We are focused on maintaining an agile and high-performing workforce where our people are empowered, supported and engaged to deliver policy outcomes that meet the evolving needs of Victorians. Through our people, processes and technology, we ensure we have the capability to undertake our functions and deliver on our purpose.
People strategy
The department is committed to maintaining a contemporary workforce and continuing to focus on key workforce risks. This includes our ability to attract and recruit a capable workforce, enhancing employee development, accessing technologically-enabled systems that provide effective and efficient people services and strengthening workplace strategies that support engagement and retention of staff.
Proactive strategic workforce planning capability will be enhanced to identify current and future workforce needs against strategy and deliverables, and to plan for and mitigate workforce risks arising from identified workforce gaps.
Developing an employee value proposition in 2023–24 will be a key feature in our attraction strategy. This will assist the department to establish a strong brand as an ‘employer of choice’ in a challenging labour market. The employee value proposition will feature across all recruitment campaigns and support the retention of existing departmental staff.
Diverse and inclusive workplace
The department is committed to building a compassionate, inclusive and positive culture and a workforce that is reflective of our community. We continue to invest in attracting, developing and retaining a diverse workforce, with program initiatives continuing to be developed and implemented to broaden diversity, equity and inclusion in our workplace. The department is committed to holding equal representation of women in senior leadership positions and gender diversity within the workforce, including trans and gender-diverse people, who may require specific approaches to ensure their inclusion and access to opportunity.
Health, safety and wellbeing
We are committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for our people. Our Health and Wellbeing Strategy, due to be released in 2023–24, will support the health and wellbeing of our people through education, awareness and communication. The strategy will include initiatives to ensure our workplace continues to be physically and psychologically safe and to ensure we maintain our safe systems of work. The strategy will support and enhance a health and safety culture within the department, where people understand their obligations and actively engage to manage work health and safety risks.
Developing our people
Our people are encouraged to go beyond classroom training opportunities and apply the department’s Experience, Exposure and Education (70/20/10) Learning Model to access a wide range of development opportunities. It is imperative to focus on growing talent through access to shared-service learning, performance platforms and structured career pathways. This will ensure critical functions are maintained, resulting in high-performance outcomes at all levels within the department.
The department remains committed to building and fostering a high-performance culture that drives engagement, to ensure our people contribute to delivering for Victorians. We will continue to enhance our high-performance culture through active engagement in regular and constructive conversations on our performance.
Workforce profile
We are managing our workforce profile and composition to ensure we have the optimum mix of talent at the right levels across the department. This includes ensuring analysis of organisational needs against the available funding for policy, program and enabling areas.
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