Physical assets are not a significant aspect of the NBA’s strategic management. The NBA has developed an asset replacement strategy to ensure that it has adequate funding for the replacement of assets as these come to the end of their useful life.
The NBA’s recruitment and employment practices are consistent with the principles of the Commonwealth Disability Strategy. Our internal staff training incorporates education in and information about the needs of people with disabilities in the workplace through our discussions in relation to the Code of Conduct and harassment and bullying in the workplace. The NBA continues to make the organisation accessible for people with disabilities by:
Our commitment to reasonable adjustment is illustrated by the flexible support provided to a staff member who suffered a severe non-work related injury. We developed a detailed return-to-work program with an element of working from home and high flexibility in working hours, and provided technology assistance such as a headset and wireless phone for use at home for work-related activities. We maintained engagement with the staff member throughout the period of disability, including receiving regular updates on the progress of projects.
Our annual occupational health and safety assessments, conducted by an external occupational health and safety expert, have resulted in a relatively clean bill of health but emphasised the need for more effective storage solutions. In response, the NBA consolidated records held on site to create space for storage.
All new employees, and existing staff on request, have work station assessments. This has proved to be a cost-effective approach to minimising injuries resulting from computer use.
During 2008–09 one staff member suffered a minor injury. In response to this, our manual handling guidelines have been updated.
The NBA has achieved considerable benefits from the reduction in staff turnover in 2008–09. This has allowed us to reduce our recruitment budget and allocate additional resources to other functions. However, the main benefit has been that we have retained the knowledge and expertise of our staff, and this enhances our ability to meet a higher proportion of our operational goals.
The NBA has continued to build on our efforts in recent years to reduce our carbon footprint. In 2008–09 our operations resulted in less than 100 direct tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted (after offsets for air travel, fleet vehicles and the purchase of all electricity from renewable sources are applied). Of these 100 tonnes, just over half relate to travel to and from work by staff members and contractors. To put this in perspective, the average Australian is directly responsible for emitting 7.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
We have continued to decrease our overall electricity consumption and significantly increased the percentage of meetings conducted by teleconference.
The NBA has worked closely with the Australian Government Information Management Office, through membership of the Green ICT Quick Wins Working Party, to ensure that the needs of small agencies are reflected in the guidelines issued to agencies. The NBA has already implemented the majority of items identified in the guidelines to reduce the carbon footprint of our ICT operations. This work was complemented by formal training received by NBA ICT staff in Green ICT.
As part of the NBA’s commitment to professional development, a carbon footprint educational workshop for all our employees will be held later in 2009, with the objective of identifying further ways of reducing the organisation’s carbon footprint.
