The Employee Experience at Downer Group

The Employee Experience at Downer Group

Yixuan Cai

Auckland University of Technology

The Employee Experience at Downer Group

Introduction

Employee experience captures aspects associated with workers’ observations, encounters, and feelings during their employment journey. These aspects encompass employee satisfaction, engagement, and welfare, which define organisational success. Given the significance of employee experience, the purpose of this essay entails exploring the experiences employees have at Downer Group. The paper examines the human resource functions, initiatives, and programmes that this company uses to deliver these employee experiences. The five functions explored include career development, performance management, remuneration and rewards, health and safety, stress management, and wellbeing, and diversity management. Thus, this essay will be exploring employee experience at Downer using these five HR concepts. True employee experiences reflect the new organisational landscape in which the HR engages in the experience economy through its employee-centric HR functions to appeal to employees’ emotional, aspirational, intellectual, and physical needs.

Organisational Context

Downer Group is an incorporated firm that provides integrated services in New Zealand and Australia. Headquartered in Sydney, this corporation specialises in designing, building, and sustaining infrastructure, assets, and facilities (Downer Group, 2020). The integrated services offered include asset management, earthworks, roading logistics and supplies, civil construction, maintenance, electrification, rail track, and surfacing and stabilisation (Downer Group, 2015; Downer Group, 2016). Downer Group’s mission reflects its commitment to creating robust relationships with its employees and clients as reflected in the company motto “relationships creating success” (Downer Group, 2016).

The corporation has its primary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and its secondary listing on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX), listed as Downer EDI Limited (DOW) (Downer Group 2015; Downer Group, 2020). The firm’s employee profile has expanded from 19,000 workers in 2015 to over 53,000 people currently, employed in more than 300 sites (increased from 200 sites in 2015) principally in these two countries. It has fewer sites in South America, Asia-Pacific region, and Southern Africa (Downer Group 2015; Downer Group, 2020).

Application of Human Resource Functions

Researchers have acknowledged the growing role of human resource functions in enriching employee experience. Plaskoff (2017) establishes that the customary HRM approach can be reframed to befit contemporary workplaces and facilitate employee empowerment, satisfaction, engagement, and commitment that culminates in better experiences. HR managers can be repositioned as employee experience advocates and designers where their roles can be integrated to realize positive impacts when addressing employees’ needs (Mahadevan & Schmitz, 2020). HR managers’ support, recognition, the fairness of treating employee, and feedback enable positive employee experiences by augmenting workers’ job satisfaction and workplace engagement (Paderna et al., 2020). Downer Group’s employee base is broad and continually growing, necessitating the deployment of five HR functions to offer excellent employee experiences.

Career Development

Downer’s career development programmes enhance employee experience in three ways as Gyansah and Guantai (2018) suggest. Firstly, they boost workers’ motivation, engagement, and commitment to their job tasks, influencing their job satisfaction positively and directly (Kaya & Ceylan, 2014). Secondly, career advancement opportunities, Downer’s HR support, and flexible work arrangements (consistent with the Employment Relations Act (2000)) allow workers to attain healthy work-life balance and career-life transitions while establishing their career priorities and maintaining career plans (Harrington, 2018). Thirdly, career development initiatives ensure the alignment between Downer’s organisational needs and workers’ interests, values, and skills. Downer offers several career support programmes and learning and development initiatives. Examples are Zero Harm and compliance programme, induction, leadership, and mentoring programmes, project management initiatives, and apprenticeship and talent development schemes (Downer Group, 2020). Through these programmes, employees obtain ongoing professional development essential in ensuring that Downer’s employees and their skills grow with the firm’s business. In designing these career advancement programmes, Downer focuses on maximising customer value and service quality (Downer Group, 2020). Other benefits for Downer’s employees from career development initiatives include self-discovery, skill enhancement, strategic identification of industry opportunities and trends, better job change navigation, access to professional networks, and self-marketing.

Performance Management

At Downer, agile performance management activities influence employee experiences by having a direct bearing on employees’ engagement levels (Ricci, 2016). Performance management improve employee work engagement and perceived efficacy of Downer’s performance management systems (Paderna et al., 2020; Ricci, 2016). Dorsey and Mueller-Hanson (2017) further mention that performance management activities drive individual employee performance, morale, and engagement. Performance reviews assist in augmenting employee cooperation and participation at Downer (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017). Performance management also enables employee empowerment and teamwork building, thereby stimulating engagement (Harrington, 2018; Mahadevan & Schmitz, 2020). Performance management, continuous employee learning, capacity building, and support constitute good practices in employee training for career development (Paderna et al., 2020). Downer bases its performance management on a framework that offers a more simplified and streamlined approach to performance management. This framework emerged when Downer redesigned its initial performance and development framework to make it more effective in talent development and retention. So, the current performance management framework entails using outputs to focus on developing, accelerating, and retaining high-potential employees while ensuring gender diversity in talent development (Downer Group, 2016). Performance management enhances workforce flexibility and capability building at Downer, stimulates employee motivation and commitment, and eliminates performance barriers.

