SECRETARY'S REVIEW

A Centenary Year

As foreshadowed in the 1999-2000 Annual Report, the department's focus this financial year was on consolidating the organisational restructuring of 1999 and early 2000. Staff members have responded well to the changes and have ensured that the consolidation was effective.

In the department's centenary year it was pleasing to see staff commit to improvements which will increase DPRS's ability to better support the Parliament in its second century.

As one of the few federal agencies to have been in existence since 1901, DPRS has a long and fascinating history and an exciting future.

Overview

The early part of 2000-2001 gave some time for a collective drawing of breath as a number of significant and complex tasks were finished. The department's 2000-2003 Certified Agreement was probably the most visible example in this category, but there were others across all areas of the organisation. As the year progressed the changes were more firmly bedded in and consequent improvements in performance started to show through.

The standard of performance reporting this year across the department has been very high, due to the effort and enthusiasm of staff. Effective, timely performance reporting is a fundamental requirement for ensuring that the department is able to make the most efficient and cost effective use of the resources provided to it by the Parliament and the people. There is still considerable scope for the department to use performance reporting more intensively, but DPRS provides regular, candid performance information and makes that information widely available. The challenge now is for everyone in the department to use that information in a productive manner as part of their everyday work.

A practical initiative this year to help with performance reporting has been the progressive preparation of this Annual Report. Each quarter a cumulative report was produced in the same format and structure as the final report and displayed on the department's intraNet site, with the fourth quarter report closely approximating this final document.

By reporting quarterly and making the information available to everyone, DPRS has enabled all workgroups to continually assess their success in meeting departmental outcomes.

DPRS continued to use the biannual Senior Management Team (SMT) residential meetings to discuss major management and leadership issues and develop the department's budget. The SMT is an important group which sets the department's strategic direction and has direct responsibility for day-to-day operations. The November 2000 and March 2001 meetings looked closely at management and staff communication issues and how best to address matters identified in the staff attitudes survey.

Highlights

New Certified Agreement

On 31 August 2000, staff voted in favour of a proposed Certified Agreement (CA) in a postal ballot conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission. The Australian Industrial Relations Commission certified the Agreement on Monday 9 October. All salary and allowance increases, payment of bonuses and adjustment to leave credits flowing from the agreement were processed promptly. This Agreement was a major achievement for the department: for the first time employment conditions for all classifications are consistent, transparent and straightforward. A number of obsolete allowances and arrangements were abolished and the savings used to help fund significant pay increases over the three-year life of the Agreement.

Client Satisfaction and Staff Attitudes Surveys

The department commissioned ARTD Management & Research Consultants to conduct a Client Satisfaction Survey and a Staff Attitudes Survey, which were conducted in October and November 2000. A response rate of 71 per cent was achieved from staff surveyed (300) while 124 responses were received from Senators, Members, senior parliamentary managers and users of the Client Liaison subgroup's services.

The Client Satisfaction Survey showed that DPRS is perceived as a highly professional, client-focused organisation. Among survey respondents there was a strong consensus that the department provides professional and helpful service, responds promptly and courteously to client requests, appreciates the time constraints of clients and generally makes its services easily accessible. While recognising the strong base of support for the quality of DPRS services, clients also highlighted that there was scope for improving services. The full survey report is available at appendix A.

The Staff Attitudes Survey found that the key drivers for DPRS staff of a productive, safe and enjoyable working environment are the satisfaction they receive from doing their job, the friendly and productive relationships with colleagues in their work unit and the facilities provided for staff within Parliament House. In addition, staff were positive that harassment and discrimination were not tolerated in the DPRS workplace, and that suitable support services were available for staff. However, staff feedback from the survey also highlighted a number of concerns. The full survey report is available at appendix B.

The departmental Senior Management Team had previously given a commitment to analyse the findings and develop responses to address areas where the survey identified room for improvement. That analysis task is now complete and all staff have been advised of the actions that have been, or will be, taken as a result of their input.

Client Services Group

Both chamber and committee hours broadcast and transcribed were down slightly from last year, due mainly to changes in chamber sitting patterns and committee schedules as a result of the Olympic Games in September.

The chamber/committee balance of 37 per cent/63 per cent for the year was similar to the 40 per cent/60 per cent balance that has been consistent over the last six years. The third quarter balance of 29 per cent/71 per cent illustrated the effects of a hectic Senate Estimates period.

