Organisation: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
Job Title: Case Management Officer
Word Limit: 450 words per KSC
Location: Canberra
- Sound judgment and problem solving skills, including the ability to interpret and apply guidelines and legislation, solve issues and make quality and accurate recommendations for delegate approval.
I have excellent problem solving skills and throughout my career I have always shown sound judgment. In my previous position with Geoscience Australia (GA) I demonstrated my skills in this area on several occasions. GA provides geoscientific data, information and services to a diverse range of clients including the Australian Government, industry groups and community members. GA has its own warehouse and part of my role was to use a stock picker to retrieve boxes of hard copy materials that I would then digitise. Unfortunately the stock pickers lift truck had a tendency to get caught at full elevation (9 metres). This meant that employees who were alone in the warehouse were stuck until security or another staff member was able to assist them. Employees using the lift mostly took their mobile phones so they could contact someone in this situation. I however, felt this was still a risk that could be mitigated and arranged for alarms to be placed on the machines that alerted the security staff if a problem occurred.
In order to undertake the technical aspects of my work at GA, I was required to interpret and apply various guidelines, procedures and legislation. In particular, the work we did was governed by the legislative requirements of the Archives Act 1983 which states that you have a right of access to government archival records that are in the open access period (which varies depending on the source material). GA was also subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and is required to comply with the requirements of the Information Publication.
The legislation and guidelines governed what data (including digital copies of source material) I could supply and when, in response to specific client requests. This included ensuring that the confidentiality of data was maintained (based on the open access period) as defined by the Act. This would also vary depending on whether the data was interpretative and whether therefore there was intellectual property attached to it.
An example of where I interpreted policy to solve an issue occurred while I was processing a client request for data. Analysis revealed that the database had the incorrect release date and therefore some of the data could not be issued as it had to remain confidential for a further six months.
In consultation with my manager, I updated the database with the new release date, along with a note regarding the decision for future reference. I then informed client services that the basic data was eligible for release but that the interpretive component of the data had to remain confidential for six months. I was then able to digitise the original file containing the basic data and supply it for release.
- Sound written communication skills, including the ability to prepare evidence based recommendations for the purpose of administrative decision making.
When I first began working in the data repository section of Geoscience Australia there was no systemised induction, formal training or procedure manual for the position. I had to acquire all the skills and technical knowledge required for the role through on-the-job learning. During this time I carefully documented the instructions I received and from this created a Scanning Procedures Manual. Initially this document was for my own benefit, ensuring I was following the correct procedures.
I asked my manager and other technical specialists to provide comments on the manual to ensure the accuracy of the contents. I also continued to update the manual whenever there was a change to procedures or legislation to ensure its currency. I stored the document on the internal directory so that it was accessible to everyone. This procedures manual became the basis of the formal induction and training for new employees in the scanning section.
Another example was my use of JIRA (project tracker software that captures, assigns, and tracks work flows) at GA. We used JIRA to track the flow of all data from its retrieval as source, collation, digitisation, release, storage, retention and destruction. I used the system to detail changes made to data requests, ensuring that the information I inputted was clear, succinct and easily understood by others. This information included data location as well as links to all other tasks relevant to the request and status updates. This process required my record keeping to be precise, methodical and accurate so that others could understand the actions undertaken with this data. I knew that the information I submitted in JIRA would be used later by my manager and other team members to prevent overlap and duplication when responding to subsequent data requests.
GA also had strict guidelines and procedures governing the retention and destruction of records. While working to digitise hard copy source material it became apparent that there were often duplicate copies of reports. The guidelines did not deal specifically with this circumstance and did not allow for the destruction of such exact duplicates. Initially I researched the issue myself but when I could not find a clear answer I sought interpretation and found that GA did not have a set procedure for dealing with this. Working with the appropriate colleagues we drafted correspondence to ArchivesACT to seek clarification of this issue. Following their response (which gave approval) we developed in-house procedures to govern this destruction. This included how to ensure that the reports were exact duplicates and how the destruction was to be recorded on the relevant online catalogue system.
- Strong customer orientation; including experience maintaining productive relationships with external stakeholders and representing a professional service approach.
An example of my strong client orientation occurred while I was employed as the Customer Service Manager of Australian Wholesale Printers. We were contacted by the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Office requesting a certificate in Japanese for the Mayor to present to an overseas delegation in less than 24 hours. I accepted the commission, confirmed the content of the certificate, organised a Japanese translation, organised formatting of the certificate, gained approval of content and formatting from the Lord Mayor, organised printing of the certificate and its delivery to the Mayoral Office well before the deadline.
An example of where I have developed a productive relationship occurred at GA when one of my government based clients needed a large volume of scanning to be completed before their funding for a project expired. The scanning team was working at full capacity and given current workload and resources I determined we wouldn’t be able to fill their request by the imposed deadline. I suggested to my client that he engage a contractor and prioritise the data they needed. This ensured the majority of the task would be completed before funding was lost. The client agreed and within 48 hours the contractor was engaged and scanning commenced. The request was completed 2 weeks before the deadline, which in turn allowed my client to include additional data that otherwise would not have been processed.
