2014

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Introduction The challenging business environment created by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has seen many companies cutting costs, particularly in the areas of talent management and development. However, it must be realised that employees are the company’s biggest asset: their performance and attitude can result in the success or failure of the business. Conversely, companies who used the “down” time as a great opportunity to focus on people development opportunities are now best positioned to relaunch into the new dynamic post-GFC business world. Queensland Airport Limited (QAL) is one such company. It has always had a strong support for development of its staff, but when the “hard times” hit, the enthusiasm and support for these initiatives did not stall or diminish. In fact QAL’s highly effective People Management Program (PMP) is viewed as a crucial element required for QAL to achieve its strategic goals of both organic growth of its current assets, coupled with growth by acquisition of new assets in the post GFC environment. To set the context, this paper will initially overview both the organisation and its comprehensive PMP. However, due to the restricted scope of this submission, only the element relating to “Talent Development” activities will be fully detailed for consideration. This element was selected for review and presentation as the talent development aspect is a central lynch pin to the ongoing sustainability of the company and has obvious direct effect on advancing QAL’s business goals.

Company Overview Established in 1999, Queensland Airports Limited (QAL) has been operating key regional airports in Queensland for fifteen years and is 100 per cent Australian owned and operated.

QAL owns and operates airports at the Gold Coast, Townsville, Longreach and Mount Isa as well as providing management services for Miles and Chinchilla Airports. Additionally, QAL also owns a number of aviation-support businesses including Aviation Ground Handling (AGH), Worland Aviation (an aircraft maintenance, repair and painting company), and the Northern Australian Aerospace Centre of Excellence (NAACEX) at Townsville Airport.

QAL currently employs 380 staff across the group. The environment in which QAL operates is also worthy of note in the context of people management, as whilst it is an extremely exciting environment to work within, it also presents its own specific challenges. Below are just some of the elements QAL must be mindful of when designing and developing talent programs:

A rapidly changing workplace (i.e. new airlines, new regulations, new technologies)

A highly regulated industry, especially in regard to aviation safety, security and environmental issues.

Geographic distance including Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Mount Isa, Maroochydore, Gold Coast and Longreach.

Staff on rotating shifts presents coverage issues and therefore, a challenge to get them off the rosters to allow attendance at training and other development activities.

Internet connection speeds can be very slow in some regional centres (particularly at Mt Isa).

A broad range of staff with considerations needing to be given to literacy skills, schooling levels, cultures, career aspirations and learning styles.

A largely bipartite workforce; extremely skilled and knowledgeable Baby Boomers approaching retirement, as well as Generation Y’s, with great enthusiasm to learn, but still lacking the experience gained by years in the industry.

The impending retirement of several crucial QAL team members and senior managers.

Cerebral business intelligence storage is extremely prevalent in the aviation industry as a whole and very apparent in QAL. That is, a large component of the organisation’s knowledge, history and vital intelligence exists in the heads of several of QAL’s key leaders. They face the challenge of facilitating rapid knowledge download and transfer of knowledge prior to their retirement.

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Overview of QAL’s People Management Program In consideration of the above issues, QAL has adopted a comprehensive approach to talent management that commences from the very first position vacancy contact, as first impressions certainly count. From the outset, key focused activities are undertaken at set points throughout the employee life cycle, often resulting in the person gaining a promotion and the entire

cycle commencing again. The key stages include: ATTRACT – QAL employs an internal recruitment specialist to ensure a highly professional approach is taken to recruitment. From the very first contact with QAL, potential employees are making crucial judgements and decisions about the company. Thus QAL, seeking to be recognised as an employer of choice, ensures all activity supports this goal. Moreover, every member of the QAL family is encouraged and acknowledged as positive ambassador for the company, advocating it as a great place to work. INDUCT – Induction comprises a range of

both structured and individualised activities including on line learning modules, scheduled social engagement experiences, physical orientations and demonstrations. This stage is crucial in quickly making the new employee comfortable and welcomed as part of the QAL family. They are introduced and their commencement mentioned at both “lunchbox meetings”, the within organisation wide newsletter, and their names give to executives for individualised welcomes when the corporate management are next visiting their particular location. ENGAGE – Engagement commences from first contact and is one of those first crucial decisions made pre-application; that of mentally committing to want to be part of the “QAL family”. Communication is maintained with all job candidates and then with the successful recruit through their pre-commencement phase. The new employee will also have the opportunity to complete the on line corporate induction packages and commence receiving the corporate newsletter prior to the first day at work. DEVELOP – This aspect will be discussed in detail in the remaining sections of this submission. RETAIN –Stay surveys are conducted regularly to ascertain the aspects of QAL employment that staff most appreciate and value and what aspects they would like to see improved. Prized aspects related to staff employment are also collected via the annual staff satisfaction and engagement survey. Retention also dovetails into the motivation and reward domains.