The single point of contact for clients, extension 2020, has been well received and very effective. This was a major change in the way DPRS worked with its clients and is a practical illustration of the importance placed on client services.

The establishment of a single client services area led to the development of detailed CSG staffing plans as a collaborative project with staff. The implementation of the plans is almost complete and should be finalised early in the new reporting year.

The introduction of the new Hansard Production System in January 2000 brought operational difficulties which, in the main, have been sorted out. It has achieved a substantial degree of stability, to the extent that a significant improvement has been possible through 2000 and 2001 in the delivery of drafts of speeches (known as 'pinks' and 'greens'), daily Proof Hansards and weekly Official Hansards.

Technical Services Group

A number of major asset replacement projects, principally telephony and network were undertaken during the year.

The successful tenderers in the telephony replacement project, Telstra/Alcatel, installed new telephony infrastructure in Parliament House over Easter 2001. This was a major task which resulted in the PABX and 4,877 handsets being replaced. Extensive preparatory work was carried out prior to the changeover including a major awareness and training program to ensure all occupants of Parliament House were ready for the new phones. Notwithstanding inevitable and, at times, highly publicised teething and familiarisation problems, the new telephony arrangements have provided, and will continue to provide, great additional functionality for the Parliament.

The Group continued the network replacement project which will provide Parliament House with a new communications network with sufficient capacity and functionality to meet future business needs. It will cater for bandwidth intensive applications such as video on demand, multimedia and telephony.

The groundwork for the Content Management project began, with technical issues papers prepared.

The Group placed high priority on improving services to clients, particularly to Senators and Members, and was able to concentrate on issues identified in the Client Satisfaction Survey.

Corporate Support

The Corporate Support Group prepared for the transfer of certain corporate services processing tasks from the Department of the Parliamentary Library (DPL) to DPRS which took place on 1 July 2001. The Group was fully extended by the negotiation and implementation of the new Certified Agreement in the first two quarters of the year.

Outlook for next financial year

The department's priority both now and in the future is the provision of high quality services to the parliament and the community.

DPRS will continue to improve the way it works by continuing to look at ways of reducing the cost of delivering services to clients without compromising quality. The department's budgetary position throughout the year was tight but good financial management ensured DPRS met its operating targets. This was due in large part to the efforts of staff in identifying areas where savings could be made while examining work practices for opportunities to improve efficiency. The coming year will present similar challenges.

In terms of improving the way DPRS works, the department will be:

• completing the implementation of the staffing plans in the Client Services Group, which will improve the working environment and provide more diverse career opportunities,
• sharing information more effectively at all levels of the department, with better performance communication, greater use of the department's intraNet, ParlCom Gateway and ParlCom Central, more opportunities for staff to contribute to strategic and technical planning and better corporate feedback about the things done well and the things that could be done better,
• raising further the standard of performance reporting, so that everyone in the department knows how well (or otherwise) the organisation is travelling and the contribution that individual work groups are making to that result, while ensuring that accountability to the Parliament is of the highest standard, and
• working as a matter of course to the Parliamentary Service Values and DPRS Values, to complete the transition to an organisation that is flexible, innovative and imaginative and which values the contributions of all staff.

In terms of projects to benefit the Parliament and the community, the principal priorities will be the continuing effective management of some major infrastructure projects including:

• the OneOffice project, which will be the new parliamentary computing platform from mid to late 2002,
• the Content Management Framework, which offers the opportunity to develop a multi-media, 'virtual document' creation, storage and access capability which will let clients make, adapt and publish 'documents' with many formats and many lives,
• the upgrade of the physical computing network to provide greater bandwidth and higher speeds to carry the increasing number of complex multi-media services which clients will request, and
• the development of a comprehensive broadcasting strategy to allow the parliament to use the opportunities of digital transmission, the Internet and other forms of broadcast technology to deliver its television and radio output to a greater audience than at present.

These are major tasks and clients and staff will be kept informed on development in each area through the quarterly reports.

The strong foundations established in 1999-2000 have, in the main, been consolidated. There will always be more to be done but DPRS can commence its second century of existence proud of its achievements and confident of its future role as a valued service provider to Australia's national parliament.