Injury rate (IR) Incidents involving an injury per 200,000 hours worked | 3 | 2.9 |
| Occupational disease rate (ODR) Incidents involving occupational disease per 200,000 hours worked | 1.3 | 0.8 |
| Fatalities (number) | 1 | 0 |
| Fatality rate (per million km) | 0.0047 | 0 |
| All occupational injury frequency rate (AOIFR) Incidents involving an injury* or disease* per million hours worked | 21.5 | 18.5 |
Work-related injury or fatality claims that have been lodged and accepted. Licensees and contractors are not included.
*Injury or disease based on approved claims.
Safe Rider program a positive experience
Following a successful trial at our Nepean Delivery Facility in New South Wales, a number of staff weighing over 100kg were assisted to get back into the safe rider weight zone and, ultimately, a healthy weight range.
Phil Howarth was one of many great examples of using willpower and determination to make positive changes. Phil worked hard to build healthier habits and improve his wellbeing, having started the Safe Rider program weighing over the 100kg threshold. After making some simple changes to his diet and lifestyle, Phil managed to lose more.
than 20kg and felt more energetic and confident as a result. Phil knew his biggest weakness was sugar, so he faced his habit straight on – going from 400g of chocolate and up to 3L of soft drink every day, to cutting it out altogether. That alone made a big difference, although Phil said it wasn’t easy. He volunteered to come off the motorbike and onto a walk round to get more exercise at work. Getting a new dog was another factor, encouraging Phil to walk more after work.
Motivated by wanting to be around for his young family, Phil looks back now and wonders why he didn’t do it five years ago. While it
wasn’t easy to make the changes, Phil said it was actually simpler than he thought it would be. “It’s a choice you have to make every day to be healthier, and I have seen the results. I have so much more energy, I wake up feeling fresh and go to bed proud of the choices I have made.
Since losing the weight, I actually feel freer and less constricted, which has made it a lot more comfortable riding my motorbike. I have come to understand why there would be weight limits – I feel the difference!”
Engaging our workforce
Our annual Say2Action survey measures employee sentiment across a number of aspects of our business and there was a high response rate in 2015/16, with 78 per cent of total staff completing the survey.
Our overall company-wide net engagement score was 57 per cent, up by 1 per cent from the most recent full survey we conducted in 2014, but down 3 per cent from last year’s pulse-check survey.
The feedback from the survey indicated that employees are happy with the focus on safety, supporting workplace change, living our Shared Values, and communicating our strategy. The survey results also indicated we could improve our customer focus, supporting career opportunities and making sure our senior leaders are more widely available. The feedback also indicated that a continued focus on supporting our community is important to our people.
Engaging our people is important and our new Applaud awards recognise employees living the shared values.
A seamless connection through OurPost.com.au
Many of our employees are out in the community, so they don’t have a work computer. But regardless, our people tell us that they want to be able to access need-to-know information, updates and services – in real time.
So, this year we launched OurPost, a dedicated website for everyone who works for and supports the Australia Post Group. It gives them easy access to work-related services and keeps them up to date with the latest business news.
Keeping our posties safe
While we have a range of internal training education and management programs to help manage exposures, there are some issues that require the community’s help. The Bubble Wrap Postie campaign was launched in October 2015 to raise community awareness about the danger of reversing cars. The campaign reached 1.5
million people on social media and called for the public to reverse with care and to toot their horns to warn anyone on the footpath. More information on our public safety campaigns can be found at auspost.com/safety.
Embracing diversity and inclusion
The transformation of Australia Post into an innovative, customer-centric, leading eCommerce business is about building talent and creating a strong culture that represents our community and customers. A diverse workforce is not only the right thing to do from a corporate citizenship perspective, we also believe it translates to better business performance.
Our diversity and inclusion program (detailed in our separate Diversity and Inclusion Report, available online at auspost.com.au), celebrated many successes in 2015/16. The activities included a range of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) initiatives including participation in MidSumma and our PostPride membership group, ongoing implementation of our Accessibility Action Plan and Reconciliation Action Plan and a strong presence during Reconciliation Week.
