DEVELOPMENT OF A CAPABILITY FRAMEWORK FOR THE HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING SECTORS IN NSW

PRESENTATION 16 MAY

KATHERINE MCKERNAN, LUCIA

GIUFFRE, ROSALIE FLYNN

PURPOSE OF THE SESSION

Introduce the Community Sector Workforce Capability Framework

• content

• structure

• possible uses

Explain the pilot of the Capability Framework

• Presentation by two pilot organisations

2

WHY DO WE NEED A CAPABILITY FRAMEWORK?

• Complexity of client needs and contexts

• Problems finding people with right skills for the work

• Problems with retaining skilled staff

• Career progression / pathways

• Lack of recognition of skills and their transferability

• Ad hoc training

• Multiple qualifications, awards and pay levels

• Smaller organisations without dedicated HR practitioners or infrastructure resourcing

......but lots of examples of brilliant and innovative work, commitment and optimism

3

WHAT IS A CAPABILITY FRAMEWORK?

• Capability Frameworks describe the skills and behavioursthat people will demonstrate if they are doing high quality work

• Cover a range of job roles and/or work contexts

• Used to assist with:

• job design

• recruitment and selection

• self assessment

• performance appraisal

• learning and development (TNA)

• other HR functions

4

• Cards for recruitment and

job design

• Excel

• Photocopies and highlighter

pens

• Survey monkey

FRAMEWORK STRUCTURE

• 4 tiers or groupings of the workforce

• Capabilities that describe behaviours for that tier

• 9 streams for capabilities

• Descriptors to explain the streams

• Personal attributes (no levels)

• Option to provide further detail, and contextualization to

suit the needs of the organisations

• Available in Word etc, can add own brand, language, links to practice

manuals etc.

5

TIERS6Level

4 Leadership(e.g. CEO, Executives, Directors, Regional Manager, Area Manager)

3 Manager, Supervisor and Lead Practitioner(e.g. Manager Clinical Services, Manager Client Services, Manager

Operations, Manager Finance, Manager HR, Manager Risk, District

Manager, Communications Manager, Cluster Manager)

2 Advanced Practitioner(e.g. Team Leader, Practice Manager, Program Coordinator)

1 Practitioner(e.g. Intake Worker, Support Worker, Case Manager, Case Worker,

Housing Officer, Receptionist, Frontline Worker)

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Describe qualities expected of people in this sector

• Emphasis on particular qualities will vary depending on organisational focus and the job role

• No levels

• Can be modified or added to

7

14 PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Creative and innovative

• Determined

• Positive

• Self disciplined

• Analytical

• Flexible

• Resilient

• Client/member focused

• Culturally aware

• Honest

• Inclusive

• Ethical

• Collaborative

• Supportive

8

Note: The project is reviewing these and some will be merged

THE STREAMS9

1 Community and inter-agency relations

2 Professionalism

3 Communication

4 Leadership and teamwork

5 Resources, assets and sustainability

6 Service delivery

7 Program management and policy development

8 Change and responsiveness

9 Governance and compliance

CAPABILITIES

• Have levels

• ‘Generically’ describe tasks

• Can be contextualised

• 5 descriptors for each stream, so 45

capabilities to select from for each

level or total of 180 capabilities

10

TIER 1 – SUMMARY FOR THAT LEVEL

11

TIER 3 EXAMPLE

12

IMPLEMENTATION – PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK USING EXCEL…OR SURVEY MONKEY

13

• Can aggregate and compare

data for teams and areas, or

benchmark to consider change

• Can aggregate with other

agencies to purchase training

• Can get feedback from

customers / clients /

stakeholders

Can also use the capabilities in

HR software

HOW PEOPLE ARE USING IT

• Revamping job descriptions

• Performance appraisals/capability mapping

• Staff development

• Training needs assessment

• Stakeholder feedback for CEO

• Improving interview and selection processes

• Understand the capabilities required at that tier

• Career planning

14

LEARNING NEEDS AND PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

• Simple: copy and highlight areas of strength and

for development

• Excel spreadsheet, for numeric data / metrics

• Survey monkey

• Examples in the toolkit

Aggregated data will help you to plan learning and

development approaches. It also gives you an evidence base

for funding workforce development.

15

THE FRAMEWORK IN SUMMARY…

• Not mandatory

• Can adapt to suit your organisation; language and

terminology

• Covers a broad workforce and many different occupations

and organisations of different sizes and missions

• Generic

• Particularly useful to smaller organisations that do not have

a dedicated human resource team

16

THE PILOT PROJECT

Byamee/Moree Area Homelessness Services

Samaritans

Mission Australia

The Family Centre

Platform Youth Services

Coast Shelter

17

PLATFORM YOUTH SERVICES

Introducing Emma Jordan

Manager

18

▪ Identified framework would benefit Platforms appraisal

practices.

▪ Current appraisal system had been identified as stagnant- no

longer met staff needs in identifying development and career

goals.

▪ Trial of the framework with Management Tier (CEO, Managers

and Team Leaders).

▪ The 4 tiers of the framework suit Platform current structure

and positions, with minimal to no changes needed.

▪ We used both the excel self-

assessment tool and cards.

▪ Workers completed the self-

assessment as truthfully as

possible. Rating themselves against

the capability and personal

attributes.

▪ Their direct supervisor also

completed a rating for the worker.

▪ Together the supervisor and

worker discuss and identify areas

for future development and

training.

After completing the self-

assessments staff have been able to

develop Training and Development

plans that can be directly linked back

through to the strategic directions of

the organisation as well as enhancing

service delivery through increased

skills and clearer roles and

responsibility definition at all levels of

staff.

We will be now implementing the

framework throughout the rest of

the service. Team Leaders will be

trained up, to implement this with

the teams.

Key points:

• We found workers and supervisors rated consistently and

there was little difference,

• Supervisors identified as needing training or increased skills.

• Identified that it will support career succession

• Looking at personal attributes, we found that staff generally

identified different attributes as their strengths, vs what they

felt were important to their role, which was in all case an

opportunity to also discuss career skill development.