Ep 30 - Claire Planinsek & Kelly Populin - Pt1 Australia Post's TA Dream Team.

In this week's episode, Lauren and Craig speak with the insightful pair of Claire Planinsek (Head of Talent Acquisition) & Kelly Populin (Senior Talent Acquisition Manager, Branding, Diversity, Early Careers & Campaigns) from Australia Post
Some of the initiatives these guys are doing are amazing! So amazing we needed 2 episodes!
Please have a listen

Transcript

spk_0:   0:00
support for this podcast is provided by Alchemy Interactive. The next generation in one way, digital video interviewing. See your candidate's Ida I before you meet them face to face. I like that line like that. Life could be interactive. Enables you to promote your employment brand in the candidate market, ensuring candidates remember you your culture and diversity Positively impact your screening efforts with a direct roo i by contacting alchemy today, visit alchemy dot com. That's a l C am dot com. We help you pinpoint top talent faster.

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Welcome to top Odd podcast for everything. Talent acquisition. We're informative, controversial and a little bit crazy. Now please join your hosts and industry leaders Lauren Shop and Craig Watson.

spk_0:   0:58
Hi, everyone. Welcome to top part. I'm Craig and I'm Lauren. Welcome back, listeners. Today we are very, very lucky. We've got the lovely ladies from Australia Post joining us. Clear Plan is sick and Kelly popular Welcome ladies down. Claire is the head of talent acquisition over at Australia Pose. And Kelly is a senior town acquisition manager. Branding and diversity. I was well, throw that into your extra long title there, ladies and welcome. Welcome for joining us today. Thanks for having us. So we thought we'd get you guys on board. Because you do high are quite a few people in one year, don't you? Each year. Bloody big company. Yes, we do. We do about 12

spk_3:   1:44
1000 hires a year, and probably about 35% of that is internal. My ability.

spk_0:   1:49
That's huge for internal mobility. That's a great percentage. Yes. How on earth do you achieve that? I'm sorry. I got this big shocked look on my face. Everyone. I guess we advertise

spk_3:   2:02
all of our roles internally. And so people have an opportunity and for our frontline positions there advertise first internally before we go to the external market.

spk_0:   2:12
Okay. All right. So that's a full on company policy here. We advertise everything internally before we go external. Well, that's a very, very simple solution to a big problem that a lot of people have. Isn't it way before we get into the Australia Post and everything telling acquisition, their deal? Should we find out a little bit about the lady? Oh, I did. Go ahead. We're interested. So everybody who comes on we like to understand their journey into talent acquisition so and we've got two guests today, so why don't we start? Was that with Kelly Kelly looking on, Linked in you so started in legal support before I did. So want to take us back to that and then what you've done, See, it's really I was

spk_1:   2:56
working in a war firm with the view that I would complete my law degree and then become a lawyer on. Then I realised that I didn't

spk_0:   3:03
want to end up like some people I was working for on Got an Opportunity to

spk_1:   3:08
Work in hr, which was great. And that was in the great space on. Then you made a decision that that was where I wanted to bay and recruitment was the thing for May and went into agency from there, but still supporting the legal industry. So that's kind of where the journey started. On dating agency for a number of years for the same employer. And I loved it. And I had a great

spk_0:   3:31
role. Was manpower not not the male revue show, not the male revue show. So many things i e was always an interesting conversation. Talking Teo

spk_1:   3:47
definitely unrelated. No, I worked across our Pio so project are pure specifically and with a heavy focus on diversity.

spk_0:   3:55
Clear. How about your background

spk_3:   3:57
S o? I've got a guest, An eclectic background. I started my career in child protection when, Yes, very, very different. And then after being a manager in that space and supporting, I ran a number of family support programmes and wanted to test. I guess my leadership skills in another environment. And at the time, the Commonwealth Games was only Melbourne. And so I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring and see how which event e love on DH. Surprisingly, I actually got a job as second in charge of Rod Laver Arena Commonwealth Games, which really surprised me, but it was a great opportunity. It was a one year position and Hudson are po. We're doing the recruitment for calm games and so that's how it ended out in recruitment. So one of the general managers at the time was volunteering with us during that Commonwealth Games and we got along really well so far. I knew it. I ended out working at Hudson in agency recruitment and with Hudson transferred from agency into our Pio on DH, helped with set up of Macquarie Bank Carpio and then transition across to Johnson and Johnson and then decided to move back to Melbourne. And let's

spk_0:   5:21
have entered an industry post. Now can I go back to the real topic going not I'm just curious. I've got so many things I've been dying to get you do on for ages radio back to that lovely, big percentage that we were talking about. So how long have you had this policy of advertising for in house before going to market. It's probably

spk_3:   5:42
been a long standing policy. S o. The programme is called Post People first and it has been around, I'd say for at least half a dozen years before actually started at post on DH. It's something that works effectively. It is valued. And so we actually have a dedicated internal team just for internal recruitment.