Total workforce
| Our diversity profile | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people | 1.6% | 1.5% | 1.9% | 2.1% |
| Women | 39.1% | 38.9% | 39.7% | 39.7% |
| Culturally & Linguistically Diverse | 23.1% | 23.0% | 25.5% | 25.3% |
| People with Disability | 7.1% | 7.1% | 6.3% | 6.0% |
| Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex people | not recorded | not recorded | 0.9% | 0.9% |
| Female Executives (Band 4 and above) | 34.1% | 33.3% | 35.4% |
Australia Post only
National Reconciliation Week
Each year, National Reconciliation Week invites us to recognise two important dates in Australia’s Reconciliation journey: the 1967 referendum and High Court of Australia’s landmark Mabo decision.
It’s a time to reflect on our national identity, the progress we have made and to celebrate acts of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
We hosted a number of special activities across the country including events at major sites in all capital cities during National Reconciliation Week 2016. As a mark of respect to the Indigenous communities we serve, we unveiled 31 newly branded trucks and vehicles across Australia. The design on these vehicles represents the connection Australia Post has with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Our Managing Director & Group CEO, is a Male Champion of Change and leads a determined effort to provide equal employment opportunities. We launched our Gender Action Plan in October 2015, which provides a roadmap of initiatives to fast-track the development of the many talented women in our business.
During the past five years, almost 2,000 women have participated in one of our tailored development programs, such as ProjectMe (formerly MyMentor), designed to harness the talent of our award-level females, the TenProgram, Xplore and Horizon, to build a pipeline of future female leaders. These programs aim to lift the proportion of women in every area of managerial responsibility across our business.
The Recruit Smarter program is a new Victorian Government program aimed at improving fairness in the hiring process for all job seekers. We are participating in this program, which aims to eliminate unconscious bias during the recruitment process and help to remove barriers to achieving greater gender equity, progressing the agenda for women at senior levels.
Closing the gender pay gap in our workplace
There has been significant media coverage highlighting the gender pay gap in Australia. Following our research of this issue across the Australia Post Group, it was pleasing to note that our gender pay gap is 1.4 per cent.
Achieving Gender Equality in the workplace is something our Managing Director & Group CEO is passionate about, particularly in his role as a Male Champion of Change. Our vision is for a gender pay gap of zero and the current result highlights the significant progress we have been making towards gender equality in our business.
Gender Pay Gap is the difference between women’s and men’s average full time equivalent annualised base salary (before tax, excluding overtime, irregular bonuses, salary sacrifice) for all active employees excluding casuals (part time, full time, trainees, including managerial employees and CEO) expressed as a % of men’s annualised base salary.
ProjectMe
Since 2010, Australia Post has made significant progress in the percentage of women in leadership roles, mainly due to senior-level sponsorship and support and investment in a range of female talent development programs. In 2015, we partnered with Inkling Women to develop ProjectMe, which is positioned at award-level female employees. It aims to empower female participants to take responsibility for their career and life development by building their skills, confidence and resilience.
ProjectMe aims to leave participants inspired, energised and connected so they are ready to take charge of their career and life outside of work.
Supporting and developing our people
Post People 1st is in its third year, delivering a range of employment and development opportunities for our workforce. In prioritising and supporting the future of our people through retraining or redeployment, the Post People 1st program puts our existing employees first for jobs at Australia Post, first for skill development and first for a career.
We made a commitment that there would be no forced redundancy of any employees directly impacted by letters reform who are actively seeking jobs in other parts of the business. The majority of Australia Post employees are covered by collective agreements, except for those employed on individual contracts or individual statutory agreements. We engage in regular discussion with unions, employees and government to ensure job reductions in our postal business are managed with compassion and care. Supporting our employees through workplace changes associated with the reform of our letters service is critical to our business as it directly affects morale and culture, which in turn impacts the customer experience.
A new Post People 1st careers portal was launched in September 2015, to improve the employee job application experience and the accessibility and visibility of all internal job opportunities for our people. This careers portal also provides career coaching support and access to continued learning, with these services being actively promoted throughout the year.
Health and wellbeing
We conducted a wide variety of health and wellbeing programs during the year, to address the needs of our diverse workforce.
We announced new initiatives ranging from a new Domestic Violence Leave policy, which supports people through additional paid leave during times of personal hardship, to our partnership with BUPA, where we offer personalised health reports.
Mental health was a key focus area for a number of programs including specific mental health training for human resources and operations managers, as well as involvement in the Black Dog Ride and the City2City fun run. We also supported employees who elected to move to different shifts at our mail processing facilities, with a “Staying Healthy Night to Day Shift” seminar. The seminar explained some of the changes people can expect when they change shifts, including practical tips for adjusting sleep patterns and making lifestyle changes.
