I am pleased to present to you Family Safety Victoria’s People and Culture Strategy.

In the development of this strategy, we heard from staff across Family Safety Victoria about the kind of workplace in which they want to work. This strategy is a commitment to giving those ideas life and proactively investing in the people and culture at Family Safety Victoria so that everyone, no matter where they work or what role they perform, is Valued, Empowered, Connected, Inspired and Growing.

We know that how services and systems operate is as important as what they deliver. For example, we know from survivors the vital importance of embedding person-centred, cultural and trauma-informed healing, and strengths and rights-based approaches to meeting needs wherever a disclosure of violence is made.

Just as we ensure systems and services disrupt harm and maximise survivors’ space for action, and for increasing children’s and families’ wellbeing, rights and freedoms, so too must we ensure we use this approach to support and develop the full potential of our people.

Investing in our people and in improving our workplace is not a nice-to-have add-on to our work; this Strategy and its delivery is fundamental to our success.

As Audre Lorde wrote, caring is a radical act, an act of radical self-preservation. We live in systems of power designed to erase the well-being of groups of people discriminated against or disadvantaged in society. So it is, in and of itself, as much a political act to affirm the well-being of women under patriarchy as it is to sustain and maximise the wellbeing of people of colour, of Aboriginal people, of people with disabilities and people who identify as LGBTQI who face intersecting, systemic and structural impacts on their wellbeing.

So just as we recognise and advocate to change the systems and structures we work within that create injustices in our communities, so too must we embed structural and system changes in our own organisation. We need to be explicit about changing behaviours, dismantling barriers and oppressive practices, and we must take a proactive approach, such as being proactively anti-racist, in our leadership and in our practice.

We must be courageous in implementing this strategy. All of us will need to step up, connect, and engage in what we are doing and how we are doing it. Every one of us will need to be a leader, and I look forward to us working together to bring this strategy to life.

Eleri Butler

CEO, Family Safety Victoria

Family Safety Victoria was established in July 2017 to lead Victoria towards a future where people are safe, thriving and live free from violence, and children grow up in environments built on gender equality and respectful relationships and in families that promote their health, development and wellbeing.

An administrative office of the Victorian Government Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (‘the department’), we are the first government agency dedicated to ending family violence, delivering key initiatives to help protect, support and identify risk for those impacted by family violence and to hold perpetrators to account.

We are committed to delivering key reforms arising from the 2015-16 Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence and we are working in partnership across government and the service sector to reform services and establish practices that make it easier for people to get the help they need, when and where they need it, to ensure they are safe and can recover and thrive.

Family Safety Victoria’s Strategic Plan 2021-24 outlines our key priorities over the next three years, to ensure we continue to deliver on the Victorian Government’s commitment to working towards a Victorian community where:

• family violence and gender inequality are not tolerated
• victim survivors, children and families are safe and supported to recover and thrive
• perpetrators are held to account, connected and take responsibility for stopping their violence
• preventing and responding to family violence is systemic and enduring.

Delivery of the Victorian Government’s family violence reform commitments is a long-term, sustained program of work that will require many years of dedicated effort to implement and embed. The success of our efforts will depend on the strength of the workforces that deliver them, including our own workforce at Family Safety Victoria.

Building from Strength: 10-year Industry Plan for Family Violence Prevention and Response outlines the Victorian Government's long-term vision and plan for a workforce that can prevent and effectively respond to family violence.

The plan sets out how the Victorian Government will work with stakeholders to create a flexible and dynamic workforce, building on four themes:

1. A system that works together
2. Building prevention and response capability across the system
3. Strengthening the specialist family violence and primary prevention workforces
4. Workforce health and wellbeing

Strengthening the workforces to prevent and respond to family violence is critical. We need to build a robust, connected system to ensure that our own internal workforce is strong and supported.

The People and Culture Strategy sets the vision and strategic direction for Family Safety Victoria to build a high-performing workforce who are engaged, equipped and supported to work in a challenging and complex environment and empowered to make a difference.