spk_0:   6:01
Really? A whole team. Well,

spk_3:   6:03
you know, we're talking about 4000 facilitating for 1000 hires a year. So yes, it

spk_0:   6:08
takes that Actually, that's actually interesting, because when it comes back Teo a topic We spoke to Adam about last week, where he was talking about redeployment versus redundancy in the bottom line on how to make things more profitable. So with that in mind, how is that affecting your bottom line? And how does that help you guys out straight Post. In what

spk_3:   6:26
way do you mean in terms of the fact that we are moving people internally,

spk_0:   6:30
moving in around instead of getting into redundancies? Eyes that winning your favours with the decision makers? We ought to have more spending recruitment and recruitment, marketing those types of things. Is it giving you all the great ticks in the boxes?

spk_3:   6:43
Look, you know the way budgets were cut post is pretty flat year on year, and it's more around what you prioritise within your own budget to focus on for the year as opposed Tio. We're GBS oh, not flush with money. So it's not like you kind of want to do this amazing thing, and there's a whole lot of funds there to do it. It's got a budget, and you decide what are the priorities for that year,

spk_0:   7:06
Okay, and does it come with some other challenges? So with internal mobility, with the back filling of other roles from where they came or a lot of those roles winding down How does that sort of work? Generally?

spk_3:   7:18
No, it's not rolls winding down. And so yes, then creates a flow on effect. And so hence we try toe have a speedy and internal process is possible because we know it will have downstream impacts

spk_0:   7:31
with others and do all the internal hiring manage. Managers support the policies of their losing someone from their team to go into another team. Is it generally received a k A. Not a bad number Now, As I said earlier, I've been trying to get you ladies on board for a while now. So Australia Post Peaks programme, also known as your Christmas Casuals. That is what really well picked my interest with so many people you hire every single year. So what is? The volume is a 12,000 highest per use across the board, eh? So how many of that is the Christmas casual programme?

spk_3:   8:08
It's about 2 to 2 and 1/2 1000 each year, and particularly the last few years. Earlier on, it was lower numbers. In the last few years, it sits between two and two and 1/2.

spk_1:   8:17
It's quadrupled in the last six years, really come up

spk_0:   8:21
and does that fall within your remit? Kelly campaigns.

spk_1:   8:23
Yes, it does. Yes. Campaign. We were. Yeah. Yeah.

spk_0:   8:28
All right. Well, tell us the whole ins and outs of this house. What time of year? You start when you ramp up All of all of the bits. I mean, I'm sorry. And what roles are they too?

spk_1:   8:38
So they're largely processing rolls. So people working in our facility not

spk_0:   8:44
a job, because Santa Friends of family referral campaign. So we wait, Yes. So So for the

spk_1:   8:55
business, I mean, Peak is really, really starts around October and runs through January. But for us, Intel on acquisition, we start way go to market in July, and we probably start focusing on, you know, kick starting the campaign in around April kind of feels weird because it's not a

spk_0:   9:12
top cross bun season in April. Yeah, I know. Fun season starts in 26 way. Call it

spk_1:   9:22
a Christmas candle campaign, but actually the effort that it takes toe pull it together and all of the activity that needs to happen to wrap it up. It's almost an annual programme. It's pretty big. We convert around 20% of the people that we bring into Christmas casual roles in the first place. So it's actually a massive talent pool for our external hiring as well.

spk_0:   9:43
So starting that early in the peace, if anyone needs to do a ramp up or are thinking of doing something like this, where would they begin?

spk_1:   9:50
We're hiring Manager Begin. So we've got a pretty robust forecasting process, and it has been developed over a number of years now. So originally it was hiring managers coming to us with numbers and emails. Not great when you're managing 250 hiring managers, so we developed our forecasting tool for them to use on. We probably start that process in around May so the business do forecasting around. Then we've encouraged it around, then for peak period. And really, we're wrapping that up by mid June, casting process so back and forth with the business to understand what their requirements air going to bay.

spk_3:   10:28
So that's kind of the detail around what facilities, what role, what ships? So you know, we can actually talk to candidates Puglia about being available at those times.

spk_0:   10:38
Do use any third party talent pulling management tools.

