With the world rapidly changing and personal demands continually increasing, CEO of Brisbane City Council, Jude Munro, said organisational resilience can be built by increasing our understanding of each other’s situations.
“To understand our staff is to love them,” she said.
“Councils run a 24/7 operation, but staff are not 24/7. They are real life people with other interests. You need to understand this, or you will lose them.”
Speaking at the recent Local Government Association of Tasmania Annual Conference, Jude Munro gave each of 20 audience volunteers a card describing a fictional personal life.
Those ‘lives’ ranged from single parents with restrictive before and after school care, and a young couple expecting a baby, to single individuals with no responsibilities and others nearing the end of their career and considering retirement.
Jude asked the volunteers a series of work related ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions regarding overtime, taking on extra commitments or further study, and work related social activities. She then asked them to take a step forward if they felt the personal life outlined on their card permitted them to take on those opportunities, or remain where they were if it did not.
At the conclusion of the questions, the volunteers were at different distances from the starting point, with some having not moved at all.
When discussing the reasons people felt they were unable to move, it highlighted that there are a variety of reasons that can restrict people from committing to additional projects, social activities and extra responsibilities. This got the audience and participants to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and empathise with people in different circumstances.
“We need to change our organisational focus to quality relationships with individuals,” Jude Munro said. “Flexibility is key to this. If you want flexibility from people you must recognise their needs and be flexible yourself.”
She told delegates that while many councils and organisations are branding themselves as employers of choice, it is essential for them to follow through.
“Employers must be flexible and advertise this to be competitive in the market segment,” she said.
“Being flexible decreases absenteeism, increases leadership capacity and decreases costs. Research shows that it has a positive impact on employee commitment, team effectiveness, personal, family and relationship wellbeing.
“Staff should always be given an opportunity if it is for a valid life reason, and the workplace can accommodate it.
“At Brisbane, we use initiatives such as telecommuting (working from home), job share, part time work, compressed hours, career breaks, leave options for parental, carers and cultural reasons, and so forth.”
Jude Munro said with the demographic cliff decreasing, competing to recruit young blood will remain ever important in the future.
“Brisbane has introduced a number of initiatives to engage and retain ‘young blood’, such as lunch box sessions on how to buy a flat, how to go overseas, how to get a job overseas and how to go overseas for 12 months and come back,” she said. “We also recognise that for young bloods, it is important to provide opportunities for social networking.
“However, we also recognise that it is just as important to focus on retaining ‘wise heads’.
“Council has introduced an age management strategy that encourages staff to think about staying if they are considering retirement.
“We have flexible retirement strategies to keep staff in their 60s and 70s on just a little bit longer.
“We have a conversation with them and ask them what will they do once they retire.
“If it is a holiday they are after, we say to them, ‘ok, take three months off, travel and do what you want to do, then come back to Council four days a week’.
“By retaining wise heads that little bit longer, they can pass their skills on to young blood and even learn new skills that their young peers have picked up from university.
“By becoming trainers, wise heads feel empowered, proud of their skills and proud that they are passing them on.”