Everything Family Safety Victoria does starts from the perspective of the person and our work is built on the principles of intersectionality, Aboriginal self-determination and lived experience. To ensure an alignment with these principles, the strategic direction and pillars that underpin this strategy were developed by employees from across Family Safety Victoria using a human-centred design process. As a result, the People and Culture Strategy is grounded deeply in the experiences of our workforce and reflects the meaning and purpose of our people.

Family Safety Victoria’s operational and workforce management systems and our People and Culture Strategy, align with the strategic and corporate directions of the Department of Families Fairness and Housing, ensuring that a systematic and consistent approach is taken to improving our employees’ experiences. It is also informed by the annual results of the People Matter survey. Notwithstanding this, the People and Culture Strategy is informed by and tailored to the specific needs and aspirations of the Family Safety Victoria workforce.

Aligned to the values of the Victorian Public Sector and the department, Family Safety Victoria’s values provide a shared understanding of what we stand for as an organisation.

As a Victorian public service agency, Family Safety Victoria commits to working with:

• responsiveness
• integrity
• impartiality
• accountability
• respect
• leadership.

We also commit to working for the protection of human rights.

In particular, we define ourselves by the ways that:

• We are inclusive and work for social equity
  • we take responsibility for valuing and including everyone equally and for ensuring fairness and cultural safety wherever we do our work.
• We focus on our impact
  • we are purposeful, courageous and determined to achieve meaningful outcomes for our clients and the community. Our people are valued not just for the work that they do, but the way that they do it.
• We are honest and transparent
  • we share information whenever we can and show consistency between our words and our actions.

Now in its fifth year of operation, Family Safety Victoria seeks to cement its role as a steward for an ambitious and ground-breaking program of system reform. The nature of this work is difficult and demanding, and while high levels of public interest in eradicating family violence has mobilised resources and efforts across the system, they have also raised an expectation that positive outcomes will be delivered.

The pace of the establishment of Family Safety Victoria, the pressure to establish foundations for system change and to rapidly deliver reform, together with the disruptions caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, have meant that up until now our organisation has had limited time and space to look inward. The People and Culture Strategy offers the first opportunity for Family Safety Victoria to consolidate and set a positive and affirming direction forward for investment in our workforce.

The nature of the reform work is inherently complex and involves working with a broad and diverse network of sector and community partners. The recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence highlighted the need for “…each sector or component of the system to reinforce the work of others, to collaborate with and trust others, to understand the experience of family violence in all its forms, to look outwardly, to be open to new ideas and new solutions.”¹

Our employees act as leaders in the sector and need to continually engage and connect in a meaningful way with Victorian communities. The importance of an open, constructive and collaborative work culture that enables us to listen, learn, and lead, has never been clearer.

Family Safety Victoria also operates in a rapidly changing public sector landscape, where fiscal constraints require public sector workforces to deliver solutions to complex social problems with unprecedented levels of efficiency and where change and complexity have become the norm. This is driving a program of significant transformation both in the department and across the Victorian Public Service to enable increased efficiency, mobility, collaboration and innovation.

Working for Family Safety Victoria offers our employees an opportunity to be part of and contribute to positive reform on a scale not yet seen in the family violence sector. The work is challenging, yet meaningful. Successfully operating in an environment of such complexity, scrutiny, pressure and change requires high levels of sustained performance and the ability to continually adapt and innovate. Our people need to be supported and developed to help them rise to new challenges, to learn and grow, be adaptable, and be resilient.

Family Safety Victoria has a lot to offer our employees. And while change of this scale takes time, our commitment to supporting and developing our workforce is enduring.

References

¹ Royal Commission into Family Violence Summary and Recommendations, p.7

Central to Family Safety Victoria’s Strategic Plan 2021-24 is a recognition that people are experts in their own situation, and that there is shared value in listened to, understanding and respecting their experiences. While this guides our work with victim survivors and families, it must also be reflected in how we work together with our own employees. We rely on their input to shape responses which will make a difference and meet individual needs.

Reflecting the organisation’s commitment to being person-centred in its work, in early 2019 Family Safety Victoria’s Executive Management Team sponsored a human-centred design process to build an understanding of the organisation’s needs and aspirations for its people and culture. The foundational elements for a People and Culture Strategy were developed and the capability of the Family Safety Victoria workforce built in human-centred design principles and practices.