MOTIVATE AND REWARD - these two aspects are intrinsically linked. QAL has a comprehensive Reward and Recognition Program (QAL R & R) which comprises four levels. Organisational rewards include annual “Chairman’s Awards” and quarterly awards to acknowledge excellence in key areas including customer service, teamwork, safety and innovation. Location awards are more customised to each individual business unit and includes a “Manager’s Tool Kit” that provides a whole raft of options for providing both formal and informal acknowledgement of staffs’ achievements and excellence in performance. QAL also provides a wide range of employee benefits including salary sacrifice options, employee assistance program (including access to health and counselling services) and trade discounts at numerous providers. The fourth level relates to QAL’s Wellness @ Work program which is another staff enrichment

offering that includes health and wellbeing activities, quarterly themed health related promotions, information provision, competitions, healthy recipe sharing and web links to a large range of health and fitness promoting websites. EMPOWER – QAL has a strong empowering culture which is supported by effective delegation policies that establish clear responsibilities and accountabilities.

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MANAGE – Performance Management is a crucial element of the process. It provides the ongoing barometer for staff to gauge how they are going. If they are achieving or excelling expectations, they should be aware of this and may be a candidate for the QAL R & R program. However, if performance and / or behaviour fall below expectations, corrective action also needs to be swiftly enacted. To facilitate this, QAL HR works directly with managers and supervisors providing training and ongoing coaching to assist to optimise the proactive management of their staff.

ASSESS – Monitoring employee performance is an ongoing activity, which is supported by several QAL custom built programs. Project Altitude is the organisation’s performance review program. This program commences as soon as the new employee completes their probation period and formal evaluations are then undertaken at least annually thereafter. Data from these annual reviews are utilised to measure attainment of short term

incentive payments, to inform the development of each employee’s individual development plan (IDP) as well as providing input into the company wide Training Needs Analysis (TNA). It also provides feedback on existing candidates within the QAL Succession Program and also identifies potential new inclusions for accelerated development.

Overview of QAL’s People Development Strategy

“Developing our People for our Future”

As previously mentioned, clearly the talent development aspect sits centrally within QAL’s comprehensive talent management cycle. Top talent is today’s competitive differentiator that makes the difference between an organisation that is thriving and one that is stagnant or declining. Therefore, given QAL has set some very exciting and challenging stretch goals for the upcoming years, it is crucial that a highly effective, future focused, robust Talent Development Strategy be implemented. In order to facilitate the operationalisation of these business plans, proactive planning needs to be undertaken. In response to this challenge, the QAL HR team has developed a comprehensive talent development program. This program offers a systematic approach for ensuring a sustainable pool of talented people with the skills needed in critical focus areas to meet the challenges of the future.

To ensure direct alignment of activity, the Talent Development Strategy articulates directly with both QAL’s Strategic and Business Plans and provides the human resourcing solution to enact achievement of the outlined goals.

As depicted in the diagram on the left, the group wide talent strategy focuses on a parallel (taxiway) approach to talent management. Firstly, it will identify and leverage both the existing and latent talent. Secondly, it will provide avenues to engage and maintain strong linkages with external talent potentials.

QAL’s Talent Development Program QAL is thoroughly committed to investing in its talent by providing individual development pathways and multi-skilling their staff to expand their employment and development opportunities within the Group. Thus, to enact the strategy outlined above, a flexible organisation wide development program was devised and implemented.

The Strategy Goal

To ensure QAL’s competitive

position both today and for

the future by the utilisation

of an integrated Talent

Intelligence approach to

attaining the maximum

synergies from both internal

and external Talent Pools.

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The key goals of the program include:

To convert employee talent and potentials into optimal performance and productivity to ensure business goals are achieved, and where possible, exceeded

To develop optimal capability and flexibility in their staff profiles.

To increase staff engagement and advance QAL’s status as being recognised as an “Employer of Choice”

To establish a highly skilled talent pool, capable of rapid deployment into a range of identified key roles. This not only ensures operational resilience and sustainability, but also facilitates a rapid, agile, proactive, and effective response to emergent growth opportunities while avoiding detrimental staffing drain on existing operations.

Phase One – Establishing the Foundation Organisational Capabilities In devising QAL’s talent development program, prime consideration was given to the fact that it needed to be highly applicable to both current and future organisational needs. The business was scrutinised in relation to its current and desired strategic and business goals. Both current and required capabilities were also considered. These capabilities were seen as the basic building blocks required when constructing the ‘ideal’ airport business for today’s environment, but also focused strongly on what capabilities would be required, moving forward into the two, five and ten year plans. The Board and Executive endorsed QAL capability model (pictured below) was the result, which now forms the basis of all of QAL’s talent development activities.

