Human Resources and People Management

During 2013-14, the NBA continued its commitment to managing and developing its employees to meet organisational objectives. The results of the 2013-14 Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) State of the Service report indicate the success of the NBA in developing and maintaining a strong team culture focused on outcome delivery, including recognition of the NBA as:

• having the second lowest rate of unscheduled leave across the entire Australian Public Service (APS) (5.8 days per year per employee)
• having the second highest rate of women in senior leadership (direct reports to the Agency Head) across small agencies.

FIGURE 3.3 NBA Organisation Chart

Our values

The roll-out of the new APS Values, Employment Principles and Code of Conduct was delivered in mandatory sessions to all staff in early 2013-14. The NBA strongly endorses the philosophy of the new APS Values, Employment Principles and Code of Conduct and it’s this basis which forms the expectations for the behaviour and conduct from all of our staff. Employees at the NBA understand their responsibilities associated with being a member of the APS and being a representative of the Australian Government.

Staffing information

The total number of staff employed in the NBA remained constant from the previous year with 56 employees (54.11 full time equivalent) at the end of June 2014. Of these 56 employees, four people were on long-term leave. Tables 3.2 & 3.3 provide a breakdown of NBA staff numbers by classification, gender and employment type.

We have a diverse workforce with 28.5 per cent of NBA employees identifying as being from non-English speaking backgrounds and/or born outside of Australia.

TABLE 3.2 Number of NBA staff at 30 June 2014

Substantive Role Classification	Female (Full- Time)	Female (Part-Time)	Male (Full-Time)	Male (Part-Time)	Total
Statutory office holder	Nil	Nil	1	Nil	1
Senior Executive Service	Nil	Nil	1	Nil	1
EL 2	3	Nil	3	Nil	6
EL 1 Legal	Nil	1	Nil	Nil	1
EL 1	13	1	9	Nil	23
APS 6	9	2	1	Nil	12
APS 5	4	1	1	1	7
APS 4	1	1	2	Nil	4
APS 3	Nil	1	Nil	Nil	1
Total	29	8	18	1	56

TABLE 3.3 Breakdown of ongoing and non-ongoing NBA staff at 30 June 2014

Substantive Classification	Ongoing	Non-ongoing
Statutory office holder	1	Nil
Senior Executive Service	1	Nil
EL 2	6	Nil
EL 1 Legal	1	Nil
EL 1	22	1
APS Level 6	8	4
APS Level 5	5	2
APS Level 4	2	2
APS Level 3	1	Nil
Total	47	9

The average age of NBA staff is 42.4 years. Table 3.4 provides a breakdown of the age demographic of NBA employees.

TABLE 3.4 Age demographic of NBA staff at 30 June 2014

Age profile	Number of employees
20 – 25	2
26 – 30	7
31 – 35	4
36 – 40	10
41 – 45	15
46 – 50	5
51 – 55	7
56 – 60	4
61 – 65	1
66 – 70	Nil
71+	1

NBA Enterprise Agreement

The current enterprise agreement (EA) was approved on 24 June 2011. The table below details salary levels of staff by classification for 2013-14.

TABLE 3.5 Salary levels of NBA staff by classification at 30 June 2014

Classification	Minimum ($)	Maximum ($)
EL 2	111,677	125,823
EL 1	93,974	106,732
EL 1 Legal	93,568	113,287
APS Level 6	76,139	85,895
APS Level 5	69,019	72,846
APS Level 4	63,456	67,051
APS Level 3	56,008	62,083

TABLE 3.6 Numbers of NBA staff on types of employment agreements

Staff	Enterprise Agreement	Common law or Section 24 Agreement
Principal Executive Officer	0	1
SES	0	1
Non-SES	54	0

Non–salary benefits

The EA and other employment arrangements provide a range of non-salary benefits in addition to those consistent with national employment standards and the Fair Work Act 2009. The benefits provided are very similar to those provided by many other agencies and are detailed in the EA and available on the NBA website at www.blood.gov.au/employment-benefits.

TABLE 3.7 List of non-SES and SES non-salary benefits

Workforce planning, staff turnover and retention

Staff turnover in 2013–14 was 19.6 per cent, a reduction of 4.8 per cent from the previous year. The average length of service for NBA staff is approximately 3.02 years, an increase from 2.92 years in 2012-13 and 25 per cent of staff have been employed with the NBA for more than five years.

The impact of the interim arrangements for recruitment in the APS has provided its challenges, but conversely it has allowed the NBA to offer new and exciting opportunities to internal and ongoing APS employees.

Productivity gains

During the year, the NBA continued its rationalisation of staffing levels resulting in an overall reduction of Executive Level and higher APS classifications positions contributing towards the government’s efficiency dividend strategy. This rationalisation strategy will continue to be implemented throughout the 2014-15 year.

Throughout 2013-14, the NBA continued to implement productivity gains with the extension of the Aurion contract for the outsourcing of payroll services and utilising a number of other Commonwealth panel arrangements for the provision of services such as recruitment, training and EAP.

Employee and agency census

The surveys undertaken by the NBA in 2013-14 were the APSC State of the Service Employee Census and the APS State of the Service Agency Survey. The APSC set a target rate of 65 per cent of APS employee participation for the Employee Census and the NBA exceeded this with a 76 per cent return, eight per cent higher than the APS participation rate.

The overall employee census outcomes for the NBA were very pleasing, indicating the organisation has a happy and motivated workforce, however areas for improvement relate to addressing under performance and increasing opportunities for talent management/career progression and innovation.

Remuneration and performance pay

Total remuneration for senior executive officers is determined through negotiation between individual officers and the General Manager, taking into account the broader Government economic environment as well as APS and Remuneration Tribunal benchmark data. Performance pay is not applicable to NBA staff.

Professional and personal development

The NBA recognises the importance of ensuring that staff continue to develop their skills and this is facilitated through sourced internal training, delivery of internal Knowledge Management forums, as well as external training such as conferences, seminars, accredited training organisations and learning institutions. Significant changes to Australia’s privacy legislation came into effect on 12 March 2014. The NBA implemented internal processes to account for these changes, and provided staff with training on the new requirements during early 2014.

As part of its role in the health sector, the NBA is encouraged to attend a number of health conferences to promote blood usage awareness. Opportunities were offered to staff from all areas of the NBA, to attend a number of conferences as there is a view that any NBA employee should be able to represent the NBA at any forum.

Part E of the EA states that the NBA will work to identify, assess and cost a range of initiatives to further enhance its organisational productivity, build team cohesion, improve cross team communications, increase staff retention and further build and promote our positive, collegiate culture. A planning afternoon was held on-site in December 2013 for all staff and was a successful exercise in team-building as well as reinforcing and embedding the NBA’s direction for the 2013-14 year.

Staff health and wellbeing

The NBA recognises the value of encouraging a work environment that supports the health and fitness of its employees. During 2012–13, the NBA Health and Fitness Promotion Programme expanded its range of activities. The eligible activities which are now open to staff include:

• classes and activities such as in-house yoga and self-defence
• health memberships
• special events such as the 12-week 10,000 step challenge
• specialist advice/programmes
• sporting clothing and equipment

Information relating to Work Health and Safety is located at Appendix 4.