Success Stories

Organisational HR environments are constantly changing. These changes can mean you are frequently having to adapt your organisation’s policies, processes and staffing profile.

At INS, helping you implement your people management strategies is what we do best. Read how we have assisted some of our clients to successfully implement new initiatives within their organisations.

LGNSW focuses on uplifting capability and performance across the sector

Local Government NSW (LGNSW) is the peak organisation that represents the interests of NSW general and special purpose councils.

INS is LGNSW’s strategic partner for the roll-out and implementation of the Local Government Capability Framework (https://www.lgnsw.org.au/Capability).

The NSW local government sector has undergone considerable disruption over the past 5 years and is looking for opportunities to increase performance in the delivery of service to the community. Within this context, INS has worked to educate the sector in the new Capability Framework and to support individual councils to implement or adapt the framework into their workforce practices. As Councils are at different stages of their people management strategies INS support focuses on specific council priorities including attraction, recruitment, retention, assessment, performance development, learning, and performance management.

To date, INS has successfully designed and delivered capability framework support and training to 56 Councils.

NSW Government engages a positive and proactive placement strategy to manage large scale reform

INS was engaged to develop and implement a whole of sector Mobility Pathway to maximise the number of skilled employees retained in the State’s public sector and minimise redundancies.

The NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet leads the NSW public sector to deliver on the NSW Government’s commitments and priorities. It coordinates the Sector’s policy, project and reform agenda to boost the efficiency, productivity and effectiveness of NSW.

The implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was a major government policy initiative which significantly affected the roles of thousands of NSW Department of Family and Community Services (FACS), employees.  To minimise the number of redundancies and maximise the number of skilled employees retained in the State’s public sector, the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC), in alliance with NSW Industrial Relations (Treasury), NSW Public Service Commission and FACS, selected INS to develop and implement a tailored Mobility Pathway service across the NSW public sector for impacted FACS employees.

Using the NSW Capability Framework, we developed over 100 work-based assessments and worked with the DPC and FACS to socialise our work-based capability assessments and job placement approach to all Cluster agencies in the NSW public sector. In addition, we developed and delivered workshops and 1:1 coaching to enhance job preparation, build resilience, manage change and identify transferable skills.

Through our collaborative approach we assisted the NSW public sector to broaden the use of the Capability Framework and support and identify transferable capabilities to create a professional and mobile public sector.

Results at project end:  

765 employees completed Mobility Pathway activities (resume, interview preparation)
373 staff were placed in new roleswith80% of all employees matched by INS successfully securing a public sector role
Placements were made to 28 agencies, across every cluster in the NSW public sector 
Using the Mobility Pathway process, INS greatly reduced the average time to hire in the NSW Public Sector from 45.7 to 27 days (NSW State of the Sector 2017 Report)

HETI identifies effective palliative care as priority

The Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) is a leading provider of high-quality training and education to support more than 110,000 clinical and non-clinical staff, trainers, managers and leaders across the NSW health system.

INS undertook a state-wide gap analysis on the NSW Health Palliative Care Education and Training Program. Through quantitative and qualitive research INS reviewed the gap between the Program objectives and actual practice across the Local Health Districts and Health Networks.

INS was privileged to work on such an important initiative and to provide key recommendations for the development of creative and relevant solutions for the education and training of NSW Health staff involved in the delivery of palliative care. At the end of the project both the local health districts that participated in the review and HETI had a clear pathway forward.

Transport for NSW manage staff in a major restructure across multiple agencies.

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) provide safe, integrated and efficient transport systems for the people in NSW. They make NSW a better place to live, work and visit by working with industry partners to deliver customer-focused services.

During a 4-year period of simultaneous restructures, career transition services were needed for impacted staff in multiple departments across 7 agencies. TfNSW had no forced redundancy policy in place, so additional help was required to navigate this terrain.

Participants received a full-day induction into INS’ tailored career transition program which allowed them to ask questions and resolve complex industrial issues. Following this, employees participated in a suite of workshops centered on change management, resilience and well-being, and practical job-seeking skills. Afterwards, participants received one2one coaching, ongoing tailored workshops and job matching services. Working closely with a multi-disciplinary team, TfNSW were able to efficiently move people on with dignity and respect.