We’re continuing to adapt our mail operations to align with changing customer behaviour and declining mail volumes.
Following the introduction of the two-speed consumer service in January, we’ve been closely monitoring Priority and Regular volumes. We’ve seen a shift in product migration for total addressed letter product, with Regular mail accounting for more than 80 per cent of letter volumes.
This means we have more mail available to be processed during the day, and we need to adjust our staffing levels in response.
This year more than 850 mail processing employees have voluntarily moved from night shift to day shift. We recognise that this change can be difficult for our people. We’re continuing to support employees with a range of programs and seminars, such as Create Your Future, Finance, Superannuation, and Staying Healthy Night to Day, which provides employees adjusting to working a day shift with practical tips about lifestyle adjustments.
Our partner workforce
We extend our influence, where we can, beyond our employees to our partner workforce including delivery contractors and licensees.
Nearly 50 per cent of our customer-facing workforce are our partners, as a result, they play a significant role in delivering our customer centricity strategy and are often the face of the Australia Post brand. Our partner workforce plays an important role in helping us to meet our community service obligations, particularly in rural and regional Australia.
Our delivery contractors are a vital part of our network directly responsible for millions of customer interactions each week. They give us flexibility to deliver the significant increases in parcel volumes during the peak periods such as pre-Christmas.
We expect our partner workforce and suppliers to operate to recognised standards and appropriate codes of practice. They are also bound by our Supplier Code of Conduct (see Sustainability Supplement for details).
In 2015/16, we welcomed the release of a report into management of compliance matters related to parcel delivery contract arrangements. The review, chaired independently by former Victorian Police Commissioner Ken Lay with support from law firm Allens Linklaters, made recommendations to strengthen Australia Post’s contractor engagement processes.
We are committed to providing a fair and safe work environment to all those providing services on our behalf and have also seen the opportunity to deliver activities in a way that can drive focus on customer experience. Following the review, we have started a range of initiatives focused on:
- customer experience
- safety
- communications and engagement
- governance and compliance.
Our suppliers
We also recognise the importance of our suppliers and consider the social, ethical and environmental dimensions of our supply chain.
For example, we actively seek to engage Indigenous businesses and social enterprises in our supply chain and work with Supply Nation, the leading directory of Indigenous businesses, and our national community partner, Social Trader.
All of our suppliers are bound by our Supplier Code of Conduct, which requires a demonstrated commitment to human rights and fair employment practices in accordance with existing international standards, such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour organisation Declaration on Fundamental Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Supplier Code of Conduct outlines further ethical, social and environmental standards of conduct expected in the following categories:
- Corporate Governance & Ethical Business Practices
- Management Practices Which Respect the Rights of Employees and Local Community
- Impact on Environment
- Risk Management
Through our Supplier Code of Conduct, our suppliers are required to meet our environmental obligations and, where practicable, our preference is to procure products and services that:
- source materials from sustainable or renewable sources
- have the appropriate certification
- source material made from recycled content
- are able to be reused or recycled at the end of their life
- are appropriately labelled
- help minimise our energy and fuel use and carbon emissions
- help minimise our water use or disposed waste
Customer experience – discussing delivery in Derrimut
The Derrimut Parcel Delivery Centre in Victoria experimented with a new way of working with customer feedback in 2016 that proved so successful it was rolled out to many of our facilities in other states.
In reviewing the daily comments from customers, the team used the information to recognise delivery van drivers during the daily “thank you” sessions as well as the monthly recognition awards. The customer comments were also discussed during team meetings on a weekly basis.
This meant the contract drivers could see how parcel receivers view their customer service. The vast majority of the comments are positive, but where issues are raised, it allows the team to develop solutions directly and immediately.
As a result of the pilot, driver advocacy and job satisfaction increased 39 per cent at Derrimut from August to November 2015 and there has been a sustained increase in customer NPS.
The pilot has now been extended to 13 Delivery Centres.
Our future outlook
In response to technology and the shifting demands of our customers and community, our business has experienced significant disruption over the past five years and will continue to evolve from a traditional letters business to competing in global parcels and trusted eCommerce solutions.
Our people – our employees and our partner workforce – are key to keeping up with changing demands and continuing to delight our customers. We are committed to providing our people with the skills, information and experience necessary to deliver for our customers and communities now and in the future.