Page 2822 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2018

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There is also a new workforce strategy under development which will include details of the workforce accountabilities and responsibilities in safety, quality and risk. There has been targeted education to ensure staff are aware of their roles in this new environment.

Again I would like to thank very much ACT Health for their tremendous work on behalf of the ACT community and the commitment that they have to delivering high quality health care to our community every day. I commend the health expenditure in the 2018-19 ACT budget to the Assembly.

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (11.16): In October 2014 the US-based entrepreneurship and business organisation Inc.com published an article about the brains behind the success that is Virgin, Sir Richard Branson. The article said:

Richard Branson was able to build Virgin into a global powerhouse by focusing on two key words: customer service.

But the piece went on to say that, in fact, it is employees that are Sir Richard Branson’s top priority, not customers. The article notes:

That may sound counter to decades-old business wisdom, but it has worked so well for Virgin that Branson says he’s surprised more companies haven’t adopted an employee-centric management strategy.

He says:

“It should go without saying, if the person who works at your company is 100 percent proud of the brand and you give them the tools to do a good job and they are treated well, they’re going to be happy” … As Branson sees it, the formula is very simple: Happy employees equal happy customers.

Sir Richard Branson says:

Effectively, in the end shareholders do well, the customers do better, and your staff remains happy.

You might say that the ACT health system does not have shareholders, but it does have taxpayers. You might say that the ACT health system does not have customers, but it does have patients, as well as families and friends, who have a stake in it. And of course ACT Health does have staff. The Minister for Health and Wellbeing goes to regular and great pains to remind us that there are 7,000 people working in ACT Health. So the analogy is compelling. It can be summed up in the quote from Sir Richard Branson:

There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.

This is not a new notion. Two thousand years ago Jesus of Nazareth was quoted in the Gospel of Mark as saying that there are two great commandments and the second of them is to “love thy neighbour as thyself”. Your staff are as much your neighbour as the people who live next door to you.


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