How does Australia Post manage its workforce?

Written by Andreea Vecerdea on July 29, 2013. Posted in Around the world, Articles, Individual Performance

Australia Post’s strategy is to invest in its people, in order to achieve a safe, capable, engaged, inclusive and diverse workforce.

In the direction of ensuring a safe working environment, there are numerous initiatives implemented. The Safety Time sessions are conducted to raise awareness and involve employees in safety discussions. The Stop Think Do campaigns aim at involving the workforce in taking time to stop work and discuss ideas that could reduce hazards and risk of injury. Another program is Auto Pilot, a safety initiative that aims to ensure employees remain conscious of hazards even when they are performing familiar tasks.

All these initiatives translate into effective actions that continue to improve Australia Post’s performance, year by year. In 2012, the incident rate was 2.5 incidents per 100 full‑time employees, against the initial target of 2.6, which represents a decrease of 21% compared to 2011 results. Furthermore, the injury rate reached 2.8 compared to 3.5 in 2011, and the occupational disease rate (ODR) reached 2.0 compared to 2.3 in the previous year.

In terms of employee engagement, Australia Post tries to recruit and maintain employees who believe in and support the goals and values of the company, employees that feel pride they belong to the organization.

In order to monitor the progress achieved in terms of employee engagement levels, say2action survey is conducted annually. The survey results for 2012 were extremely positive, returning an engagement score of 73.4 %, higher with 4.6% than the previous year. The survey also measured how the company is progressing with its culture change program. Here, the results were positive again, with 76% of the workforce believing the company demonstrates safety and speed of action and 77% agreeing that it demonstrates customer focus and accountability.

Moreover, Australia Post strives to develop the right skills and capabilities to its employees. In 2012, the company focused on building capability through four key initiatives: Future Skills, Future Leaders, Learning and Development and Enterprise Talent and Succession.

In the direction of workforce diversity, Australia Post tracks four indicators. In 2012, the targets were as follows: gender, 39.8% women, 1.7% Indigenous Australians, 22.3% culturally and linguistically diverse persons and 7.3% people with disability.

Managing 33,031 employees and up to 10,000 licensees, franchisees and mail contractors is never easy, but Australia Post tries hard to manage it the better way possible!

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