Phase Two – The Building of the “QAL Development Runway” To articulate the development plan in a way which would resonate with the workplace and its employees, a ‘development runway’ approach was taken for all vocational and professional development activities. This acknowledges that all staff members have varied experiences and needs and will therefore, have different starting and exit points on their career and development journey. Each of the programs commences at the entry level and ‘taxis’ through from vocational entry level right through to post graduate studies. Moreover, every program and activity that forms part of a runway model has been fully customised to allow maximum integration and applicability to the QAL business. The principles guiding all talent development activity:

1. To ensure all regulatory training requirements are met and where possible, exceeded 2. To provide development opportunities and career pathways for all designations and levels of staff 3. To build a true career ‘runway’ approach to skill and qualification development by mitigating the gap between

vocational and university study. 4. To provide a highly relevant, customised, individualised and engaging development program that meets the needs of

QAL and its employees both for now and well into the future 5. To ensure all development will directly support QAL’s Capability Model featured in the diagram above.

An example of this “runway” concept of talent development is the QAL Management Development Runway (MDP). Due to the fact that the majority of QAL’s supervisors and managers had no formal management training or qualifications, the QAL Board of Directors had directed that QAL implement a competency based approach to management training. This provided the first opportunity to enact the “runway” concept and as depicted in the diagram below, QAL’s MDP was created.

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Staff commencing their management development may start at either an entry level certificate or diploma level vocational based program. These programs, although delivered by a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), have been developed in conjunction with a university and they directly articulate with their bachelor degree programs. The vocational programs are also co-facilitated by academic staff from the university. The QAL MDP involves strongly articulating vocational qualifications from Cert III through to Post Graduate programs – the Australian Qualification Framework in action. The basic principles include:

Acknowledgment that the staff members each have different entry and exit points on the runway.

Each program on the runway is a precursor to for the next so each program is designed to gain maximum articulation into the next progressive qualification.

Every assessment is practical and work related within the QAL setting

Every level of program is equally valued and celebrated

Graduations for each program are commemorated with individual presentations by QAL’s MD, with executive committee representation also

Content is highly customised and QAL staff are involved in developing and presenting in their expert areas

The programs are designed to promote equity for all

The programs focus on a common language and understanding. I.e. the same staff and academics are involved across all of the programs, as suited to their expertise

The runway programs are built in a successive order. I.e. QAL started with the Cert IV and Diploma, have now built and commenced the AAMP, and are currently developing the Masters and further post graduate options within this stream

QAL’s Board of Directors have been involved in the AAMP presentations throughout.

The program also articulates with AMPAP, offering an automatic direct credit of four units off a MBA program. Consistent and common QAL business themes and messages permeate through all of the runway programs. They include the concepts of safety, customer service, integrity, business communication and teamwork. With the focus of innovation and excellence, QAL wanted to ensure complete business integration, while also facilitating a career and qualification pathway to the maximum benefits. With this in mind QAL instigated a partnership between Sugar International – a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) and Southern Cross University (SCU), which now has a specialised campus at the Gold Coast Airport. This approach for the certificate and diploma level programs allowed the industry and QAL to drive the need and content of the programs; with the RTO providing vocational training skills, expertise and qualification structure, and the University to provide

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additional breadth of content and streamlined qualification articulation of these certificates / diplomas into degree and post graduate studies. The core syllabus was derived from the QAL business structure through discussions with the Managing Director, the executive and senior management, middle management and supervisors. These core competencies were threaded throughout the Cert IV, Diploma and then into AAMP programs. While the thread of the core messages remained the same through each level of qualification, the focus and depth altered according to the program audience. For example, when dealing with workplace safety the focus at Cert IV level was toward promoting and monitoring safety, while at Diploma level it was related to monitoring and ensuring safety and at the senior management level of AAMP it is about ensuring safety within the corporate governance domain. The next step on the QAL MDP after the diploma is the Accelerated Airport Management Program (AAMP), which is a fully customised, corporate, university based program. Again, extensive consultation was undertaken throughout the business to ascertain core requirements. The MD took a key lead role in establishing the core content as it was framed by his vision of what a ‘General Manager’ within QAL would need to know to excel in that role. The content of AAMP has then been built around this vision as the goal of this program is to develop the middle/senior managers for GM roles within the business. At the completion of this program, participants are awarded a Graduate Certificate in Management, and two credit units toward an MBA. To inject a bit more interest in the delivery, QAL also managed to secure some great external experts as ‘guest speakers’ for the recent management modules. QAL had Martin Winter, CEO of Tourism Gold Coast come and share his knowledge and experience with QAL’s students in the marketing module. The CEO from UniSports, Don Knapp also co – presented amazing sessions on his perspectives and experiences in Team Management to the management participants. QAL’s new development currently being constructed in joint partnership between QAL, Griffith University and Airports Council International (ACI), is focused on developing a program extending the AAMP and combining it with current ACI units to attain a Masters level qualification in Airport Management awarded through Griffith University (GU). Both the AAMP and the Masters level programs are currently being designed to benefit all airport companies worldwide, and will be openly available to the entire industry. International interest in these initiatives has been very supportive to date. Furthermore, QAL is currently developing the support structures to facilitate the partnership with GU to allow PhD studies for both domestic and international students, and currently have two QAL staff members who have been MDP runway participants now enrolled as PhD candidates. Another example of a key talent development program modelled on the “runway” concept is that of the Development Runway Program for Airport Reporting Officers (ARO’s). The QAL ARO Rapid Development Program (ARO RDP) is an entry level program that comprises a six month intensive competency based, coach supported, development program designed by QAL to take ARO’s trainees through to fully independently functioning Airside Safety Officers. The runway element of the ARO program encompasses all levels of ARO from potential trainee right the way through to supervisor and Airside Operations Manager and then on to university and post graduate studies in Airport Management. Other features include:

