Employee Relations Strategies of Energex

The paper examines the significant employee relation strategies implemented by Energex, one of the renowned electric power distribution companies in Australia. The paper will further cast light on the way Energex has been working on employee safety and welfare approaches along with other employee relation risk management strategies and approaches which the company has been employing in order to maintain a smooth functioning within the organization.

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Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................2
Discussion..............................................................................................................................2
Energex’s Overview, Mission Statement...........................................................................2
Energex employing to Employee Relations and Recruitment and Selection Strategy......3
Energex’s Role on Employee Benefits, Performance development and Training.............4
Energex’s Approaches for Collective Employment Agreements, Employee Contracts,
Conflict and Negotiations............................................................................................................6
Equal Employment opportunity and Diversity Policies Initiated by Energex...................7
Employee Relations Risk Management Strategy of Energex............................................8
Review of organizational HR services to Energex’s employees.......................................8
Recommendations..................................................................................................................9
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................9
References............................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Sustaining healthy and well-comprehensive employee relations in an organization is
regarded as a pre-requisite for organizational achievements. Employee relation strategies
generally exhibit high degree of propensity to deal with avoiding as well as resolving areas of
complexities concerning individuals which tend to emerge through the influence of the work
scenario. Well-established employee relation further implies that employees must develop a
sense of positivity related to their identities as well as about being associated with the
organization (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). Thus the importance of strong and comprehensive
employee relation within organizations is considered to be immensely essential and thus is
recognized as a critical factor for ultimate success within an organization (Chester 2015). The
following paper explicitly examines the significant employee relation strategies implemented by
Energex, one of the renowned electric power distribution companies in Australia. The paper will
further cast light on the way Energex has been working on employee safety and welfare
approaches along with other employee relation risk management strategies and approaches
which the company has been employing in order to maintain a smooth functioning within the
organization.
Discussion
Energex’s Overview, Mission Statement
Energex Limited, an energy supply company purposes to construct, operate, sustain and
further regulates electricity distribution network in South East Queensland. The company is
recognized to provide its services primarily to homes and business enterprises. The energy

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supply company formerly known as South East Queensland Electricity Corporation Limited
changed its name in the year 1997 and currently operates as a subsidiary of Energy Queensland
Limited (Energex.com.au 2018).
Energex’s mission and purpose primarily lie on providing safe, reliable as well as
affordable and economical electricity supply to homes and business organizations in the areas of
South East Queensland. As a highly favoured supplier of integrated energy service suppliers, the
company aims to provide its customers with choice and control in order to attain the highly
increasing energy needs and demands Energex.com.au 2018). Energex comprises great degree of
commitment and dedication in engaging proficiently with its customer base and further to deliver
effective market reform, innovation as well as agility that is required to develop the industry into
the future.
Energex employing to Employee Relations and Recruitment and Selection Strategy
Energex exhibits high level of commitment in effectively establishing its organization
whereby customers would tend to show high level of willingness to be associated and further
create a constructive environment which facilitates the achievable implementation of the
business strategy (Energex2018). Employee Relations Strategy of Energex has been
implemented in 2008 in order to provide the source for sustaining the persistent discussion
between the company and its employee base along with their union representatives
(Energex.com.au 2016). Such a well-comprehensive Employee Relation Strategy has aided the
company to maintain open lines of communication both with its employees and unions and to
effectively develop resolutions of industrial negotiations and disputes.

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` Several reports have revealed that over the recent years, Energex has funded heavily in its
recruitment and employee selection approaches. The company has emphasized on recruiting
highly proficient dealers along with other technical staff vital for the critical program of work
(Beaton-Wells 2015). It has been noted that around 760 new dealers have been employed with
the development of accelerated dealer employment program in 2005 till 2013, whereby the
purpose was to provide adequate proficient internal and external resources in order to accomplish
the demands of an important network program of work.
Energex’s Role on Employee Benefits, Performance development and Training
The Australian Energy Supplier has attained flexibility in the work durations for a
specific segment of agreement-based staffs through the terms of a ‘Non Executive Employment
Agreement’ which purposes to provide a range of remuneration as well as non-salary related
employee benefits and advantages (Gollan and Kalfa 2013). The adaptation to this agreement has
facilitated the company with an effective method for employee engagement and retention of
highly proficient staffs in a specialized market domain by further efficiently delivering flexible
work hours, patterns along with the scope for the employees for salary compensation for other
vital employee benefits (Energex.com.au 2016).
Energex’s Employment and Workforce Planning
The workforce planning and employment procedures have been underlined through a
distinctive identification of a highly proficient workforce which emphasizes on the enduring
renewal and suitable employee induction and training that further ascertains adequate staff
capacity within the organization in order to substitute the retiring or voluntarily terminated

