Our workforce

At 30 June 2008, our total workforce was 729, which represented a 13% increase in employees in the year since 1 July 2007.

The proportion of women in the organisation increased from 23% in 2003/04 to 30% in 2007/08. A Water Services Association of Australia report released in March indicates that the urban water industry average is 27%.

The average age of Melbourne Water employees at the end of 2007/08 was 41.2 years, a slight increase from last year (41 years). The average age of new starters was 33, virtually the same as new starters in 2006/07. Throughout the organisation, 13.5% of our employees are aged 55 years or more, a decrease from 15% last year.

In the past year, we have responded to the challenges of our ageing workforce by:

Maintaining our commitment to the engagement of trainees. We engaged two trainees and since 2000, we have engaged 26 trainees, offering employment to 15 (58%) at the end of their traineeship
Identifying people who plan to retire and recruiting replacements before their departure. This approach, which was used for a range of roles across the organisation, significantly helps skill and knowledge transfer
Maintaining our strategy of job rotations within and between teams or groups to promote skill and knowledge transfer and development
Making available flexible working arrangements for people who want to continue working but not necessarily full time. Part-time work and 48/52 arrangements are among the options available
Continuing our structured graduate program
Introducing additional flexibility for primary carers.

Attraction and retention

A report commissioned by the Water Services Association of Australia has predicted that the urban water industry will face a 44% shortfall of skilled employees by 2017.

The report, published in March, highlighted five key areas to help the industry attract and retain skilled employees:

Remaining at the forefront of developments in science and technology
Environmental sustainability
Technical skills such as environmental engineering and process technology in water quality, wastewater and biosolids
Leadership and people skills
Strategic thinking, business planning and risk management.

Melbourne Water is taking a variety of actions in those areas to attract and retain skilled employees. Our initiatives include introducing rotations as part of our graduate development program, providing traineeships to attract people to our operation-based activities, building capability across the organisation through our leadership development program, providing development opportunities outside Melbourne Water such as secondments, and continuing to focus on sustainability throughout the business.

Length of service

The average length of service was 10.6 years compared with 11 years in 2006/07. This is attributed to continued high levels of recruitment and new starters.

The proportion of our people who have worked for less than five years at Melbourne Water has again increased, from 47% to 53%. This figure has risen steadily over the past few years (from 36% in 2002/03). Much of this increase is due to the volume of recruitment caused by significant growth across the organisation.

Recruitment and turnover

In 2007/08, we had a significant amount of recruitment. Some 233 roles were filled – 120 Melbourne Water people were appointed to an advertised position, with 113 new starters (compared with 81 last year). Of these new employees, women made up 44%.

Recruitment activity increased across all groups but was highest in Waterways and Infrastructure due to:

Increased expenditure and commitments to deliver the capital program
Greater business focus on reduction of expenditure, with work moved in-house
Extended waterways management boundaries and new regional team structures
Increased numbers of part-time staff.

Staff turnover (excluding redundancies and managed departures) was 9.1% compared with 8.6% last year. This is within industry norms (5% to 10%) and Melbourne Water’s accepted range.

Enterprise Agreement

A new Enterprise Agreement, covering 90% of Melbourne Water employees, was implemented in October following negotiations between employee and union representatives and management. It will operate until June 2010.

Internal communications survey

Melbourne Water people support the organisation’s internal communication processes, according to a survey of 260 people from across the organisation.

More than eight out of ten agreed or strongly agreed that Melbourne Water encourages open and honest communication, and two-thirds agreed that Melbourne Water does a good job of keeping them informed about matters that affect them.

Survey results are being used to improve the effectiveness of face-to-face and intranet-based communication.

Sustainability Report 2006/07