o Developed and delivered in partnership with the University and RTO o Qualifications start at Cert III through to PhD, and everything in between o Again customised entirely to fit the diverse business needs of QAL.

In addition to the “runway” based programs, in order to address niche requirements or particular identified specific needs, QAL also offers a myriad of other talent development programs. Some examples of QAL’s other overarching development programs include:

1. Executive Development - For the Executive Management Team o Includes individual psychometric testing, career counselling, annual reviews and individual development plans o Program focuses on leadership, role specific skill sets I.e. HR, Finance, legal etc and industry specific

conferences and seminars o The Airport Management Professional Accreditation Program (AMPAP)

2. Talent Succession Program - For identified ‘high potentials’ promotion to executive level

o Includes individual psychometric testing, career counselling, annual reviews and individualised development

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o Inclusion in QAL Accelerated Airport Management Program (AAMP) o Individual Executive coaching o Targeted experiences such as exposure to board meetings, stakeholder negotiations, networking functions etc.

3. Mentoring & Alumni Programs

o The QAL Alumni Program allows for the maintenance of engagement with past QAL employees. This facilitates the continuance on networking and also facilitates the easy return of past employees should the opportunity occur.

o The Mentoring Program engages the continuance of past, usually retiring, employees in mentoring roles. This option enables the ongoing knowledge transfer of QAL senior experts and eases them progressively into retirement.

4. Project Altitude - A performance development Program for all staff o Involves an annual performance review meeting with manager including career path discussion o Individualised training plan developed o Covers all aspects of training and develop needs for all staff o Forms part of the organisational Training Needs Analysis (TNA).

Integration of Talent Development with Business Need Integration and applicability of talent develop within QAL is automatic as the activity is driven by the ever changing needs of the business and its employees, and therefore it is actually part of the business not an addition to it. Enhancement of this key feature is achieved in a variety of ways including:

Liaising with the Managing Director, executive and senior management, middle management and supervisors when developing programs and core syllabus

All programs must tie back to support the QAL Capability Model

Linking all development activity assessment items directly to identified business problems. Problem resolution or work related outcomes are achieved as part of the learning activity.

Conducting programs with a half work time, half personal time commitment, and

Continually evaluating development and training needs and outcomes in the business plans. The process of having everyone on an individualised development plan is managed very carefully to avoid a negative impact on operations by having too many staff off at one time. The advantage of having a holistic approach to talent development as an organisation is that everyone understands the journey others are on and cover workloads and provide support and encouragement. Even senior managers appreciate staff members who have assignments or projects due, as most likely they do too! This has created a healthy corporate culture and a team spirit. The diagram to the right demonstrates the breadth and linkages of the various programs and streams. QAL’s training delivery model was also derived directly from its business structure which comprises of:

Face to Face programs o Short internal and external courses o Qualification programs delivered via face to face and e-learning.

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o Mentoring and Coaching o Video Conferencing o National and International Workshops / seminars, conferences

Technology Based Options including: o QAL Learning on line o Video Conferencing o Web casts o Pod Cast downloads o On line real time interactive tutorials and discussions

Guest speaker and QAL Management presentations are filmed and loaded on the QAL SharePoint site (Intranet) for viewing by all staff 24/7.

Innovation and Excellence Innovation and excellence is at the core of QAL’s approach to talent development, mirroring the Continuous Quality Improvement Cycle (pictured right). When given the amazing opportunity to create a Talent Development model from scratch as a Greenfield site, QAL HR wanted to maximise this position and look at things a bit differently.

