Strategic Objective 5 - Responsible Corporate Governance
Development of Staff and Councillors
Equal Opportunity
An education program continues to be held for Council staff providing them with full details of Council's Equal Opportunity Policy and Guidelines, Harassment Policy and Guidelines and Bullying and Occupational Violence. These information programs provide staff with clarification on what are the grounds of discrimination, what are discrimination and harassment, employee and employer responsibilities and processes within Council for dealing with these issues. Training of staff in the Selection Interview Techniques has also reinforced our requirement for merit-based selection.
All new staff members are provided with full details of the Equal Opportunity, Harassment and Bullying and Occupational Violence policy, guidelines and processes through the Council's Induction Program.
Training and Development
A comprehensive corporate training program continued which provided staff with the ability to upgrade and enhance skills and knowledge.
Following on from our corporate training program, staff have been motivated to enrol in further tertiary studies, and support has been provided to these staff members. Courses undertaken include Bachelor of Laws, Monash University, Bachelor of Applied Science (Built Environment), Holmesglen TAFE, Masters of Professional Geographic Information Science, Curtain University of Technology and Graduate Certificate in Public Policy, Monash University.
Council continued to give full support to the new training and development program entitled, "The Frontline Management Initiative" (FMI), with a further 15 staff due to graduate in October 2007. The FMI is a Diploma level program that supports current and emerging supervisors and managers to strengthen both their existing knowledge and skill across a range of disciplines that underpin effective leadership and management. The program also provides linkages across customer service, a priority theme for Council this year. The FMI program has been developed and delivered by Australia-wide Business Training Pty. Ltd.
Home and Community Care employed 34 people, across two intakes, to work as General Carers while undertaking Certificate III in Home and Community Care at Holmesglen TAFE. This is a nationally recognised qualification and is a mandatory State government requirement for employment in Home and Community Care. In addition Council facilitated some 16 current staff to obtain this qualification.
A review of the Induction Program for new staff was undertaken early in 2007 which resulted in a complete revamp of the Program. This new program has met with overwhelming success.
Published: 22 November 2007
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