In February, Cardinia Shire Council was awarded Gold accreditation under the global Investors in People Standard, until 2019. We were extremely proud to be the first Australian organisation to receive this accreditation, which demonstrates our commitment to high performance through good people management.
Investors in People is the international standard for people management, defining what it takes to lead, support and manage people effectively to achieve sustainable results. The Investors in People framework underpins the standard and reflects the latest workplace trends, essential skills and effective structures required to outperform in any industry.
Investors in People enables organisations to benchmark against the best in the business on an international scale. To receive this accreditation, the Investors in People International group assessed our organisation to ensure we are meeting a long list of criteria about how we support, lead and develop our staff.
The Gold accreditation is international recognition of Council as an employer of choice and as a high performing workplace. With almost 400 staff working collaboratively to achieve our shared organisational goals for the benefit of the community, investing in our people is paramount to success.
Our Chief Executive Officer Garry McQuillan met with Peter McGuire from Ridgeline HR to receive the accreditation at that time.
This accreditation is testament to our commitment to delivering professional, personal, and cultural development opportunities to all our staff. As an organisation, we make a conscious effort to develop a skilled and professional workforce that continually strives to go from good – to great – to excellent.
Working in a mobile and flexible environment, using Activity Based Working practices, we are encouraged to be autonomous and accountable, which builds confidence and fosters resilience. This has had positive impacts for our staff, with our recent employee Pulse survey revealing 94 per cent of respondents stated they feel more resilient and adaptable to change in and outside of work.
With a focus on building leadership capabilities at all levels across the organisation, we’ve introduced a Leadership Capability Framework. This framework delivers clarity around performance expectations and develops our leaders consistently, which contributes toward creating a greater leadership density.
Our Leadership Fundamentals Program is dedicated to building leadership capacity, team effectiveness and a more cohesive organisation culture, and each year 20 new and emerging leaders complete the program. We believe that anyone can be a leader, not just our management and we openly encourage our staff to step up and lead the way with and for each other.
To maximise performance, a Reward and Recognition Framework was developed by staff, which offers a suite of recognition activities. This includes everyday acknowledgement, team and project recognition, and the formal all-staff excellence awards event, which is now hosted in February each year, rewarding leadership, innovation, long term projects and teamwork.
It is a privilege to be a leader in an organisation of individuals who embrace and live the corporate values. Leadership, performance, change, and innovation will continue to be the areas of focus for the People and Culture Team and for all staff development into the future. We’re looking forward to the future with a cohesive, flexible and engaged workforce to deliver excellent outcomes for our community.
