Kylie Speer 00:00:07
Kylie, hello and welcome to HRD TV. I'm Kylie Speer, and joining me today is Geoff Allan, Chief Executive at Austroads. Austroads has been named as one of the winners of the HRD 5-Star Employers of Choice for 2025 Welcome to you, Geoff. Congratulations and thank you so much for joining us today.
Geoff Allan 00:00:29
Thank you very much, Kylie. And it is a great honor for Austroads to win the HRD 5-Star Employers of Choice award. We're very, very proud.
Kylie Speer 00:00:38
Well, firstly, Geoff, Austroads has been named as one of HRD's 5-Star winners. So there's clearly a successful culture in place. How challenging has this been to create, considering the organization is the product of bringing two different cultures and organizations together?
Geoff Allan 00:00:58
So you're right, Kylie, we do a reasonably amalgamation of two different organizations, one was austros and one was TCA. But we've, I think, been successful in achieving a culture because we've kept the best parts of both organizations and built on them. So both organizations have a long history. Austroads is more than 90 years old. TCA is around about 20 years old, but they have a lot of good features. So what we've done is tried to make it an open and inclusive place. We tried to give people a fair amount of autonomy to do their work, but within, you know, the confines of being an organization where you have a board, you have responsibilities to you know that your members and to the community, but also just trying to make it a good place to work, and trying to do things for the community. And those two things, I think, are paramount and at the front of our mind.
Kylie Speer 00:01:47
Yeah, you've spoken of the pride your staff take in their work. What do you think drives this and how do you promote it internally?
Geoff Allan 00:01:57
I think there's two things Kylie one of which and I touched on this before it's we are a government owned organization, so not owned by one government, owned by all of the Roads and Transport departments in Australia and New Zealand. So there's very much a community focus to what we do, a community outcome, a community benefit. So very much driven by public purpose. But the other thing is given. We give people autonomy. So we give people a fair amount of autonomy to exercise their professional judgment, to be creative, to do things as they see fit, again, within the culture we set, and that's a culture of respect and inclusivity, but knowing we have owners that have certain standards and expect certain standards, but allowing people, as I say, the autonomy within the sort of framework we set and the culture we set to achieve good things. So I think, yeah, it's a couple of things, and I'm very I try to think we set the tone from the top as well. So whether it's executives, whether it's managers, you know, we trick people and try and, as I say, set the framework to good, do good work and show them the respect and encouragement that you would want if you know if you were working for or working for us.
Kylie Speer 00:03:06
Yeah, as an organization, you encourage your employees to provide feedback. What form does this take and what measures do you implement to act upon this insight?
Geoff Allan 00:03:20
Thanks, Chloe. Well, we've got both formal and informal processes for staff feedback. So we have suggestion boxes. We do surveys the executive we've now started doing 360 degree surveys as well to hear what staff feedback staff want to give us in an in an anonymous manner. But we've also got a lot of informal processes. So part of it is seeking staff views on various things. Now, I think I may have mentioned before, one of the things you try to do is walk around the office and connect with people and talk to them. So part of it is just observation and seeing how people are going and if they look like they're frustrated or annoyed or something's not working. It's having the conversation with them and and, you know, in a in a place that is comfortable for them and safe for them, and having the conversation, you know what's working, what's not, what's going wrong. Can we help? So what do you do with the feedback? And the thing about that approach Kylie is that when you hear it, you can't unhear it. You know, you're effectively taking, you know, they're taking you into their confidence to give you their views. Yeah, you've got to respect that. And if they're going to, you know, and we're trying to make it feel safe, well, hopefully we do feel make people feel safe about giving that. And as I say, sometimes you've got to eek out. Eek out responses that you don't want to hear. So it's about us not reacting, listening and then digesting what's being said to you, and then working out what the best way is to resolve the issue, or to work on the issue or to make improvements. Now I think we're quite lucky in that people don't feel in here. It mostly about giving feedback. And, you know, where we can, what do we do? We try and we try and implement what's done, and try and let people know what we've done and why. And, yeah, so that's, that's what we try to do. Kylie, we try to listen, we try to hear. We try to make a difference, and we try to make it better.
Kylie Speer 00:05:21
Geoff, what is Austro 's approach to hybrid working and what was the process that led you to find the correct balance for the organization?
