EWOQ has embraced and promotes the Public Service Commission’s flexible by design framework. Our team members access a range of flexible work arrangements, including:

• telecommuting
• transitioning to retirement
• flexible start and finish times
• alternative place of work
• part-time arrangements.

We are committed to an agile and flexible workforce, and our flexible working arrangements help support the wellbeing, productivity and performance of employees. These qualities are key to creating an innovative and diverse workforce, capable of responsive service delivery.

All team members are benefitting from the flexibility available through telecommuting, with the majority working at least three days per week in the office.

Leadership development continued to be a focus during 2020-21, with the leadership team undertaking a coaching program created to enhance these skills and embed a coaching culture within work groups. This work will continue during the next financial year.

Succession planning and talent management across EWOQ has helped to identify high-performing emerging leaders and development plans are underway to support their learning.

Members of our Assessment, Investigation and Resolution (AIR) leadership team took part in a strategy planning workshop early in 2021 to prioritise their program of works and our executive management group has developed a work design identifying our strategic priorities through to 2023. Measures of success have been identified across these initiatives to report on and assess the completion of these actions.

Work also involved examining our employee opinion survey results, determining priority actions and engaging with team members to seek further understanding and develop improvement strategies.

As part of our commitment to fairness and transparency, we established the EWOQ consultative committee with Together Union to facilitate consultation around matters such as workload management, organisational change and restructuring, training and work/life balance.

We are committed to developing our people to ensure our services are delivered efficiently and effectively.

All team members are encouraged to develop their skills and knowledge through on-the-job training and self- directed learning.

During 2020-21, the impacts of working from home then returning to the office provided new challenges to our team’s learning and development needs and our delivery methods. We provided technical, compliance, role-specific and professional development activities on a range of topics, including:

• coaching and mentoring for our leadership team
• customer service and customer experience
• business process mapping
• managing virtual teams and COVID-related compliance.

In 2020-21, we continued to improve our performance management framework for all employees, ensuring the completion of monthly one-on-one meetings and the availability of the performance and development plan online. Following its launch, all employees attended training and our performance development completion rate is 100 per cent.

Our performance management framework provides our employees with the opportunity to fulfil their potential through an understanding of expectations, a focus on continuous improvement and feedback and their development for current and future needs. Through this, we are able to deliver the best possible outcomes for our customers, community and stakeholders. The framework aims to develop personal leadership, vision, innovation, goals and achievements that support our strategic plan and business plans.

EWOQ is committed to diversity of thought, experience, perspective and gender. Some of our initiatives include unconscious bias, diversity and inclusion training.

In 2020-21, we improved our capability in diversity and inclusion by:

• introducing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traineeship based in our Cairns office
• appointing a community outreach officer
• reviewing our human resource policies and practices to support and demonstrate EWOQ’s commitment to human rights and a diverse and inclusive workplace
• providing team members with access to an Employee Assistance Program with specialist support for minority groups
• reinforcing our procurement processes to promote inclusive partnership opportunities
• committing to our second Reconciliation Action Plan– Innovate RAP 2020-21 – which includes community outreach to strengthen and grow our networks and partnerships within the communities we serve to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

We are proud of our results in the Working for Queensland employee opinion survey, which indicated an 87 per cent positive response to the anti-discrimination factor, a result 21 centiles higher than the Queensland public sector overall rate. We will continue to strive to improve on this measure

The mental and physical wellbeing of our team is of the utmost importance at EWOQ. In 2021, team members have undertaken mentally healthy workplace training to promote and support positive mental health, with many employees now accredited as Mental Health First Aiders following this specific training.

Our workplace health and safety committee meet every three months and continue to focus on specific initiatives, including:

• continuing our wellness program, ensuring employees have access to flu vaccinations, nutritional information, wellbeing seminars, domestic and family violence programs, and corporate memberships for health insurance and fitness centres
• a number of our team members completed training to increase our awareness of domestic and family violence issues to support our customers and work colleagues.

The committee also reviewed workplace health and safety policies and procedures to support legislative compliance.

During 2020-21, we recognised and celebrated the achievements of our team members with an employee achievement and recognition program called the EWOQ All Stars.

An initiative of the celebration of success working group, the awards cover several categories and timeframes:

• All Star Award – a bi-annual award recognising a team member for their overall contribution, ongoing commitment and demonstration of our values
• Bright Star Award – a quarterly award for innovation, leadership, enthusiasm and problem solving
• Rising Star Award – a quarterly award for improvement and development of ideas and actions.

There are also two informal awards: the Shining Star Award, for going above and beyond; and the Rock Star Award, which celebrates team members making a difference, paying it forward or simply making the team laugh.

The working group also reviewed the program in preparation for its relaunch next financial year.