The career transition model allowed TfNSW to exceed their desired outcomes, with 97% of staff being highly satisfied with the service and reported an increased confidence in their ability to apply for new roles. Additionally, 94% of employees who opted for voluntary redundancy were still satisfied with their decision 6-months later. Amazingly, no serious industrial relations issues occurred.

For more information about our work with Transport for NSW, read our blog post: “Managing staff in a major restructure across multiple public sector agencies”.

NSW Trustee & Guardian provide employees confidence in a transition period.

NSW Trustee & Guardian (TAG) work with the state’s most vulnerable people to provide security and certainty in giving effect to their will and preferences in the management of their estate. A large scale organisational restructure in 2015 meant that many staff would no longer have roles.

As a result of this role uncertainty, TAG was experiencing low levels of employee engagement as staff were distressed about their lack of job security, being based in a regional area. They needed to provide employees with a means to identify transferable skills, develop a suitable resume, and perform well in interviews.

INS’ face-to-face, web-based and telephone coaching and workshop services ensured that TAG could effectively manage the entire process, from managing the change itself, to communications, training and development across metro and regional areas.

Initially tasked with delivering a limited number of tailored workshops and one2one coaching sessions, the support and guidance provided to the Coordinating Team was so successful that it was rolled out to 300 individuals across regional and metropolitan sites.

Greater Geelong City Council take another step towards clever and creative

INS was engaged to develop both a bespoke Capability Framework and a Future Focused Leadership Development Framework to support a future focused, high performance culture for the Greater Geelong City Council (the City).

The City is Victoria’s largest regional city (population 252,217), located 75 kilometres south west of Melbourne and covering an area of 1,247 km2, suburban, coastal, and country belts.

Capability Framework

Central to the City’s workforce performance are the capabilities, skills and behaviours that local government employees must demonstrate to perform their roles efficiently and capably. Using the principles of co-design, INS worked with the City to develop a capability framework that describes the core capabilities and behaviours expected of all employees at the City. The Framework supports all aspects of the City’s workforce management cycle including recruitment, performance development, learning, performance management and workforce management.

To support the implementation of the Capability Framework, INS developed an implementation road map and fit for purpose templates for role descriptions, advertisements and work-based assessments linked to the new Framework.

Leadership Development Framework

The Leadership Development Framework provides the structure for a forward-thinking leadership development program with links to the newly developed Capability Framework. Borrowing from the latest research including the World Economic Forum’s 10 key skills required for the future, the City has a roadmap for selecting content and delivery partners that will provide its leaders with the tools to increase their leadership capabilities, enhance their creativity, grow their confidence and improve their productivity.

NSW Police Force increase employee engagement using INS’ Career Development Toolkit.

The NSW Police Force (NSWPF) work with the community to reduce violence, crime and fear. With a diverse range of divisions within NSWPF including both uniform and non-uniform staff, the organisation struggled to provide their employees with career development opportunities. As a result of this, employees reported low levels of engagement as they struggled to understand the career progression opportunities available to them.

INS worked with NSWPF to design, build and implement an online career management tool to allow employees to manage their own career development and empower them to take control of their careers. The toolkit covered every aspect of a career life-cycle, enabling employees to access those parts of the toolkit most relevant to them at any given moment. Not only this, but the toolkit also integrated NSWPF’s annual performance development program and understood career structures of all staff members to provide self-directed guidance and support.

This project was so successful that it received 3,000 hits and 800 downloads 3-weeks from the go-live date and did not have a single complaint or IT issue in its implementation. A review of the program in late 2017 showed that the Toolkit remains in regular use by NSWPF staff.

Parity Consulting build high performing teams

Parity Consulting is a specialist recruitment practice solely focused on partnering with their clients to exclusively identify and source talented applicants within the Product, Marketing, Communications and Digital streams.

INS worked with the Managing Director to design and deliver a program that built on the company’s existing ethos to nurture their culture of high performing teams. A key focus was to foster greater sophistication in internal and client facing communications.

