4.1 Staffing
The National Blood Authority is fortunate to have staff members with an immense diversity of skills, knowledge and background. This ranges across clinical and laboratory practices, commercial contract negotiation and project management, logistics and inventory management, information technology, communication and secretariat support, and business planning and risk management. The National Blood Authority staffing complement comes from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Some staff members have more than 40 years' experience in the workplace, while others have just commenced their careers.
This diversity of skill, knowledge and networks exemplifies one of the major benefits of working in a small organisation. These skills are known and are able to be effectively used in a number of facets of the National Blood Authority's operations.
Workforce planning, staff retention and turnover
Consistent with other Australian Public Service agencies, the staff turnover rate in the National Blood Authority was higher than desirable in 2006–07. To address this turnover, the feedback from recruited staff and those staff leaving was collated, analysed and incorporated into a redesigned recruitment campaign. The redesign is intended to ensure that applicants have a better appreciation of the benefits and challenges of working in a small, specialist agency and to attract applicants who have a passion for, and interest in, working with the National Blood Authority.
At 30 June 2007, the organisation had 39 ongoing staff and 10 non-ongoing staff, with a full-time equivalent of 46. This year the National Blood Authority engaged 25 new staff members, either to fill ongoing vacancies or to provide non-ongoing support in the delivery of time-limited, specialist projects.
The details of the staffing profile are provided in Tables 9 and 10.
Senior executive service remuneration
The total remuneration for senior executive service employees includes salaries plus superannuation, performance bonuses, the cost of accrued annual and long service leave, and motor vehicle and fringe benefits allowances. Bonuses are paid to senior executive service employees based on performance against agreed criteria in line with operational and corporate goals.