The one key factor was the determination not to just create a ‘smarter same’ approach, but rather QAL HR wanted an approach that embraced a focus of ‘inspirational innovation’. This mantra and mindset has been applied to every aspect of the model’s design and implementation. The two considerations of innovation and excellence are front of mind at each stage of design and creation of programs. Some examples of this are provided below:

Innovation and Excellence in Design Design of the QAL Talent Development Program commenced at the grass roots level of the business. Understanding the core tasks and functions of the business was crucial to ensuring alignment and applicability of all talent development strategies.

Questions such as these became the starting point across every functional area of the business:

What do we do?

Do we do it well?

Could we do it better?

What else do we need to know?

What other skills and knowledge will we need across the next 2 and 5 years?

This process formed the foundation of what subsequently developed into the QAL Capability Model, which is now the foundation for all talent development activity and has been endorsed both by the QAL Board and the Executive Committee. If a proposed program did not either support or extend the capability structure, questions were levelled at its relevance. This assists in ensuring the applicability and direct bearing on facilitating business outcomes.

Innovation and Excellence in Development Given the favourable position of starting from scratch QAL HR was keen to build an organisational wide development program of distinction. In order to achieve this, several principles were indentified:

To be based on the vocational training platform.

Involve the Managing Director (MD), executive team and management in the development of the program content to ensure alignment to business drivers and priorities

Complete QAL customisation of the content delivered.

Involve internal experts and industry leaders in both the content development and the delivery.

Maximise synergistic collaborative relationship to enhance training outcomes

All qualification based programs to be co-delivered by RTO and University staff to maximise the breadth of discussion and viewpoints.

All programs to be build with learnt theory immediately being able to be applied to a practical base to avoid the ‘Theory/Practice Gap.

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Have both the RTO and University involved at all levels – from concept sell, development, delivery, evaluation, to then begin the cycle again.

The resultant program needed to seamlessly articulate to the next step in the career (and qualification) pathway.

Complete customisation of all assessment items, while ensuring the training package’s integrity.

Assessment items are to reflect actual work place requirements and problem solving.

Assessments to comprise of both individual and group based components to foster cross pollination of staff and ideas across the group.

An example of the application of these principles can be seen in the customisation of the Cert III Ground Operations. Rather than fitting with existing programs within the vocational education sector, in order to attain maximum relevance to the business, QAL opted to follow the training packages and go beyond just customisation. QAL HR commissioned industry consultants and an RTO to completely rewrite the resources entirely from a QAL Perspective. All associated assessment activities and projects are QAL based and thus rather than working on abstract scenarios or hypothetical activities, these resources provide real time active learning and participation within QAL’s realm. Again, the concept of integration is not difficult, as the training activity is primarily structured as part of the work role.

“The work we have done in the area of Learning and Talent Development is in many cases considered leading our industry and we have been asked to participate in international conferences and events including the presentation of our models and programs. Whilst it is pleasing to have such recognition it is mostly satisfying to share our experiences to the benefit of the international aviation community”. “The outcomes of our programs have benefited the business and the employees and the application of their new skills and expertise is demonstration of the value add of this investment in them. We will continue to promote and develop training opportunities as a means of building capability and value in our business”. Craig Shaw, General Manager Corporate Services, Queensland Airports Limited

Innovation and Excellence in Delivery As with any organisation that operates from more than one site, QAL’s challenges are to ensure equity and access to a number of learning and talent development opportunities for ALL staff, regardless of learning style, literacy level, roster pattern or geographic location. So in order to meet these criteria a multifocal approach to training delivery was required, including a mix on internal and external options. Firstly, to ensure that remote staff members are not disadvantaged by the distance, strategies to mirror centrally offered programs were instigated. Workshops are often duplicated; those held on the Gold Coast Corporate centre are later duplicated in the north. For example, part of the delivery of the Diploma of Management comprised of eight full day workshops. This again was co-presented by university staff, RTO staff and industry representation. To ensure that the northern staff received the same quality experience as those in the metropolitan area, all of the same presenters (including the university academic staff) were flown and accommodated in Townsville at QAL’s own expense.

Given the 24/7 accessibility of staff members, the online platform addresses several issues around distance, learning style, literacy, and roster patterns. In partnership with Airports Council International (ACI) and Learning Seat, QAL developed the fully customised online learning platform now known as QAL Learning Online. This platform houses the QAL internally built e-learning programs and resources, as well as tying directly into international ACI aviation units and the Learning Seat catalogue comprising of a plethora of Australian development and vocational qualification programs. QAL selected an externally hosted option to allow staff and contractors to access the LMS from anywhere worldwide that has internet access, thus not restricting

them to QAL based hardware. For their convenience, commencing staff and contractors, who are required to complete mandatory inductions, can now complete some of the training from their home or office before entering a QAL workplace.