Geoff Allan 00:05:31
That's a good question. Kylie, and our balance is for most people, and it's going to be slightly different for some. We encourage people to have a minimum if they're working full time, three days in the office and two days from another place. But again, as I said, the circumstances vary depending on your personal circumstances. People can come and many do come into the office more if they want to. Now how did we get to that point? Like everyone, we came out of COVID when everybody was working from home. So we've got an office in Sydney and an office in Melbourne, and I think every you know, in Melbourne, everybody was working from home, and in Sydney, there was a point where only two of us were working in the office, and that was quite challenging at the time, because we also had to move office at the same time, but that's a separate story. But we're also very clear in that we wanted people to come back to the office, and we realized that couldn't be for five days a week, as it was beforehand, but we wanted, not just wanted them to come back, but we're always very clear on reminding of the reasons to come back. So it's about feeling connected to your team, feeling connected to your organization. You spoke before about culture and feedback. It's a lot easier to work on the culture and to hear feedback and to get feedback when people are in the office. So as I say, we've come to the balance three days in the office or more, if you want to different for some people in their personal circumstances, and two days from home. But we try, and, as I say, you know, encourage people to, you know, to be in the office and to be connected to their teams and their work and their rugby and their colleagues.
Kylie Speer 00:07:04
How have you supported and ensured diversity is present across your teams? And what future plans do you have in this regard?
Geoff Allan 00:07:13
That's a good question. So we've got a pretty diverse team, you know, we look at the sort of 90 to 100 staff. We've got people from all over the world, from different backgrounds, different approaches to life and whatever else. And I think it starts with how we recruit. So we get a really good, but very small HR team. Now the ads they place aim to be inclusive. Aim to make sure we get people from a different background and those that get through the interview process and get to work here. When we get to the induction, we try and make sure everyone gets to know everyone else, and everyone feels welcome. So we accommodate you know their views, and try to take account of that. And then when people are working here again, make people feel welcome, make people feel respected. Doesn't matter what your background, what you know, what it doesn't matter what your background, you taught you, we want to make people feel comfortable at work, and that's about, you know, just a whole range of things, respecting what they do, respecting them as individuals, respecting their contributions to the workplace, and, you know, trying to accommodate their preferences where we can as much as possible.
Kylie Speer 00:08:22
Another key objective is health and wellbeing. What can you tell us about this and how do you ensure it evolves to keep pace with the changing needs of your employees?
Geoff Allan 00:08:34
Thanks. Kylie, firstly, we want to make sure people who work for us are healthy. You know that's not just because it's a good thing to do for staff. You want, you know, we like the people who work here. You want them to feel you want them to be healthy. Like that's important. So we have a some formal programs. So we've got a both for physical health and for mental health. So in terms of physical health, we give a staff a small amount of money each year to spend on healthy initiatives. So they can do, you know, buy running shoes or join a gym, or any of those types of things set within a framework. We also have things like reimbursement for flu shots and smoking cessation. So if people want to give up smoking, not just for them, but people in the household realize that, you know, if you smoke and you go home and people are smoking, it probably encourages you to keep smoking. So you know, we're trying to encourage that. But on the wellbeing side, sort of the mental health side as well. We have a an EAP, an employee assistance program, so yeah, we try and make sure that people who are feeling any type of stress doesn't have to be work related, home related, and again, for them and their family. So again, you know, if you've got stress, you know a lot of stress, some stress may be at work, but often, and probably more often, it's due to what's going on at home and family. And if we can enable people and encourage people to access the EAP. Access the psychologist and share their problems with someone who's trained again. We don't know who that is that's complete. All we do is get a bill at the end of the month and said, we've had X number of sessions. They don't tell us who, they don't tell us what, they don't tell us why. We just pay the bill because we want people to be Yeah, we want people to be healthy. And, you know, and again, going back to the point I said before about walking around and observing if people don't look like they're having a good time at work, if they're not physically well, whatever else, you try and encourage them to take leave, take sick leave, take holidays, whatever. You know, we try to, you know, I want our people to be healthy. Yeah.
Kylie Speer 00:10:37
And finally, Jeff, what does this award mean for austros, and how much satisfaction is there in being honored for supporting and delivering for your staff?
Geoff Allan 00:10:48
I think as an organization, we're all really proud, because it's we're organizations are just groups of people that work together to try and do stuff, and you know, we do some good stuff, and we're not, we're not a well known organization, we're not a we're not a brand you're going to see in this street. So to get recognized is a good thing. And as I say, our staff do some great work. They're, they're good people to have, you know, working for you, there's a lot of people who you'd like to call your friends. So, you know, but when they go to the the barbecue or whatever, or the family reunion or Christmas. It's a bit hard to say what we do, because we're not a well known organization, and what we do is a little opaque sometimes. But if you can say, Guess what I've achieved, I've done exit work, and our organization is being recognized for this award, you know it's makes people feel proud. If you can't explain what you do is you can say, you know, we've been recognized for doing good stuff and being a good place to work. So yeah, no, I'm very proud, Kylie. And I think most of the most of the team here are very proud too.
Kylie Speer 00:11:52
Well, congratulations, and thank you so much once again for your time today, Geoff, it was really lovely speaking with you.
Geoff Allan 00:12:00
Thank you, colleague. No, I really appreciate it. And thanks again for the team at HRD. You know, we're chuffed, yeah.
Kylie Speer 00:12:08
And thank you, of course, to our viewers for watching the latest episode of HRD TV. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