Human-centred design is a way of working and being that focuses on the lived experience of end-users, in this case, the employees of Family Safety Victoria. It recognises end-users as subject matter experts and their knowledge as high value. It is a process of genuine collaboration, where creative solutions to complex problems are generated ‘with’, rather than ‘for’ end-users, greatly increasing their quality, relevance, and viability. It also allows for diverse perspectives and new interpretations to emerge, and is a powerful way to generate local ownership, sharing responsibility, and empowerment.

From March to June 2019, four core design teams of twenty-three people from diverse work environments across the organisation participated in a human-centred design sprint. During the process more than 80 employees shared their experiences, insights, and ideas with the design teams through interviews, a survey, and workshops.

After the design sprint Family Safety Victoria employees also had an opportunity to provide feedback and shape the People and Culture Strategy through the 2019 and 2020 People Matter Surveys, as well as additional staff workshops run in mid-2020 to ensure the needs identified in the draft People and Culture Strategy were still relevant and appropriate following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This work built a rich source of insight into the strengths, pain-points and challenges facing the Family Safety Victoria workforce, a diverse set of ideas, and a number of ‘prototype solutions’ that meet the organisation’s needs. These insights and the prototype solutions form a core part of the People and Culture Strategy.

Five core themes of aspiration for our people and culture

A consolidation of the insights and ideas shared throughout the human-centred design sprint pointed towards five core themes of need and aspiration for people and culture at Family Safety Victoria – that our people are:

• valued
• empowered
• connected
• inspired
• growing.

These five themes form the pillars that underpin the People and Culture Strategy. They inform the strategic priorities for investing in our people and culture, and together with our organisational values will also inform how we will go about achieving those priorities.

We strive to create a workplace where people are:

Valued

• People are valued not just for the work that they do, but the way that they do it.
• There is consistency and fairness in the way that our organisational values are enacted by and for every person.
• Differences are appreciated, and people are heard and respected equally regardless of position or organisational level.
• All people are treated in a culturally safe and respectful manner, free from unconscious bias, discrimination and racism.
• Employees feel psychologically safe and wellbeing is valued equally to productivity and output.
• Employees’ passion, generosity and goodwill are channelled in a meaningful way and not over-drawn.

Empowered

• Employees have a strong voice, with opportunities to demonstrate leadership at any level, to have visibility and access to information and be involved or informed about decisions that directly affect them and their work.
• Courageous, transparent and meaningful communication about things that are and are not working well is welcomed .
• Employees are trusted and supported to work autonomously and outcomes are achieved through collaboration.

Connected

• Employees and workgroups enjoy being connected to each other and work to communicate, share information and break down silos.
• Employees see and hear more from their leaders and CEO and understand how their work fits into the big picture.
• Employees feel a sense of belonging and community and are able to see, hear, support, have fun, and celebrate successes with each other.
• Connections are encouraged with The Orange Door and the impact they are creating.

Inspired

• There is a clear organisational vision and a shared identity to feel proud of, that recognises our uniqueness as an organisation.
• Employees feel a connection with the vision of ending family violence and understand the broader meaning and purpose of their work, including through stories of positive impact from the frontline.
• Leadership is authentic, humble, open, passionate, committed, and embraces innovation.
• The principles of family violence reform are modelled by Family Safety Victoria in the way we do our work, both internally and externally.

Growing

• Employees are supported to develop the capabilities they need to excel in their roles and to demonstrate Family Safety Victoria’s ways of working, including an understanding of family violence, intersectionality, cultural safety, and Aboriginal self-determination.
• There is a learning culture that encourages innovation and recognises mistakes as learning opportunities, not failures; employees are able to try new things and grow through their experiences.
• The professional growth and career progression of employees is a priority; employees feel challenged and are able to share and expand their knowledge, skills, and expertise.
• There is regular access to best practice research and collaborative learning with the sector.

The workforce of Family Safety Victoria have come together from across government, family violence, human services and private sectors to focus together on a common vision to end family violence. With diverse professional and practice lineages comes diverse experiences, understandings, and expectations of organisational life.