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To further enhance the learning experience, independent dedicated learning computer terminals have also been set up at each of QAL ports. There is also a chat room function that has been used successfully to connect the “north” and “south” Cert IV and Diploma groups. The QAL Corporate and Workplace Health and Safety Inductions have a narrated option to supplement the written text in the module to further enhance the learning experience for those who are auditory learners, or have better understanding of spoken English. People performing a translation role have also been utilised where necessary to assist people in comprehending the training messages delivered in both face to face and online sessions. Printed text can also be translated if required. Video conferencing (VC) is a method recently introduced to minimise the tyranny of distance and by using the high quality VC capability, it allows us to establish full, real time, interaction for staff in QAL’s remote locations simultaneously. Not only can the meeting proceedings be shared, but all desktop application such as Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides etc can be viewed simultaneously by all parties involved. QAL has extremely effectively used this medium for workshop presentations, seminars for industry experts, running small group tutorials, Q & A sessions, and assessment processes. To acknowledge and utilise the huge amount of nationally recognised talent within the technical teams, QAL has also implemented ‘Tech Talk’ technical skills workshops. External experts have also been contracted to supplement the knowledge and skill base, where required. Attendance at domestic and international conferences, workshops and seminars also continues to be supported to ensure QAL’s skill and knowledge base remains cutting edge. Innovation and Excellence in Evaluation and Review QAL’s evaluation platform is based on the Kirkpatrick model. It has been extremely well validated as an efficient tool. This longitudinal approach allows not only the ability to measure the immediate impact of development and training, but also that of the actual transference of that learning to benefit the business over time. QAL also ensures they follow a continuous quality improvement cycle by evaluating, reporting, monitoring, reviewing and adjusting as required. All training programs are evaluated in a multimodal approach; participants are surveyed at the completion of the program and then again at the three, six and 12 month time points. QAL utilises a range of tools including surveys, interviews, questionnaires, diaries, logs and performance development reports. Evaluative data is also elicited from participant’s managers at the six and twelve month time points. This approach allows for the measurement of transference of learning as well as the relevance and value to the business over time. The data collected at the subsequent time points is more focused on the applicability, application and workplace value offered by the training. Of the current QAL talent development program on offer, at the six month collection point, both participants and managers still believed the programs offered to date are of great value to the workplace, with skill and knowledge increases well demonstrated in staff’s workplace behaviour. Across all of the training programs run in the past twelve months, staff satisfaction surveys have also always rate highly, and reflect the effort of ensuring the training and development is relevant, applicable, contemporary, timely and interesting. The first survey is conducted to rate immediate satisfaction with the program, presenters and methods used etc. It also seeks to ascertain where the program was relevant in value asking questions such as: “Is this training directly applicable to your job role?” and “Would you recommend this program to your peers?”

On each occasion, the survey averaged 96% positive responses to each of these questions, indicating that participants view the programs of true practical value.

All data collected is collated and shared internally via evaluation and review reports provided to management, Executive and Board; newsletters; word of mouth; email notifications; program Graduations, in the presence of the MD and executive members and small informal presentations shared at “Lunchbox” meetings across the group. QAL also promotes the results externally via national and international conferencing, network meetings, word of mouth, acknowledgement and write ups in industry media, collaborative Partners (University & RTO) communicate the collaboration widely.

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Not only has QAL evaluated participants and employers reactions and impact, but they have also assessed opinions of Academics from University and trainers from the RTO. On all accounts the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The parties felt that the co-delivery was extremely effective and enjoyable; they each learnt a lot from each other, as well as learning from members of the participant group. The university co-ordinator also commended QAL on the extremely practical and business integrated corporate model they had developed, stating SCU intend to duplicate QAL’s model across all of their corporate programs.

“The innovation in technique added a higher education perspective that was extremely well received by the students, the registered trainer and representatives of QAL as evidenced in each level of feedback. The trainers in particular appeared to relish the extra dimension of involvement as did the students whom were able to engage at higher levels according to their own learning needs and aspirations. By looking for the 'value add' aspects in each subject area I felt I was able to add both breadth and depth of perspective to the student learning experience." - Trevor Davey, Lecturer, Graduate College of Management, Southern Cross University

Summary Points QAL has developed a comprehensive development program built from core business capability.

The model is set to address current needs, but also has a strong future forward focus to ensure ongoing sustainability.

There is a tight articulation of all programs within the development streams.

QAL has developed true partnership arrangements between Industry, Universities and RTO’s

QAL, the university and the RTO co-developed and co-deliver vocational qualifications (Cert IV and Diploma).

There is total participation and commitment from the QAL Board and all of the executive management team, including and lead by the Managing Director.

QAL takes a fully customised and integrated approach, where the majority of assessment items align and fulfil work requirements.

QAL is always prepared to invest time and money in furthering training opportunities for the industry as a whole, not just the QAL businesses.

