Work with Purpose | Episode #15 | 13 July 2020

UNDER PRESSURE

A shiny new leadership role in the Australian Public Serve and then … the implementation of 50 plus policy decisions by National Cabinet, 3 million phone calls in one day, the number of claims normally processed in years were being processed in days, the onboarding thousands of new staff, and the prospect of helping one million Australians who were about to lose their jobs.

In this episode we speak with Rebecca Skinner, Chief Executive Officer of Services Australia as she shares her memories of the earliest days of the COVID-19 crisis and how she prepared her team to not just cope, but thrive. She reflects on the importance of sharing the load, taking it one day at a time and always remembering that no matter how bad things looked, the sun would always rise the next morning.

Discussed in this episode:

• Managing the pressure.
• Moving services online.
• Having one point of authoritative communication.
• How to sustain the momentum.
• How Services Australia support their staff’s wellbeing.
• COVID-19 allowing the APS and Services Australia to demonstrate its mobility.

Transcript - a full transcript of the podcast is available here.
Download - to listen offline or share within your organisation, an MP3 file of the podcast is available for download here.

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