Imagining our Future

In the past fortnight, I have been on the road facilitating workshops with each team around our footprint, exploring our team’s ideas for how The Personnel Group’s service should evolve in the next few years. It is a wonderful experience to hear such diversity of ideas from people genuinely invested in seeing us grow.

All workshops have had a central focus on a paradigm shift that we are embracing – that we must shift away from being driven by the guidelines and limitations of the programs we offer, and instead put our customers and our purpose at the centre of everything we do.  We must design solutions, services, and products that solve problems for our customers, not just deliver programs.  This might mean doing new things, and adding or creating new services as the needs of our customers evolve.

This is all easier said than done.  Like all not-for-profit organisations, we are reliant on being funded for our work, and we need to ensure we are financially stable, in order to maintain the services we offer.  But this paradigm shift forces us to innovate and create new ways to fund the important work we do.

It is also enormously freeing.  It allows us to consider initiatives or ideas that are limited by program guidelines.  For example – It has long been a frustration of mine, that people come to our service wanting support, but are defined as ‘ineligible’ by external assessment. People we know we can help, are effectively turned away, because of limitations in the program.  I want to further explore what services could be offered to people that sit outside these eligibilities.

Part of the workshops involved team members talking about problems their customers are experiencing, that currently are not being solved.  As a predominantly regional provider – the most common barriers are access related.  Access to services like public transport, licencing, training, medical services, and capacity building services.  There are often quality services in the areas we operate, but it is sometimes very hard to gain access.  This has prompted lots of discussion about what role we can play in solving this.

My most defining takeaway from the workshops is the passion of our people for the impact of their work.  I have heard countless stories about lives changed, people empowered, and communities benefitted.  It is an exciting time to be working in this business.