spk_3:   10:42
It zoo, and it is 100% of friends and family referral campaign. And it has been like that since it was set up in 2012. And it's usually successful,

spk_0:   10:53
and you have many people who repeat like Comeback zero

spk_1:   10:56
Esso. Each year we go through a process of going going out to the people that have worked for us, previously based based on assure all of those things and invite them back first. And so we probably get about 20 to 25% people coming back. And we've had probably about 10% of those people have been back for the last three or four years. That is

spk_3:   11:14
good. And to give you some context this year we had over 20,000 applications,

spk_0:   11:19
42,000 applications. And that's just from internal referrals. Absolutely bloody hell, that's a good programme. Thes air Coming through a federal programme from people already in the business, 21,000 applied and you hired 3000 rid. So you've got $17,000 who are unsuccessful. How do you manage that? Given that they've come from a referring how do you How do you manage the communication or the rejection?

spk_1:   11:47
Very closely. So you know, these loved ones of people working in our organisation. So I guess there's a little extra TLC in through the recruitment process and also the messaging. You know, when it comes to people not making it through. But we do make every effort to communicate with them quickly. And, you know, as you can appreciate, we're a team of five. There's 55 people managing 20,000 applications. It's very significant numbers. The

spk_0:   12:16
numbers are what Stu we

spk_3:   12:19
use pager. But we also introduced an online merit based assessment tool, which has helped as well. Instead of the team having to do a lot of phone screening like they've had to do in previous years. We now use an online assessment tool, so they're really just talking to the people that meet the inherent requirements of the role. And so it's much more now of an engagement call as opposed to a screening out call.

spk_0:   12:42
Okay, so the old 20,000 people of these going through this engagement tool

spk_3:   12:46
so there's an application and depends on your application, whether you're eligible or not. So, for example, if you're not available enough days of the week to do the casual work, then that might eliminate you if you don't have Australian work rights. So those sort of obvious things I mean people that not not suitable. And anyone who is suitable based on the application questions then gets invited to do the online assessment.

spk_0:   13:13
So online assessment. Are we talking a a question here we're talking video. What sort of talk to using? Okay, tell Italy Tex Tech works.

spk_1:   13:24
So we implemented ver vos vos, a tool that we're using. Yes, it will be implemented versus actually really a little bit scary, actually implementing a new technology into such a large campaign on. We were kind of going to be the guinea pigs for it this year across THA, but it's been highly successful. So yes, it's a combination since its merit based it's based on company confidence is key skills that we're looking to assess on DH. It's a combination ofthe written response on video interview as well.

spk_0:   13:55
What percentage off your 20,000 wouldn't even make it that far, ruling themselves out for different like probably 50%. Okay, because the reality

spk_3:   14:04
is you need to be fairly available on nights, casual room, but it's not like you can go. I can only work Tuesday afternoons that we actually need. So in, I think was December alone. We processed 50 million parcels across Australia. So when we talk about the peak campaign, this is not just a talent acquisition. Think this is really important to the entire organisation and to the nation as well, Because he wants to get their Christmas presents and online shopping Prodi Peak being an Australia post programme as well as our campaign. Intel on acquisition, I guess, has high visibility in the organisation because we need to get it right for the Australian community and it is a lot of it is a lot of parcels that we process and you know, some days we would process, I think, had 14 days where we processed over to me and parcels and we had a number of days. We were processed over three million parcels. Hence, you can't have casual kind of opting in and out like way based on forecasting parcel volumes is how they determine what casuals air actually needed. So usually when we say casual were actually needing someone to be available five days a week and then from there, you know their shifts will be sort of out.

spk_0:   15:15
So with it's also being running this campaign every year, pretty much all year round. Really? So you've got a lot of branding and a lot of recruitment. Brandon coming through in new programmes and in your campaigns. So is marketing onboard with you guys or do you have your own dedicated marketing team within recruitment

spk_1:   15:35
and ta Yes, I actually hit up their employees branding team.

spk_0:   15:39
Also your marketing as well. It's right through working with Yoo Hee will

spk_1:   15:47
make sense to be together, though they do a great job.

spk_0:   15:50
Yeah, it talked about how you're running, branding and marketing in the function for So this is great because we all sit back on money for Brandon. I want money in ta for marketing and so many don't get it. So we all know at the same theatre 100 seems to be a topic Or how do we do things with not much money? S o talk to us about that. How do you target your branding and target your marketing within the function? I guess we're

spk_1:   16:21
really lucky that Australia process such a strong brand in the market in the community. So everyone's kind of a customer. They know who we are, so we don't have really too much of a challenge with attracting people. To be honest, it's more around and we've got an offering in the market that you can't. I can't get anywhere else in Australia. You can't be a post you for any any other organisation, Australia. So that's that's huge for us and so that really plays really well for us where we're probably Mohr challenged from Amar from an attraction perspective is probably around some of our internal functions, perhaps in technology or digital, where were probably less known for that in the market. On DSO. Yeah, we do have to get creative because, like Claire mentioned, you know we get a budget, it's flat every year on and you know we need to prioritise things. So I guess how do we manage that? It sze just about a constant review or review of what we've got, what we've got coming up, working really closely with business to understand what they need on what's going to be priority for the next court are six months and I'm going.