Afterwards the client was impressed not only that I listened to his needs, but had managed to deliver a large volume of data, at a high standard, before the due deadline. He was so pleased that he actually stated that if I ever needed his skills or experience he would be happy to offer assistance. Not long after this I was required to recruit two new staff members for my team, something I had little experience in. The client had significant human resource management skills and when I approached him for advice he willingly mentored me through the process of recruiting the employees. My strong client focus had allowed me to build a mutually beneficial alliance with an external stakeholder.
As part of my voluntary work I coordinate a number religious instruction teachers ensuring their compliance with curriculum and keeping them motivated and engaged in their teaching role. I have strived to develop a professional, productive relationship with these teachers. As part of this commitment I developed and delivered numerous short skills sessions for them dealing with such things as disruptive classroom behaviour, how to find and use extra resources and fun class room activities to use. I also meet regularly with them individually, ensuring that they have the skills, equipment and resources they need to continue in the role.
- Positive outlook; personal agility and organisational skills; including demonstrated ability to prioritise workload, manage deadlines and consistently deliver quality results in a time poor environment.
I always have a positive outlook and strive to boost individual and team morale whenever possible. An example of this happens in my current role as an online shopper for Woolworths. To make things easier for my colleagues I try and get to work early to prepare their equipment for them. These small measures go a long way in building a collaborative, cooperative approach in a team.
I also maintain that fostering cooperation also facilitates the ability of both individuals and teams to be organised, collaboratively prioritise workloads and deliver on deadlines. When I was the Scanning Team Leader at GA, I had an urgent client request that was quite large. After checking the current workload of each scanning officer I negotiated with the team to divide up the task to suit each team member’s individual skills. I then briefed them on the importance, timeline and workload of the request. Each scanning member put their current work aside and dedicated themselves to the request. As each member completed their component they checked in with the rest of the team and assisted them to complete the remaining tasks. As Team Leader it was extremely gratifying to have my team achieve this level of cooperation and collaboration to meet the deadline.
It is also important to mention within the first 3 months of my employment in the scanning section of GA I contributed to a 308% increase in productive output, with a personal contribution of 67% of total team production. As a result of my excellent organisational skills and outstanding productivity levels I was promoted to Scanning Team Leader after only 9 months of service.
While working for Australia Wholesale Printers I had to demonstrate excellent organisational ability, including skill at prioritisation and meeting client deadlines. On a daily basis I juggled a vast variety of duties and tasks including staffing the reception desk, fielding and directing incoming calls, dealing with front desk client enquiries, organising courier pick-ups and deliveries, maintaining diaries and records, managing the accounts on MYOB and ordering supplies. I also undertook a range of technical duties such as creating and designing artwork to customer specifications (using Corel 7), printing film from digitised artwork, producing press plates for printing, collating, folding, embossing, cutting and binding printed product and storing the artwork (including hardcopy and digital). I always managed to organise and prioritise this vast volume of complex, diverse work and meet stringent client deadlines.
- Sound teamwork skills; including the ability to manage own responsibilities with minimal supervision whilst working cohesively with others to support the achievement of broader team goals.
In all my work I strive to demonstrate excellent teamwork skills. Regardless of whether I am leading or participating in a team I always listen carefully to my team members, checking to ensure that I have understood and interpreted their views correctly. I also try to see things from their perspective, supporting them to the best of my ability and sharing appropriate and useful information with them.
When I was Team Leader and was responsible for assigning tasks to the scanning staff, I always checked to see what their current workload was and consulted with them to make sure that they knew what was required of them in relation to assignments. I also had regular team meetings to update them on production progress, passing along client feedback and positively engaging with any ideas or concerns that they raised. We were a highly productive, positive, motivated team that supported and encouraged each other to achieve the very best possible outcomes.
I also am skilled at managing my own responsibilities and ensuring I work cohesively with others. While working at GA on a very difficult set of Petroleum Well Data I realised that the information intersected with another Well data set which one of my colleagues was working on. I spoke with her to explain the complexity of the situation and we agreed to sort through the boxes together to minimise the possibility of duplication and to eliminate any confusion. We divided the workload and on completion I updated the database, clearly reported all of my findings into JIRA and then tabling all the changes that were made to facilitate the later Quality Assurance checks. The task was successfully completed within the allocated time, with minimal disruption to mine or my colleague’s work and with no errors found during the subsequent QA process.
Another example of my ability to both work independently but cohesively with others occurred in relation to my digitisation duties at GA. On occasion, we were required to digitise old and very fragile items (for example, old area maps made of fabric from the genealogy society). There were no procedures in place to provide guidance on how to handle fragile items. After some research and discussions with colleagues I purchased acid free tape (to repair damaged items) and various custom made plastic sleeves (to place fragile items in to protect from the rollers). I also slowed down the feed rate to minimise possible damage throughout the digitisation process. I shared this information with other scanning staff to help all of my team members improve their skills in preserving source material.