Program Achievements and Acknowledgements There has been an overwhelming response to the success of QAL’s Talent Development Program ranging from winning national excellence awards and gaining industry acknowledgements right through to programs being duplicated by third parties. An example of this is the regular invites to present this model and activity at national and international conferences such as 7th ACI Asia-Pacific Small Airports Seminar “Innovating Small Airports with Best Airport Service”, Incheon, Korea; 3rd, 4th and 5th ACI Asia-Pacific Human Resources Best Practice Seminar, held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Siem Reap, Cambodia and Dubai, UAE. QAL’s development program was also recognised by QAL being awarded “Regional Employer of the Year” at the recent Australian Training & Development Awards.

Business Related Outcomes. Increased Productivity Managers and supervisors have reported a definite increase in productivity and a reduction in workplace incidents. Additionally, the need for rework or amendments has also reportedly reduced. Project completion rates have increased their on time delivery and there is far better management of budget considerations, both at a project and business unit level. Reduction in External Recruitment and Induction Costs Cost savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars has been estimated due to the direct reduction in the need to recruit external talent to fill vacant key roles has been one significant benefit of the QAL Talent Development Program. Research estimates that the costs involved in external recruiting, inducting, orientating and then getting a commencing role up to productive speed can conservatively be cost estimated at between 1.5 and 5 % of their base annual salary. Effective employee participation in the various QAL Talent Development and Succession Planning Programs (including Executive Development, AMPAP, AAMP, ARO RDP, etc) within the past 18 months alone has enabled QAL to enact at least twenty six internal promotions including three executive roles, eight senior management roles and nine critical operational roles. Given the base salaries of these positions alone, and taking the minimum quoted cost estimate for external recruitment, being the 1.5% of base salary, the financial saving alone is a huge saving for the business.

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On a program specific focus, fifty three percent of the Management Runway Program participants have achieved a promotion, with several of them actually receiving a double promotion within the past 12 months following completion. Again, this demonstrates that the programs are highly applicable to advancing the businesses talent requirements. Increased Staff Satisfaction & Engagement Employee development programs consistently rate extremely highly on the annual organisation wide staff satisfaction and engagement survey. Successful internal promotions also show reward for people’s efforts in their own development and certainly has enhanced employee engagement. Over the past two years the annual staff satisfaction survey has strongly evidenced significant increases in employee engagement scores and cited satisfaction with training and talent development opportunities. In the annual organisational health survey, one element relates directly to training. When asked the question “What do you value most about working for the QAL Group?” over 24 % of respondents identified development opportunities. Acknowledgement and Recognition from Key Stakeholders The best form of flattery is imitation and replication ! QAL’s investors have requested they develop a similar program for their multinational organisation.

“Hastings Funds Management Limited – through its various funds – is a stakeholder in QAL. Hastings was interested to find out more about the ‘Project Runway’ initiative to understand not only what benefits it brought to QAL, but also what benefits it could bring to Hastings. We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of Project Runway and were overwhelmed by the incredibly positive feedback that every participant on the ‘Runway’ had experienced….so much so that we have now adopted our own ‘Project Runway’ based on the same principles designed by the QAL team. The insight, vision and execution of the ‘Project Runway’ concept by the QAL team is an inspiration to Hastings.’ - Simon Ondaatje, Director Investor Relations, Hastings Fund Management

Third party businesses have also requested QAL’s assistance in developing similar programs for their teams. Employee Enablement The longitudinal results of the talent development programs have been significant in the area of employee enablement. QAL has seen evidence of increased teamwork right from the first sessions and this has consistently increased as time has gone by. The workforce has continued to grow both in confidence and ability and the outputs are noticeable in the workplace.

Key areas of development have been broad, but ones of key note from our early management entry programs include better articulation of their role at QAL; increased quality of written documents and communications to promotions in the work place, especially in their ability to hold a higher level of conversation with peers and management, and also dramatically increased problem scoping and solving skills.

“One of our star students is now working in the Commercial and Property area of our business and her contribution to the team since completing the Certificate IV has been noticed and commented on favourably by senior managers at QAL. This training has been of great value to our organisation”. - Angela Kennedy. QAL Administration Manager

“I had not studied since leaving high school many years ago, and was very worried how I would manage. I started in the Cert IV FLM, and enjoyed that so much I also completed the Diploma. I found the program fascinating and fully supported my job. Through this program, I have gained so much confidence, and I have now enrolled in the Masters program with SCU”. - QAL Management Runway Participant

More great comments from people who have participated in QAL’s talent development programs:

My Tsoubarakis - Certificate course - “The course is awesome…I get to learn how the business works and brings together people from different areas, it feels like you are improving and the company sees value in me.”

