Organisation: Department of Human Services
Job Title: Team Leader
Word Limit: 400 words per criteria
Location: Various
Demonstrated ability to lead, develop and manage a team in a changing environment, including
the ability to plan, prioritise and influence individual and team performance to achieve business
outcomes and targets.
Currently acting as a Backfill Team Leader, I regularly circulate amongst different teams and am
well placed to identify opportunities for improvements in team performance. I achieve this
through identifying opportunities for skill and capability development and through planning and
prioritising task allocation to better manage team workflows. For example, when I joined the Job
Claims Network early in 2015, I was specifically tasked with improving the performance and
quality of work to increase the level of service that was being provided to customers. At the time
that I joined, the team was unable to complete their daily system allocation of appointments and
customers were consistently being called later than scheduled, leading to an unnecessarily high
number of ‘Did Not Attend’ (DNA) appointments and a reduced capacity of the department to
meet customer appointment demand.
Through collecting and analysing available data, I identified that there was a large discrepancy
between team members with regard to how many appointments were being completed by each.
Some team members were carrying an extremely high load, which on further investigation I
identified was leading to stress and a tendency to rush calls and ‘cut corners’ on service
standards’. Other team members were getting through well below the identified call volumes. For
each of these staff, I identified and addressed the individual training needs that could be met to
assist them to better reach the expected standard for appointment numbers.
In order to better plan and prioritise work to meet business targets, I implemented a previously
unused system capability that provided a daily appointment allocation to each team member. This
target allowed the previously over-achieving team members to reduce their expectations of
appointment volume and instead focus on providing service of the expected quality and standard.
For the team members who needed to increase their appointment numbers, this system provided
them with a clear picture of their progress against their allocation for the day. In addition, utilising
the ability to track individual performance enabled me to analyse the contribution of individual
team members to business outcomes and targets, attend to the development of team members
who required it, ands plan and prioritise activities around changing circumstances relating to
system availability, peak demand periods, unplanned staff leave and work outages.
High level verbal and written communication skills including the ability to compose clear,
accurate and professional documentation
Possessing clear and concise communication skills, I effectively tailor my style, tone and message
to my audience in both my written and my verbal communications. My strong communication
skills were recently recognised when I was hand-selected by the Brisbane Smart Centre
Attendance Manager and Workplace Culture Leader to learn this role in order to backfill a planned
absence. A role that requires highly visible communication to staff and leadership across the
Brisbane Smart Centre, I have been informed by executive leadership members that I was selected
for this role due to my excellent communication skills and ability to inspire positive workplace
culture with the enthusiasm and positivity displayed in my written and verbal correspondence.
One of the requirements of this role was to prepare and distribute a daily email to all staff
designed to foster positive workplace culture and provide information and updates about the
day’s events across the sites within the Brisbane Smart centre. Within this daily update, I am solely
responsible for the Culture update, which is intended to promote and foster a "We" culture that
has been set as a strategic priority for the department. The update needs to be inspiring to, and
relevant to, the whole Smart Centre. This is a challenging goal, given that the Brisbane centre is
spread across five sites covering many diverse payments and two separate divisions. From staff, I
have received feedback that my emails are inclusive, relevant, and well received.
Another part of this role is to prepare and deliver PowerPoint-based presentations to a total of 30
leadership staff, including the executive leadership and footprint team leaders. These
presentations are also designed to instil and foster positive team culture. The specialised nature of
this audience, compared to the broad recipients of the daily email, requires me to appropriately
tailor my communication style and the content of my messages in a way that is suitable for
leadership staff.
Working as a backfill Team leader, I am regularly assigned to new teams on a short-term basis. In
these situations, I use my strong communication and interpersonal skills to quickly develop
rapport with the team and ask appropriate questions to gather the information that I need to
successfully lead them to success. My capacity to communicate with staff of all levels in a way that
is appropriate for their needs ensures that I am effectively able to lead diverse teams.
The ability to identify, foster and maintain relationships with key internal and external
stakeholders
Possessing strong interpersonal, communication and liaison skills, I demonstrate success in
establishing and maintaining stakeholder relationships. This has been demonstrated through the
assistance that I provide to the office of the Minister for Human Services. Where a customer has a
serious complaint that is escalated to the Minister, representatives of the Minister’s office, usually
at Executive Level (EL), will talk to the customer and gather information to prepare a report to the
Minister on the issue. This investigation would include making contact with the Job Claims
Network’s (JCN) Business Support Unit; this unit would consistently nominate me as the person to
contact to obtain information. I was sought for these roles, even when the complaint related to a
matter outside of my team, both because of my knowledge of service systems and processes, and
due to my capacity and willingness to gather and present information in a timely, clear and concise
way that met the needs of the Minister’s office and the customer. On request, I would write a
detailed and accurate report suitable for use by the Minister’s staff, and also provide a verbal
summary of the report, offering solutions and suggestions to improve the customer’s outcome.
In working with internal stakeholders, I am responsive to needs and willingly contribute time and
expertise to harness opportunities for better business outcomes and improved service to
customers. Working within the JCN, I am regularly called upon by the EL leadership group for input
and suggestion in relation to improving our customer service offer. Recently, for example, I was
requested by an EL2 to provide a verbal update on the JCN business model, and how it was
functioning for our customers. I provided information on the system’s performance, its current
limitations, and potential improvements that would be required to deliver better customer
service. This included providing examples that demonstrated the shortcomings of the system
when applied to individual cases, and how these impacted on customers. As a result of this
discussion, I then conducted further research, analysis and follow-up and provided this additional
information via email. I have since been requested to provide further input on a range of topics, to
help build the ideas for the future design of our customer service model. This demonstrates the
way in which my capacity to develop and maintain internal stakeholder relationships contributes
to the continuous improvement of services and outcomes.
Experience in supporting staff through feedback, coaching and mentoring, including
management of performance and workplace behaviour and conduct within set frameworks.
As a Backfill Team Leader, I have often identified needs for support, training and mentoring within
the team that I am placed with. For example, I recently identified that a member of the team was
not following the correct process when assisting customers. I observed that despite displaying high
achievement of call targets, this team member was failing to ask customers certain questions
designed to gather information on behalf of another Department.
I initiated a frank conversation with this team member to address this problem, in which he told
me that he felt under pressure to get through high numbers of calls to ensure that the team met
its targets. He was therefore trying to rush through calls, even if that means skipping parts of the
process. I addressed this by explaining the importance of asking these questions, which the
employee had not previously appreciated. I also provided additional training on the correct call
process, and the importance of adhering to all organisational processes. To relieve this team
member of the pressure he felt to ensure that the team reached its call targets, I assigned him an
individual call allocation and asked that he focus only on achieving that, and let me manage the
team’s overall output. I have continued to monitor the situation and found that the team member
has been performing his calls as required and has reported feeling reduced pressure as a result of
having an individual call allocation.
As acting Team Leader for a different team, I identified an instance of a team member incorrectly
recording his overtime. I immediately advised the employee, verbally and in writing, that I could
not approve this overtime. I then notified my EL1 supervisor and the relevant Human Resources
staff, who requested that I further address this directly with the team member. I advised the
employee verbally and in an email that his recording of overtime was a breach of correct process
and that further identified instances would result in an investigation of potential administrative
fraud in breach of the Code of Conduct. I ensured that he was fully trained in the correct processes
and rules regarding overtime going forward. As a result of the positive, supportive way in which I
approached this sensitive issue, my relationship with this employee has remained positive and,
with the issue addressed, he has continued to perform as a valuable member of the team.
