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Developing a preferred culture

In October 2005, Melbourne Water employees were surveyed about organisational culture and what they believed was necessary to develop a preferred culture. Overwhelmingly, people responded that they wanted their working culture to be constructive, to enjoy positive, respectful workplace relationships and come to work with a sense of purpose and leave with a sense of achievement.
Initiatives to bring about a preferred culture included:

  • Workshops and the identification of actions to help drive preferred culture
  • Feedback to more than 200 people about their leadership style from peers, managers and people in their teams
  • Workshops that provided information to our people about behavioural styles and how these can be developed in teams
  • A culture leadership program aimed at enhancing team leaders’ ability to foster constructive behaviour styles in their work groups
  • A leadership development strategy and program for senior leaders.

Attraction and retention

According to the International Water Association, 50% of water professionals will retire in the next five to 10 years, and each year a smaller percentage of young professionals are attracted to a career in water.

Melbourne Water is committed to ensuring that we are able to provide all of our people with a compelling employment experience and our human resources strategy identifies four key areas in which Melbourne Water is able to differentiate itself as a “preferred” employer. These areas are:

  • A constructive and inclusive workplace culture
  • The ability to make an important contribution to the community and environment
  • An environment that fosters learning
  • The ability to enjoy flexible working conditions that provide a sense of balance in life.

Melbourne Water participated in the Hewitt Best Employers Survey 2007 as an opportunity to benchmark against organisations that have achieved “best employer” status. Melbourne Water’s results placed us in the “high performance” range, a result that is underpinned by strong results in a number of the following survey areas:

  • A belief that people and diversity are valued in our workplace culture
  • A clear sense of accomplishment from being involved in meaningful work and making a contribution
  • A high level of perceived commitment to learning and development opportunities.

These results indicate that a number of our human resources practices are having a positive impact on engagement, and highlighted some further improvements across the organisation, including:

  • The need to ensure that work processes and practices are effective
  • Continue to help people in setting and achieving goals and recognising their efforts.

By continuing to focus on delivering the employment experience, we will ensure Melbourne Water’s ability to attract and retain people into the future.

Melbourne Water, along with water associations and water authorities across Australia, has made a significant contribution to the development of national retention and attraction strategies. These strategies will build the profile and awareness of opportunities available in the water industry and enhance our ability to retain and attract quality people.

Leading the way

In June 2007, Melbourne Water launched a leadership development program at the Melbourne Business School. The program, being run in partnership with the Australian Graduate School of Management, includes residential, action learning and relationship-building components.

Thirty-six people are involved in the eight month program, which will include teams working on a business-related project.

Melbourne Water worked closely with the Australian Graduate School of Management to design the program. Exercises in the classroom environment are linked to the Melbourne Water workplace and are aimed at building on constructive behaviours.

Earthwatch partnership

This year, two Melbourne Water people were given a significant opportunity to become ‘Ambassadors for the Environment’ through a partnership between Melbourne Water and the Earthwatch Institute. Some of the key aims of the partnership include providing professional development opportunities, creating a network of Melbourne Water ‘ambassadors’ to champion environmental and sustainability issues, and supporting scientific research directed towards achieving ecological and social sustainability. This provided an opportunity for our people to make a contribution to the broader community and environment, and to be supported in an alternative learning experience.

In September 2006, Rhys Coleman travelled to Kenya to take part in a project entitled Communities, Water and Wildlife. Justin Jemmeson participated in the Mexican Mangroves and Wildlife project in March 2007.

Reward and recognition program

In February, a new and enhanced Reward and Recognition Program was re-launched to acknowledge our people who demonstrate constructive behaviours and achieve recognition for exceptional performance or contribution. The program supports our strategic commitment to recognise the achievements and efforts of our people outside of the normal financial reward mechanisms. The program provides informal and formal methods of recognition for individual, team and community contributions as well as giving our people the opportunity to nominate their peers for recognition.

Case study

Employees honoured for expertise

 

Melbourne Water’s lead operator for the Maroondah water supply team, John De Boer, was this year named a finalist in the Operator of the Year Award at the annual Victorian Water Industry Engineers and Operators conference.

The award is presented to operators of water or wastewater treatment facilities to recognise excellent performance, initiative and all round attention to detail. John was nominated for his achievement in team leadership and work in optimising the performance of the Healesville and Yarra Glen microfiltration treatment plants.

Research undertaken by Melbourne Water’s chief environmental scientist, Vin Pettigrove, was included as one of three examples of “great Australian science” by Robin Batterham, former Chief Scientist for the Australian Government and currently Chief Technologist at Rio Tinto.

Vin’s research, in conjunction with the Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, resulted in the development of a method to assess the effects of pollution on aquatic ecosystems. This method can separate pollution effects from those caused by the degradation of aquatic habitats.

Dr Batterham said in a keynote address at the INTERACT conference in Perth in September 2006: “It caught my imagination as a superb example of leading edge and world class science opening up new ways of evaluating how various pollutants might be stressing the environment.”