Dennis Chant – Managing Director - “The learning experience is matched by the staff’s knowledge that we actually want them to move ahead…it really has created great cultural improvement.”

Leanne Cousins - Diploma course – “I rate the course as a 10/10…the interaction and sharing has created knowledge…plus the fact that it is tailored for our industry.”

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Mike Curtis - Executive course – “I give the course 9/10… provides valuable insights into other parts of the business and commits us to assessment work…it’s great.”

Notable success stories about the talent development and how the business and staff have benefitted include:

Over 53 % of all participants in the QAL Management Development Runway Program (MDP) have received at least one promotion within the past 18 months.

Over 8 % of MDP participants have received double or triple promotions within the past 18 months.

40% of the recently completed Cert IV Business group have now been promoted at least once.

Several staff members in the first cohort who had never formally studied since secondary school, have now gone on to successfully complete post graduate studies.

Two staff that were not long out of school and working in entry level administration positions with us have progressed to key positions within 12 months of working for the company. One is now a customer service officer for AGH, and the other holds a key position within the Commercial Management Team.

QAL now has strong developing bench strength in the talent pool for critical positions such as executive roles

A well established and functioning means of facilitating knowledge transfer from our experts

Staff on customised career paths across a diverse range of vocational streams

Extremely positive evaluations of all programs across the group

QAL now has excellent collaborative and synergistic relationships with other developmental groups such as RTO’s and universities.

Increased confidence and workplace participation of staff

Improved workplace culture

The establishment of a thirst for development and a common dialogue throughout the staff.

Cost saving in recruitment and induction

External critics without a vested interest have acknowledged its success and unique contribution

Repeat invitee to present QAL Talent Development model and its associated programs at numerous domestic and international conferences

Given the achievement of business outcomes, QAL’s MD and Executive members have seen the value in their being extremely active and visibly involved in the programs at all levels, including design and delivery

Built clear and facilitated career paths across a wide range of job designations

Enhanced productivity, engagement and overall satisfaction within the staff

The program has mobilised ALL staff from the MD to throughout the entire organisation in the one direction of development

The key QAL Mantra; ‘Everybody is being developed’ means everyone has their own individualised development plan, which aligns with both the QAL Business objectives and the QAL’s Capability Model.

Successful funding applications as QAL is now able to demonstrate an effective track record with their development programs

QAL’s majority shareholder [who] has requested that QAL take a lead role in developing a similar program matrix across all of their business units, including those in the USA, Asia, the Middle East and in the UK. In addition to this example, third party interest has been demonstrated through a variety of support requests from businesses that QAL interacts.

QAL has been recognised as a leader in talent development in the industry, both nationally and internationally.

Significant interest has been generated in the ability of other business to duplicate QAL’s development model and its success

Additional Outcomes While devising talent development programs QAL has integrated successful business practices making them a genuinely enriched talent development experience. In doing so QAL has garnered attention from industry peers as well as seeing a multitude of benefits besides those seen within the company, just some of which include:

Hosting an international Airport Management program in May on the Gold Coast.

Initiated, lead and part funded a consortium to develop, pilot and evaluate aviation specific Cert III level e-learning resources for free access to all airports, but with particular relevant to the smaller rural and remote airports in Australia.

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Accepted invites to present this model as an example of best practice in numerous domestic and international aviation conferences.

Have acted as a consultant resource to other airports, both domestic and international wanting to implement similar programs

Assisted staff to specific career paths which may include leaving QAL for their immediate growth. However, it is the belief that if treated well, they will return enriched to further enhance the capability pool of the organisation.

Have assisted a university in developing a very successful corporate development program model for future roll out with other organisations.

Have assisted other enterprise such as Hastings Fund Management and Townsville Enterprise to replicate this model to suit their business.

In Summary . . . This program is a “living” example of the effectiveness of HR as an integral and synergistic driver of business goals. QAL HR has established strong and committed support for talent development, from Board level through to the grass roots of the organisation. Talent development is now not seen as an adjunct to the business, but rather seen as a key strategy in building a stronger, smarter, and more efficient and innovative QAL into the future. The QAL Strategic and Business plans are synthesised into a strategy that then subsequently informs the processes required that will deliver the right skill and talent mix to the correct aspect of the business, well prepared and when needed. The result is optimisation of growth and development opportunities as well as attainment of nominated business goals. In support of this, over the last four years, QAL has invested a substantial amount of money on talent development initiatives and have reaped a myriad of benefits in return. However, the benefits are not just centred in QAL, but rather QAL has actively shared, contributed and facilitated the sharing of the knowledge, resources and models gained from the journey so far with airport operators both domestically and internationally. However, the journey does not stop here. It is just the beginning. By successfully evaluating and reassessing their development models QAL will continue to build a better future for not only the business itself, but also its staff and also the wider aviation industry.