This was a bespoke program developed to meet the specific needs of this client as part of their broader annual planning program. The program was developed and delivered on short notice and used a combination of self-assessment and interactive skills building. Importantly the key ingredient for this program’s success was the inbuilt reflection time to allow the group to discuss both individual and organisational communication practice.

Liverpool City focuses on key issues influencing training program success

Liverpool City Council governs 42 suburbs in Sydney’s south-western suburbs. It has a highly diverse population and an increasing population.

INS developed and delivered a highly interactive program to support managers Identify performance development needs. The program developed manager skill and confidence to provide effective feedback; establish relevant performance parameters; and distinguish between training, compliance and performance issues.

This very successful program benefitted from collaboration and input from potential participants and integrated Liverpool’s polices and preferred methodologies.

Achieve Australia focus on staff capability to increase quality of care

Achieve Australia is a for-purpose, community organisation that has been providing accommodation and services to people with disability since 1952.

Achieve Australia is an NDIS registered provider and delivers expert disability support services in greater Sydney and the Northern Rivers regions of New South Wales.

INS worked with Achieve Australia to develop a customised Capability Framework to underpin their broader workforce management strategies. This bespoke Capability Framework fills a gap not covered by current industry Frameworks by identifying the skills and capabilities required for staff working with people with high behavioural or high medical needs, as well as those working in general care.

The capability framework underpins:

Recruitment and targeted attraction strategies – conveying more precisely the attributes, behaviours and skills for each role type;
Performance development – allowing Achieve Australia to both effectively develop and also grow their own talent;
Training – that is linked to required capabilities and not just compliance or general learning; and
Performance management – providing concrete examples of effective behaviour and areas requiring development or where an individual has transgressed

Ambulance Service of NSW improve the welfare and personal experiences of injured employees.

NSW Ambulance provides essential health services to the people of NSW through traditional emergency response services, getting medical help to patients with serious or life-threatening injuries or trauma, or connecting patients who do not need an emergency response with the most appropriate health provider.

INS reviewed NSW Ambulance’s administration of their Workers’ Compensation, Death and Disability, and Permanent and Partial Disability schemes; and their Workplace Health and Safety, and Health and Wellness programs, to improve the welfare and personal experience of injured staff interacting with NSW Ambulance.

We provided well received advice on the governance structure and distribution of Executive responsibility, the skill mix, level and distribution of resources, organisational duplication, analytics particularly workers compensation and return to work plans, and functional mapping. As part of our analysis INS also identified potential service risks including single point sensitivities, capability and capacity issues and structural arrangements to best deliver prevention and injury management strategies and programs

ASMR focus on members’ career development

The Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) is the peak professional society representing Australian health and medical research.

INS has worked with ASMR for 15 years, providing career development and one to one career transition services. Programs have been varied, to suite medical research staff from a very broad range of areas and levels; and rolled out on a national, state and local basis including:

Identifying transferable skills and discovering areas of interest and compatibility
Building confidence to seek careers outside of their traditional space
Career development for early career scientists

Law Enforcement Conduct Commission meet two-week recruitment cycle to launch organisation.

Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) provides the NSW public with a simplified, strong, fair and impartial system of law enforcement oversight. Its functions are to detect and investigate misconduct and corruption, and oversee complaints handling. As a newly established organisation, LECC needed to recruit staff in-line with the NSW Capability Framework. They needed a way to quickly and effectively attract the right people to their organisation.

INS was able to deliver 29 role descriptions and their respective evaluations in a two-week period to enable LECC to progress in its extremely short recruitment cycle. The organisation went on to meet all staffing requirements as a result, and this project led to additional development work for NSW Police Force, Land and Property Information, and Sydney Foreshore Authority.

Ministry of Health update their organisational model to create a new Strategic Relations and Communications branch.

The Strategic Communications and Engagement Unit is responsible for managing all communications and marketing activities on behalf of the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Working directly to the Deputy Secretary Governance, Workforce and Corporate, INS designed an organisational model to support the operation of the MoH executive and ministerial functions.

INS reviewed differing organisational models to recommend the most appropriate organisational structure, together with roles and capabilities, key elements of new role descriptions and the overarching change management strategy required to successfully implement the changes.

