Dr WOODRUFF - Okay, thanks. The 2023 Energy Charter Disclosure statement indicates that there's been a downward trend in employee engagement from 80 per cent in 2021 to 66 per cent last year. The commitment to customers has also gone down from 67 per cent to 59 per cent. What are the main reasons provided for the reduction in employee engagement? What are you doing to improve staff engagement?
Prof. O'KANE - I'll start and invite Nicole to join us. It's particularly due to this migration to the new retail energy platform. The staffing issues seem to be connected to that and the fact that we're not able to service our customers at the normal level that we're generally very proud of doing and being able to get the phones answered. I think the full professionalism seems to have taken a hit. Do you want to come up, Nicole, and go through more detail for us? We work very hard trying to get things in good shape with our staff. We're very proud of our staff and this has been of enormous concern to all of us.
Ms HUNT - I'm Nicole Hunt, the Chief People Officer. The other point I think is worth noting is that whilst we had a reduction in our engagement scores, our engagement scores were elevated quite significantly through the 2020-21 period, where we had an enhanced focus for our teams in terms of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yes, there has been a reduction. Our target for our engagement score is 70 per cent and we're currently sitting at 66 per cent. As Mary indicated, we have had some impacts as we transitioned to a new operating model to support our new billing platform, and that has come with some changes.
Dr WOODRUFF - Would you describe the experience of staff and why they have felt affected?
Ms HUNT - With that change, we have set up a new operating environment and there's been a requirement for additional skills and capabilities for our staff. We've had the complexities of a project that has been running for quite some time and, as Mary has indicated, through that we have seen some impacts to how we've been able to service our customers in the most effective way. Our people are very passionate about the service they can offer to our customers and they have felt that with the ongoing changes of the program, it has impacted their engagement. With that, however, we are very invested in our people. We have put a lot of focus on their learning and development during that time, and providing an environment where our people feel psychologically safe, which is incredibly important, and we have invested a lot in the growth of our people through this time as well.
Dr WOODRUFF - I'm wondering if I can, through you, ask a continuing question about the employee engagement situation. I would like to understand what the measure 'employee engagement' actually constitutes. What does it mean? From your previous answer you said things had increased during COVID, and I assume that sounded like you had more engagement with staff opportunities. Can you talk me through that? It is concerning that there's been a fairly substantial drop-off.
Prof. O'KANE - I think it's worth also indicating that probably the COVID engagement was the way we got everything closed and moved on to a completely online arrangement. I think we were pleased and delighted that staff responded stunningly, within a couple of days. They also were very proud of what happened, and the engagement score went up.
So there's the start of the story, Nicole. Do you want to move from there?
Ms HUNT - Correct. That's absolutely right, Mary. We were able to respond very quickly to the pandemic and transition our entire workforce to working from home, which had not been done previously. As Mary said, our employees were incredibly proud of the response which was a key indicator of the overarching engagement result. The engagement questions link to specifically questions around people being proud to work for Aurora Energy, people seeing themselves working for the company for two years or more, and a variety of other questions that link directly to that engagement score.
Dr WOODRUFF - I assume to worker satisfaction?
Ms HUNT - Correct. There are a number of different subsets of questions that link to the overarching engagement results.
Dr WOODRUFF - Back to the employee engagement, I am just wondering about the drop-off - some people losing pride in the business, some people feeling that they aren't heard properly. What has Aurora's response been to change that situation? Do you think that the new billing system has been a large part of that?
Ms HUNT - There are a number of initiatives that we have in place. Through any change programs in organisations where there are new ways of working, or impacts in the core of people's roles, it will likely have an impact on engagement. We have experienced that. Our people know that we are committed as an organisation to see the billing project come to an end.
However, during that time, we have continued to invest in our people to ensure that they are really connected to understanding the strategy of the organisation and our key strategic objectives. We are investing in our leaders to ensure we have the appropriate capable leaders to be able to develop and invest across our entire business. Through our results and what our people have shared with us, we have started to see that they have a high level of connection with their direct managers and really understand the vision and purpose of Aurora Energy and where we are heading. We are confident that we have the right initiatives in place to continually build an environment where our culture is strong and our employees are engaged.