Remuneration and Rewards

Comprehensive remuneration, recognition, and rewards at Downer enhance employee experience by powering their motivation and commitment while ensuring greater employee retention (Togher, 2016). Remuneration and rewards packages are vital in inspiring employees, attracting and retaining talent, and building robust employee-organization relationships (Ricci, 2016). Besides regular monetary compensation, total rewards, encompassing tangible and nontangible financial and non-financial benefits, create a motivating work environment (Heneman & Coyne, 2007). Total rewards also cover work-life balance, welfare, career development, and performance, which affect employee motivation directly (Riaz, Akhtar, & Aslam, 2018). The non-financial rewards package include healthy working conditions, professional growth opportunities, and incentives (special perks for good work) while financial benefits include paid vacations and health insurance (Togher, 2016). Downer’s employee benefits package is sufficient as it includes financial benefits, professional development perks, health and wellbeing rewards, and lifestyle benefits (Downer Group, 2020). Professional development benefits include training programmes, secondment opportunities, study assistance, and mentoring social engagements. The financial benefits include salary sacrifice superannuation, paid leave entitlements, and banking discounts. The health and wellbeing benefits include flexitime, employee assistance programme, health checkup programmes, and health insurance. The lifestyle benefits are discounted vehicle rentals, technology product discounts, and cashback packages (Downer Group, 2020).

Health and Safety, Stress Management, and Wellbeing

Providing occupational health and safety consistent with the Health and Safety at Work Act (2015), guaranteeing wellbeing, and managing stress enhance Downer’s employee experience in some ways (Jonathan & Mbogo, 2016). Firstly, health and safety initiatives protect employees from health, welfare, and safety risks and hazards (Worksafe New Zealand, 2017). Secondly, stress management facilitates Downer’s company culture, betters talent acquisition and retention, and minimizes the health consequences of work-related stress (Foy, 2015). It also increases productivity, lessens absenteeism and job burnout, and reduces medical insurance burdens (O’Keefe, Brown, & Christian, 2014). Thirdly, occupational health and safety and stress management guarantee mental health stability, augment motivation and morale, and improve employee relationships at Downer, increasing satisfaction, participation, and engagement (Weinberg et al., 2010). Downer offers some health, safety, and wellbeing packages. CEO Steve Killeen reveals that the company approaches employees’ mental health and wellbeing positively as an opportunity, not an obligation (Zero Harm Workplaces, 2019). Also, Killeen has implemented a mental health and wellbeing programme that incorporates several initiatives. These include mental health first-aid training, domestic violence-related assistance, wellbeing championing and mentoring, engagement surveys, literacy training, and employee assistance programmes, aimed at meeting different employee needs (Zero Harm Workplaces, 2019).

Diversity Management

At Downer, diversity management promotes positive employee experiences in several ways alluded by Inegbedion et al. (2020). Firstly, diversity and inclusion create a work environment characterized by greater cultural representation, enhancing employee performance and productivity. Secondly, diversity stimulates innovation and creativity, increasing Downer’s employee engagement and work satisfaction (Zhou & Hoever, 2014). Further, better diversity management enhances talent attraction driven by bringing together individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and nationalities. Lastly, diversity management eliminates systemic workplace discrimination against employees at Downer consistent with the Human Rights Act (1993) (Jacob, Watene, & McKerchar, 2017). Downer Group has established some diversity management initiatives to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace characterized by equal opportunity and respect (Downer Group, 2020). The company ensures active and ongoing cultural and gender inclusiveness via initiatives that lessen the gap between non-indigenous and indigenous communities. Such programmes include the Aboriginal participation programme for training local Aboriginal employees, Downer’s Māori leadership programme that offers opportunities for leadership mentoring, networking, and cooperation, and the female participation initiative (Downer Group, 2020). Some benefits to Downer employees of diversity management include improved motivation, productivity, imaginativeness, cultural insight, and engagement.

Conclusion

This essay has established that Downer Group’s human resource management plays a vital role in using its various functions to ensure positive employee experiences. Through the function of career development, Downer boosts its employees’ motivation, engagement, and commitment, provides flexible work arrangements and ensures alignment between organisational needs and their interests and skills. Through performance management, the company increases employee morale, empowerment, cooperativeness, participation, and overall performance, stimulating higher employee engagement. The company leverages its remuneration and rewards system to inspire employee commitment and motivation while ensuring better talent attraction and retention. Through the function of health and safety, stress management, and employee wellbeing, Downer eliminates health risks and their associated ramifications for employees, ensures that workers attain a healthy work-life balance and better career transitions, and progresses talent acquisition and retention. This increases their motivation and morale while improving their relationships, culminating in increased job satisfaction, engagement, and participation. The function of diversity management allows the firm to improve employee performance and productivity, ensure better cultural representation, cultivate innovation and creativity, and eliminate discrimination. Increased engagement, talent retention, job satisfaction, participation, and other collective outcomes of the five human resource functions lead to positive employee experiences at Downer.

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