How workplace culture can lift employee engagement

Connecting with employees, seeing how their values align with the business's values, and leveraging that connection is where success happens in the best workplaces. I've seen firsthand how engaging teams can seriously boost business. In the end, when your business cares about its people, your people care about the business. But how exactly do you do this and what does it look like in practice?

It starts with values

Our values drive everyday actions, from sharing and caring to embracing accountability and connecting ideas; but you need to ensure your values are more than just words. They need to be daily practices that benefit the community, empower our team, and drive success.

By fostering open communication channels from top to bottom, across all departments, we've built a culture that reflects and values the unique experiences and passions of our team members, resulting in a vibrant and dynamic work environment.

Lift up diverse views

With our operations spanning the entire energy spectrum, catering to the needs of customers around the country, understanding the value of diverse perspectives is critical. To do this, we actively engage with our people, gathering and seeking out insights via site visits, chatting with our teams and conducting in-house training.

Let me show you how we've made it happen at Origin, with examples to fuel your own ideas. I believe this isn't just 'HR stuff'; all leaders play a part in shaping, gathering, refining, and living a culture.

The Foundation provides opportunities for employees to volunteer their time and skills

One team, One Origin approach reflected in bonus structure

Our short-term bonus plan connects employees to the business' goals and achievements. Nearly every permanent employee takes part. With targets set Origin-wide and division-focused, the bonus scheme is a 'one Origin' approach to sharing in business success. The yearly bonus can also be flexible to business unit needs with an equivalent set with targets and paid quarterly to sales staff.

Advocacy through being customer champions

Encouraging our employees to engage with our products and services is important. That's why we offer discounts for our employees, their friends, and family. Additionally, we want our employees to be empowered to represent our organisation at social gatherings, like family barbecues, So we have our ECHO program, an acronym for 'Everyone Can Help Out' is a platform for escalating queries or sales leads from friends and family, allowing employees to be helpful and impactful beyond the workplace.

Helping our employees make the switch to EVs

As part of our ambition to lead the energy transition, we're helping to make it easier for our customers and our employees to adopt Electric Vehicles (EV). This started with targets to electrify our own fleet, and grew into the launch of an EV Subscription plan where our employees can salary package an EV.

Offering employees flexibility, without long-term commitments, allows them to trial different EVs on a monthly basis (and purchase outright after three years).

Caring about our impact

Caring for our customers, communities, and the planet is fundamental, with our employees playing a pivotal role. We offer valuable support and security for our employees, even in unexpected circumstances. Additionally, our generous leave options, such as parental, cultural, and special leave, along with enhanced access to Employee Assistance Programs and peer support programs, help ensure our team's well-being and resilience.

Community support and volunteering

The Origin Energy Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Origin. It's focus, chosen by Origin employees, is to support programs that use education to help break the cycle of disadvantage and empower young people in Australia to reach their potential.

The Foundation provides opportunities for employees to volunteer their time and skills to support students and the community, whether it's offering expert assistance to non-profit organisations or leading STEM programs at schools.

Volunteering can also help drive engagement, connection amongst teams and provide a learning opportunity for our people to develop new skills and become exposed to new ways of thinking and perspectives.

We encourage our employees to support the Foundation and its partners by offering unlimited volunteer leave, making it easier to give time during business hours.

In FY24 alone our people volunteered more than 8,700 hours, reaching 7,637 students and cooking or packing 27,304 meals for people in need around the country. We also match employee donations to any registered Australian charity they choose through our Give2 program. Last financial year employees gave $372,231 to 260 charitable organisations, with all eligible donations matched by the Foundation.

Our CEO, Frank Calabria, listening to customer calls.

Always striving to find a better way

One of our core values is to improve today and innovate for the future. A great example of this is how we've pivoted the way we communicate internally, adopting more 'real time' platforms like Slack to help crowd-source ideas and resolve customer issues more quickly.

Our leaders also use a monthly engagement survey to understand how our employees are feeling and address their needs effectively. Our LinkedIn Learning subscription empowers employees to choose their learning paths individually or in teams.

Taking ownership of our decisions and actions

A staple at Origin for over a decade is our Employee Share Plan. Fostering ownership and shared accountability through investment in the company, the plan helps drive an active interest in getting energy right for our customers, communities and planet - and providing a powerful benefit for our people as well. Knowing who you are as an organisation helps you manage expectations and boundaries when it comes to what you will offer. Listening to what people are asking for helps you know your values better and embed them in your decision-making.

Know your people.
Know yourself.
Make everyone's lives easier.
And the change will feel natural.

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