Investing in our workforce and valuing the contributions of our staff are critical to fostering our workforce culture today, and into the future.
To strengthen and support our staff, we strive to recruit and retain the most capable and talented people.
We also provide significant support in leadership and professional development programs so that staff can enhance their skills to provide better services to the public.
Staff qualifications (full-time and project staff)
| Qualification | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Certificate/diploma | 18 |
| Degree | 39 |
| Post grad | 13 |
| Doctorate/masters | 7 |
| No qualifications | 23 |
| Total | 100 |
Health and wellbeing
We are proud of our outstanding health and safety record because our focus remains on the wellbeing of staff. Our efforts support work-life balance and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
This approach is reflected in our WorkCover premium resulting from both lower costs and our low number of claims. Our 2015-16 final premium was the lowest in dollar terms since 1998-99 ($133,082), in percentage terms and in cost per full-time employee ($260).
Our industry rate is another indicator of how we performed: in 2015-16, WorkCover identified the SRO as 53 per cent better than the average rate for the government administration industry.
Retention strategies
Developing our workforce remains a key focus in our goal to recruit, train and educate so that we are best positioned to meet the challenges of the future.
We offer a range of career development programs with the aim of retaining our outstanding staff, and 2015-16 saw close to 300 internal job opportunities (promotions, transfers and higher duties) offered. Additionally, almost 60 external recruits also joined our team.
The SRO's turnover rate of ongoing staff (excluding involuntary and end of fixed-term contracts) was 5.45 per cent compared to 7 per cent in the Victorian Public Service.
On average, people stay at the SRO for 12 years. More than 50 per cent of our workforce stays for 10+ years, compared to 36 per cent in the Victorian Public Service (based on latest figures from 2014-15).