Department of Premier & Cabinet South Australia invest in learning & development to roll-out the NDIS.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet South Australia (DPCSA) provides central agency leadership in responding to issues that affect the state’s future prosperity. They work collaboratively with other government departments to ensure South Australia remains a place where people and businesses thrive. The main issue DPCSA faced surrounded training their staff on transition services, and team morale. They needed a way to engage their staff and ensure they could work together to provide the best possible service.

INS developed and facilitated workshops and One2One coaching sessions to help DPCSA solve these issues. They explained the processes, procedures and strategies of case management to assist with the effective roll-out of the NDIS in South Australia. These activities not only provided team building and unification opportunities, but also provided training on how to see clients, manage caseloads, and how to set up processes. By the end of the project, the employees were empowered to provide transition services, and able to work harmoniously as a team to achieve great results.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority redefine HR services

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is an independent statutory authority with the mandate to be the authoritative source of advice on, and delivery of, national curriculum, assessment and reporting for all Australian education ministers.

INS Career Management Pty Ltd (INS) was engaged by ACARA to review the internal HR team’s structure, function and operation to allow it to better serve the organisation.

At this time ACARA had a number of sensitive and complex organisational and industrial initiatives on their agenda and the HR team was pivotal to the success of these. INS considered the composition of the HR team, the skill and experience levels required and existing, and the team’s performance record against its own HR plan as well as in relation to ACARA workforce needs.

As a result of our review, together with our knowledge of HR best practice and our experience delivering HR functions, INS identified systemic issues impacting the effectiveness of the HR team and designed protocols and metrics for the management of HR performance. We developed recommendations in relation to the role and functions of the HR team, a proposed structure, positions, gradings and reporting lines. We also developed high level position descriptions for each of the recommended roles and a training and development plan to address identified capability gaps.

Health Education and Training Institute and NSW Institute of Psychiatry successfully manage employees and industrial relations issues during a merger.

Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) delivers a broad range of courses, programs and education opportunities to respond to the training needs of NSW Health staff including clinicians, professionals, administrative and support staff. The NSW Institute of Psychiatry (NSWIoP) is the major provider of mental health workforce education in NSW.

INS worked with the Chief Executive and the Director Corporate Services, Business Improvement and Transition, HETI to address issues of business stabilisation at the NSWIoP and the merger and transition of the NSWIOP to HETI.

This was a complex and sensitive project with multiple high-level stakeholders and community interest. In completing this project INS reviewed the process of contractor engagement at the NSWIOP with a view to designing and implementing practices consistent, transparent and compliant with, legal and legislative requirements. In doing so we:

Paved the way to integrating NSWIOP practice and process with those of HETI.
Ensured the HETI compact with NSW Health met obligations and with respect to the NSWIOP were properly described.
Developed contemporary HETI and HETI/Health Shared Services Service Level Agreements (SLA) to determine the new HETI/NSWIOP relationship.
Drafted the NSWIOP Delegations Manual, consistent with the Ministry of Health combined delegations.
Developed and managed the staffing and industrial relations approach to support the changes in the NSWIOP.

Illawarra Region Family and Community Services minimise disruption through seamless change management.

Family and Community Services (FACS) works with children, adults, families and communities to improve lives and help people realise their potential. Their key priorities lie in child protection, housing, homelessness, and community inclusion. The main issue faced by Illawarra Region FACS was that the organisation lacked a strategic plan for transition to localisation.

For this project, INS worked with Illawarra Region FACS to set out the strategic and practical steps to align functions across the region and support the effective transition to localisation. A focus on the Executive team was maintained. This meant that INS was able to deliver a new draft organisational structure for the leadership team to breakdown silos and behaviour, and to streamline front line service delivery. They then identified an approach to support directors to work across the disciplines, while continuing to provide guidance and knowledge to their teams. Skill gaps and development needs were uncovered through this process.

As a result of this work, INS was engaged to facilitate a workshop to assist the District Executive Leadership Team (DELT) to plan its approach for transition to the OneFACS operating environment. This meant all functions, roles and responsibilities had to be identified to transition to the OneFACS environment, while maintaining business as usual throughout the transition period. The project was a success for the client, with INS guiding them to a seamless transition, minimising disruption for their employees and clients.