Flexible working arrangements, including eight or nine-day fortnights, provide the workforce with the opportunity to balance their lifestyle and demands of their job. In the Staff Feedback Survey 2007, 76.9 per cent of respondents agreed that their manager supports them to balance their work and home life demands.

Workforce Planning

While the workforce at Hydro Tasmania is of a high standard, Hydro Tasmania is affected by skills shortages for telecommunications; hydrologists; power, dam and electrical engineers; technical officers; project managers; electrical and mechanical fitters; maintenance fitters and business analysts. If left unaddressed this could potentially impact the ability of the business to operate effectively.

Hydro Tasmania has responded to these shortages by streamlining the workforce planning process during the 2006/07 year for a more effective review of existing skills and gaps and planning for future skill requirements, as well as promoting Hydro Tasmania as an employer to education providers and bodies and providing engineering scholarships, vacation placements and the Graduate Program.

Succession planning is addressed by senior managers in an annual workshop to identify high risk roles and high potential individuals. These individuals are then invited to discuss development plans that prepare them for transition to more senior roles.

Training
The average expenditure on training and development per full-time employee for the reporting year was $2161. Development plans are agreed between individual employees and their manager to enhance the skills and capabilities that align with business objectives.

Table 14 Key Training and Development offered in 2006/07