People and Culture

As the Authority grows in its remit and responsibilities, extensive work is underway to continue to develop a strong, cohesive culture and skills base. The People and Culture team collaborate with the CEO, Chief Operating Officer and Chief City Coordinator, and broader Leadership Team to build on a series of initiatives to respond to the needs, ideas and opportunities for our people.

Following receipt of funding to commence enabling works and infrastructure for the Bradfield City Centre and the First Building, the People and Culture team have been supporting the capability needs across the business with particular focus on project management, communications and engagement, procurement and administrative support. This will continue in the next financial year and onwards as the organisation evolves.

During the reporting period:

• Staff numbers almost doubled in line with the broader remit outlined for the organisation in July 2020 and the need to ensure appropriate resourcing of projects and functions. The Authority’s profile altered significantly reflecting the skillset required to deliver on our key priorities and the transition from planning to delivery.
• It was announced that the Authority would move from NSW Treasury Cluster to the Department of Premier and Cabinet Cluster which resulted in the requirement for the organisation to shift from NSW Treasury shared services to an in-house model for the Governance & Compliance, Finance, ICT and People & Culture functions.
• The 2020 People Matter Employee Survey provided invaluable feedback from staff across the organisation. Some action items from the survey included:
  • running individual division listening sessions to gain further insight from staff members to determine what the Authority was doing well and areas requiring greater focus.
  • holding fortnightly staff briefings to provide detailed updates on projects, staff achievements and other key matters occurring across the organisation, as well as guest speaker presentations on topics relevant to the Authority’s remit.
  • launching the staff newsletter to provide further updates to staff during alternative weeks to the staff briefings.
  • developing the purpose and vision of the organisation in consultation with staff.
  • reviewing staff workload, capacity, skills and capability to understand issues and realign resourcing requirements.
• The appointment of key leadership roles occurred including the Head of Aerotropolis Development, Executive Director of Commercial & Economic, Chief City Planner, Executive Director of Multi-Utilities, Environment & Circular Economy, and Executive Director of Audit, Risk & Governance. The appointments recognised the importance of these functions to the growth and direction of the organisation.
• Learning and Development sessions and training courses were run focusing on health & wellbeing, procurement, WHS, fraud and corruption prevention, records management, risk management and cybersecurity.
• We welcomed two new staff to the Authority as part of the School Infrastructure Traineeship Program and the NSW Government Graduate Program. These programs are extremely valuable pathways for school leavers and graduates to join the public sector and gain experience through a number of rotations over an 18 month - two year period.

People and Culture statistics

As at 30 June 2021, the Authority had a headcount of 55 employees. The following tables relate to the Authority’s headcount, by gender split, as at 30 June.

Public service senior executives

The following tables relate to the Authority’s public service senior executives as at 30 June.

For the reporting period 2020-2021, senior executives’ monetary remuneration and the value of employment benefits paid as at 30 June 2021 represented 45.4% of the Authority’s salaries-related expenses. As at 30 June 2020, this figure was 54.5%.

Trends in the representation of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) groups

The Authority collects workforce diversity data for the NSW Public Service Commission as part of the annual Workforce Profile Collection. The profile measures performance in meeting NSW Government benchmarks for employing staff from diverse groups. It also informs the planning and development of diversity initiatives.

The table below demonstrates the trends in the representation of workforce diversity groups with benchmarks provided by the Public Service Commission. The data is based on employees who have completed a voluntary EEO survey upon commencement with the Authority.

Note 1: The benchmark of 50% for representation of women across the sector is intended to reflect the gender composition of the NSW community.

Note 2: The NSW Public Sector Aboriginal Employment Strategy 2014 – 17 introduced an aspirational target of 1.8% by 2021 for each of the sector’s salary bands. If the aspirational target of 1.8% is achieved in salary bands not currently at or above 1.8%, the cumulative representation of Aboriginal employees in the sector is expected to reach 3.3%

Note 3: A benchmark from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census of Population and Housing has been included for People whose First Language Spoken as a Child was not English. The ABS Census does not provide information about first language but does provide information about country of birth. The benchmark of 23.2% is the percentage of the NSW general population born in a country where English is not the predominant language.

Note 4: In December 2017 the NSW Government announced the target of doubling the representation of people with disability in the NSW public sector from an estimated 2.7% to 5.6% by 2027. The benchmark for ‘People with Disability Requiring Work-Related Adjustment’ was not updated.

Multiculturalism

The Authority’s Multiculturalism Strategy is reflected under NSW Treasury and in accordance with the Multicultural NSW Act 2000. The Authority has not entered into any agreements with Multicultural NSW.

People with a disability

The Authority has a Disability Inclusion Action plan under NSW Treasury.

Profile by employment category

The below table shows the number of employees the Authority employed by category as at 30 June over the last three years.

Exceptional movements in wages, salaries or allowances

There were no exceptional movements in wages, salaries or allowances for the reporting period.

People and Culture and industrial relations policies and practices

In addition to adopting and implementing its own policies and practices, the Authority also applied sector-wide and NSW Treasury policies and practices as appropriate.

Employees are employed by the Authority on an award or senior executive basis.