spk_3:   17:27
I think We've both been at the organisation for two and 1/2 years now and we've got really good at forecasting what we need to do coming here and therefore when its budget time. We've got our forecast ready and we know what's going on. But of course things happen in the organisation in the team that are unexpected and so that's where we just review the budget and kind of go. Okay, we're having we spend money and how can we reallocate that Teo, whether it's a campaign or something else, that we weren't expecting to meet Teo after three budgets because you kind of get used to knowing what you

spk_0:   18:03
need. Teo. So the other thing that really attracted me to your website when I was doing a bit of research was your self imposed diversity target Self imposed. Oh, I want to know more about this. Self imposed because we thrive on diversity is one of your tag lines on the website, which is actually really, really good, especially when you go beyond the tagline talking about indigenous recruitment and programmes. It's actually really, really well worth looking at, so I'm thinking, Wow, this is great, You guys got a handle on this. So talk to me about your self imposed diversity targets across the getting more women involved in different areas and more so about indigenous programmes

spk_1:   18:49
campaigns. That's that's definitely self imposed. We've made a commitment, Teo the board that we would increase female representation in our organisation as well as First Nations people and

spk_3:   19:06
and then are we First nation is to get to population parody.

spk_0:   19:09
And that's right. Pretty close back to the female side of things. What percentage you aiming for? Is it just a general number across?

spk_3:   19:21
You know, we actually do have a target and it is to increase the percentage that we've got, you know? So we have about 37% females in our organisation and contextually, the largest part of our organisation is an operational styles business. So if you compare that to other like organisations way do have a good female representation. But you know, a long term goal is to represent the communities that we live in. So, you know, we've got a long term strategy that we're looking at in terms of increasing for representation. But, you know, we're quite pleased with the progress We're making with First Nation and you know that that will be the 1st 1 we heed in terms of population

spk_0:   20:02
parent, that's fantastic. So how have you marketed your diversity programme into First Nations? There's

spk_1:   20:08
been a number of things. I mean, we've already got a really well established internal support for First Nations employees, which is led by the diversity and engagement team. So I guess our peers in people and culture and, you know, they've done an incredible job of developing out different programmes for people not just network, but also develop their careers into. So we've got a leadership programme, a number of cadet and apprenticeship programmes. I guess that's easy things to take to the market. To say This's how we're going to support support you in your journey at post. Okay? And then, of course, you know, from a talent acquisition perspective, we genuinely welcome applications for from everywhere. And you know, whilst First Nations is really key for us, you know this year and it will be ongoing. ITT's not going to be something that goes away. We're doing it for the right reasons. Not because it's just target.

spk_0:   20:59
Absolutely. And you know, we also

spk_3:   21:01
do. It's not always about going to the external market. It's also leveraging that network we have within the organisation. So one of the things that we've partnered with diversity team on is when a First Nations employee commences within our organisation that they reach out to them with a welcome pack and we've given them referral details in there, how they can really simply just email us with the contact details of someone someone in their network that might be interested in joining the organisation will reach out proactively. So it's not kind of like, well, he's a job in a Lincoln. You've got to apply, you know, we try to make it a Z Z experience is possible.

spk_1:   21:37
I think about 20% of the highest this year have been from internal referrals.

spk_0:   21:42
That's really high. That's fantastic, becoming poster Children for good numbers. Well, you know

spk_3:   21:49
when you've got big numbers, though we're an organisation with a lot of employees. You do a lot of high as I think it kind of sounds sounds good compared to organisations that hire 1000 people and you know, when you do have 12,000 hires a year, you actually get to do some interesting pilots and they're still on a scale, so you might just choose a location and do a pilot. But it might be 40 hires or 500 hires, and then you could scale that out from there. So where's in organisation of 1000? When you're trying to do something different, it might be well to hires on. If it doesn't work, then that's ZOLL shuts it down. Whereas with us, if we're doing something where it's 40 hires and it's 80% successful, then you just tweak the 20% and you can roll it out further. So I think when you work in a high volume space, you have a lot more opportunity to try different things and then scale it up.

spk_0:   22:41
Today's podcast was brought to you by the good people at alchemy. Alchemy is on demand. Digital interviewing application connects jobseekers directly with your company. See your candidates either I before you meet them face to face and to get your demo, visit alchemy dot com. That's a L C am i dot com. We help you pinpoint top talent faster and Tellem tarp Odd sent you.

spk_2:   23:06
Thanks for listening to tar pod. Please don't forget to subscribe and look out for upcoming podcasts going

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It is gone. Scared? I'm not scared. I don't think I'm shit their pants.