Jane Woodland

Career Details:

Jane joined Merit Solutions in 2008 after 28 years in a variety of Australian Government agencies managing service delivery as well as undertaking senior human resource management and project management roles. Specifically, her last four years in the Taxation Office included roles as Assistant Director, Organisation Development and Project Manager in the Workforce Strategy and Management Unit. Jane has managed client service delivery offices for the Commonwealth Employment Service, Austudy, and Centrelink. This included regular skills training and procedural training of operational staff. In these roles, Jane provided strong support to the development of her staff in order that they could grow and develop new skills to achieve their potential. Jane has also managed large scale national change management projects for Centrelink, the Australian National Training Authority and the Australian Taxation Office. She has strong skills in people management, organisational review and group facilitation. Jane has also worked briefly in the Queensland Government and the University of Queensland in project management capacities.

Recruitment and Selection

With Merit Solutions, Jane has worked with selection panels in agencies across three levels of government to provide expert “scribing” and selection services. She is noted for her provision of expert advice, high quality documentation and timely service. Jane spent over 2 years single-handedly managing large scale national attraction, selection and recruitment projects for the Australian Taxation Office delivering hundreds of staff to multiple sites across the country. Job types included call centre operatives, debt collection officers and audit officers. A typical exercise involved 8000 applications for 600 vacancies in 5 cities. Jane has many years of involvement in selection panels, with specialist skills in report writing and post selection feedback.

Research, Analysis and Reporting

Jane’s skills in research, analysis and reporting were demonstrated through her successful coordination of the 2005-2006 Annual Business Plan for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations in Queensland. Reporting to the State Director, she liaised with all Queensland Office business areas to facilitate analysis of national business plan, the development of state based strategies and their integration into a single document. Queensland was complimented by National office on the depth and quality of the plan.

Coaching and Training

Over many years, Jane has provided training in resume and application writing as well as interview performance training. She also works on a one-to-one basis with individuals to support them in preparing high quality job applications and to prepare for interviews. Jane has also successfully run training for panel members including workshops focussed on the new Queensland Government Capability and Leadership Framework. She brings a strong understanding of good practices from the point of view of selection panel members and job applicants. With her recent experience across all sectors of government, she is very familiar with contemporary developments in public sector recruitment and selections. Jane receives great satisfaction in supporting others to learn and develop. Participants in her workshops frequently comment positively on the experience, enthusiasm and encouragement she provides.

Working with Julie Cork and Associates, Jane facilitates Practical People Management training targeted at middle managers to develop skills in managing staff in operational and service delivery environments. Courses have a strong practical focus and cover issues including providing feedback, managing staff through change and managing poor performance.

Organisational Development

As Assistant Director, Organisational Development with the Australian Taxation Office, Jane was responsible for the successful implementation of a succession management strategy for tax technical staff. This was achieved by working through a network of HR practitioners in business areas of the Office. It involved understanding the risk posed by an aging workforce and buoyant labour market and identifying and implementing appropriate interventions to prevent skills loss to the organisation.

Jane has lead large teams of up to 110 staff, developing practical performance assessment tools tailored for local needs and successfully improved both staff and customer satisfaction over successive years. She has also worked with small business to identify reasons for poor productivity and staff conflict. She has developed successful strategies to address organisational issues and worked with managers to implement these.

Organisational Design

With Centrelink, Jane was one of a small team of trained facilitators conducting customer focus group workshops. Jane was praised for her sensitivity and skill in handling contentious and emotional issues raised by customers and staff. This was a significant change management project to allow staff to experience highly sensitive customer feedback first-hand in a controlled environment. Jane facilitated workshops in which staff developed strategies to deliver improved and more personalised customer service and more effective organisational structures and procedures. Independent surveys revealed higher customer satisfaction levels in those offices she had worked with after implementation of the identified changes and improvements.