Many of the individuals who are attracted to working at Family Safety Victoria bring a great deal of passion to their work and are personally driven by the mission to end family violence. This intrinsic motivation means that employees are highly engaged by the work they do and many invest a great deal of personal energy in it.

The People and Culture Strategy identifies priority actions that will improve employee experiences by equipping, supporting and empowering our workforce to continue our work of driving system transformation.

While each priority action has been aligned with the pillar that best fits its core purpose, the actions and the pillars they support operate in a holistic manner, whereby they are mutually reinforcing and overlap in their desired outcome.

In line with this, we will take a dynamic and agile approach to delivering on our People and Culture Strategy.

The Organisational Transformation and Capability (OTC) unit will monitor and report on the progress of implementation to all employees on a quarterly basis, in consultation with the People and Culture Advisory Group (PCAG). An annual review will also be conducted by OTC, together with PCAG, to assess progress against our strategic objectives and to provide advice to our Executive Management Team to determine the following year’s strategic goals and activities.

In line with our approach to service delivery, the implementation of programs of work under this strategy will follow a cyclical model:

Strategic outcome: Valued

Employee wellbeing, psychological and cultural safety are valued equally with productivity. Our organisational values are consistently demonstrated and we strive to create an inclusive workplace culture, free from any type of discrimination.

Overall success measures: Wellbeing, Psychosocial Safety, Workplace Flexibility, Diversity and Inclusion, and Equal Employment Opportunity on People Matter Survey.

Actions

1. Develop and implement a plan for our organisational values (Values Agreement) to make the values visible and to embed them in behaviours, actions, systems and processes for all employees, including those in formal leadership positions.

• Lead: OTC – People and Organisational Development team
• Support: Communications Team
• Delivery timeframe: Quarter 2, December 2021
• Success measures: People Matter custom question scores – "Family Safety Victoria’s organisational values are visible and demonstrated in my workplace"

2. Implement Family Safety Victoria’s Family Violence Staff Support Policy and Guides.

• Lead: OTC – Legal team
• Delivery timeframe: Quarter 2, September 2021
• Success measures: People Matter question scores – "My organisation would support me if I needed to take family violence leave"

3. Distribute report on completion of Aboriginal Cultural Safety Training to managers and employees, including eLearning and a half-day workshop.

• Lead: OTC – People and Organisational Development team
• Delivery timeframe: Quarterly, commencing September 2021
• Success measures:
  • Training completion rates across managers and employees
  • People Matter question scores – "I feel culturally safe at work"

Strategic outcome: Empowered

Our people are given opportunities to grow and demonstrate leadership at every level and are able to work autonomously within their role. People feel able to contribute more of their skills and knowledge to make a difference.

Overall success measures: Senior Leadership, Autonomy and Role Clarity on People Matter Survey.

Actions

1. Develop a Leadership Charter as part of our Values Agreement that outlines the behaviours that can be expected of those in leadership positions in Family Safety Victoria, that encourage our leaders to demonstrate our values, to be authentic, humble, open, passionate, committed, and to embrace innovation.

• Lead: Office of the CEO
• Support: OTC – People and Organisational Development team
• Delivery timeframe: Quarter 3, 2022
• Success measures: People Matter scores on Manager and Senior Leadership questions including:
  • "Senior leaders consider the psychological health of employees to be as important as productivity"
  • "Managers and Senior leaders model my organisation's values"
  • "Senior leaders demonstrate honesty and integrity"

2. Based on the department’s capability framework, develop assessment tools for leaders and managers to appraise the current strengths and learning needs within their teams, and to evaluate themes across Family Safety Victoria.

• Lead: OTC – People and Organisational Development team
• Delivery timeframe: Quarter 2, December 2021

3. Build stronger feedback channels for Family Safety Victoria employees to the Senior Leadership and Executive Management Teams via the PCAG, in order that PCAG be a genuine voice for staff.

• Lead: PCAG
• Delivery timeframe: Quarterly from September 2021
• Success measures: People Matter scores on Safe to Speak Up and Safety Climate questions including:
  • "People in my workgroup are able to bring up problems and tough issues"
  • "My organisation consults employees on health and safety matters"

Strategic outcome: Connected

We have a culture of trust, collegiality and shared purpose, where people are encouraged and supported to collaborate and connect across organisational structures and where communication and information flow freely. We have the ability and systems to work flexibly and adaptably across teams and projects as our priorities shift.

Overall success measures: Engagement, Job Satisfaction and Workgroup Support.

Actions

1. Refine Family Safety Victoria’s internal communication plan to ensure agreed principles and practices for communicating across a range of channels and working environments, with a focus on ensuring staff are connected with their leaders and one another, feel informed and part of a collaborative, open and supportive working culture.

• Lead: Service Design, Policy and Engagement Unit – Communications Team
• Delivery timeframe: Quarter 3, 2022
• Success measures: People Matter question scores:
  • "I am able to work effectively with others outside my immediate workgroup"
  • "Workgroups across my organisation willingly share information with each other"
  • "My manager keeps me informed about what's going on"

2. Make improvements to the offboarding, exit and re-boarding procedures when employees leave Family Safety Victoria or return from extended absences.

• Lead: OTC – People and Organisational Development team
• Delivery timeframe: Quarter 1, September 2021

Strategic outcome: Inspired

Our employees are given opportunities to reconnect to the organisation’s vision, purpose and the impact of their work by hearing and sharing the stories from leaders, colleagues, working partners, and clients; they are energised by the authenticity, passion and commitment of Family Safety Victoria's leadership.

Overall success measure: Engagement.

Actions

1. Provide more opportunities to continually reconnect employees with our purpose and the impact of our work, where employees can share and be inspired by the stories of their leaders, colleagues, working partners and community members, such as: external speaker events, a ‘living library’ for internal story-telling, spotlighting case studies on the Intranet, an online platform for sharing articles or media.

• Lead: Service Design, Policy and Engagement Unit – Communications Team
• Delivery timeframe: Ongoing
• Success measures: People Matter question scores:
  • "I am proud to tell others I work for my organisation"
  • "My organisation inspires me to do the best in my job"
  • "I understand how my job contributes to my organisation's purpose"

2. Provide more platforms for staff recognition, such as awards for demonstrating organisational values or stories of achievement on the Intranet.

• Lead: Service Design, Policy and Engagement Unit – Communications team
• Delivery timeframe: Ongoing
• Success measures: People Matter question scores – "I receive adequate recognition for my contributions and accomplishments"

Strategic outcome: Growing

Every employee, regardless of tenure or employment arrangement, is given opportunities to learn critical skills, experience professional growth and to engage in reciprocal skill-sharing with colleagues. We encourage a learning mindset and recognise mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow.

Overall success measures: Learning and Development, Meaningful Work, and Innovation.

Actions

1. Deliver organisational resources and support to develop skills in human resources management, e.g. lunch and learns, process flow-charts, procedural guides, explanatory links to departmental systems and resources.

• Lead: OTC – People and Organisational Development team
• Delivery timeframe: From Quarter 1, September 2021 to Quarter 4, June 2022
• Success measures: People Matter scores on Organisational Responsibility questions, including:
  • "My organisation encourages respectful workplace behaviours"
  • "My organisation makes fair recruitment and promotion decisions, based on merit"

2. Provide report of completion of the department’s Leading with Respect and Home Safely Every Day training programs for managers.

• Lead: OTC – People and Organisational Development team
• Delivery timeframe: Quarterly – commencing September 2021
• Success measures:
  • Training completion rates among managers and senior leaders
  • People Matter scores on Manager Leadership and Support questions, including:
    • "My manager treats employees with dignity and respect"
    • "My manager models my organisation's values"
    • "My manager is committed to workplace safety"
    • "My manager provides me with enough support when I need it"

3. Uplift leader and manager capability in conducting performance and development plan discussions to ensure all employees are provided with clear pathways for performance and career growth including: goal-setting; mid-cycle review; end-of-cycle review and approving progression; managing underperformance.

• Lead: OTC – People and Organisational Development team
• Delivery timeframe: Ongoing
• Success measures: People Matter question scores:
  • "My work performance is assessed against clear criteria"
  • "My manager has regular conversations with me about my learning and development"
  • "My manager provides feedback to me in a way that helps me improve my performance"