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sections of the workforce (Beaton-Wells 2015). It has been noted that till 2013, Energex
comprised over 4,090.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) staffs (Energex.com.,au 2018).
 15 positions constituting the position of ‘senior executive’ role
 Over 150 FTE staffs assigned to executive contractual roles
 Around 45 employees engaged with Individual Employment Agreements program
 Over 3,550.9 full time employees covered by the Union Collective Agreement of
Energex, 2013

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Energex’s estimated employee statistical data identified through workforce planning
Source: (Energex.com.au 2016)
Energex’s Approaches for Collective Employment Agreements, Employee
Contracts, Conflict and Negotiations
Energex’s initiative to employ Collective Employment Agreements (2008) primarily
focused on the development of an inclusive Maturing Workforce Strategy which further aims to
efficiently encompass a wide range of work regulation practices and provide integrated strategies
and regulations in order to enhance the level of job engagement, contribution and welfare of
growing employee base by further aiming to ensure effective employee knowledge from the
retiring staffs (Energex.com.,au 2018).
Employees covered by Energex’s initiated framework agreement may not be liable from
the set of conditions constituted in Part 5 of the agreement (Wages and Wage Related Matters)
along with Part 6 which focuses on Working Hours, Shift duty and Weekend Work) of the
Energy Industry Award and are covered by arrangements and provisions comprising replacement
conditions of service (Energex.com.au 2016). It has been observed that Energex efficiently
preserves the authority at its complete discretion whether or not to adhere to the process of
renegotiation of the concerned employee reward (Energex2018).
Through the Union Collective Agreement, it has been observed that employee work
efficiently in order to execute the assigned roles and responsibilities to accomplish the most
demanded interests of Energex and further aim to avoid or mitigate any areas of conflict among

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the employees (Energex.com.au 2018). During the rise of any conflicting situations the
employees of Energex are trained to
 Immediately inform their direct supervisor
 Confiscate them from any process of decision making which may have the tendency to
involve themselves in any conflicting situations within the organization.
The company has been evaluating global regulation and directive approaches and
establishing associations and networks with other distributors in order to develop a level of
awareness of the alignment process or negotiations with Energex’s strategic direction
(Energex.com.au 2016). Furthermore, the company has initiated its approaches and relevant
strategies for the upcoming regulatory proposals aimed for 2020 which incorporates vital
benchmarking analysis in order to comprehend cost drivers as well as other probable efficiency
developments (Energex.com.,au 2018).
Equal Employment opportunity and Diversity Policies Initiated by Energex
Organizational policies, standards and practices of Energex fundamentally underline
factors of gender diversity to the degree to correspond with the energy industry. The company
further purposes to enhance the demography of its workforce in order to more reflective of the
base they provide services (Gollan and Kalfa 2013). As women are observed to be highly
overlooked and underrepresented in domains of power-engineering and electrical trades, Energex
efficiently aim to aid personnel that reveals high level of consistency with industrial diversity
policies and standards (Energex.com.,au 2018). Workforce reports indicate the implementation
of Energex on series of policies in order to ascertain execution of equal employment strategies
that incorporates work life balance, employee inductions, development of exploitation or

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harassment knowledge to the employee base along with significant inclusion of employee policy
statements (Quezada et al. 2014).
The company in 2011 has sustained organization-wide knowledge and awareness
sessions in order to successfully update its staff base on areas of equity and diversity areas and
other relevant policies (Energex.com.au 2016). Furthermore, other vital official consultation
directives have been implemented by the company to develop Equal Employment Opportunity
(EEO) and introduce other diversity policies throughout the organization and further continue to
work with diverse authoritative agencies to establish and advance EEO initiatives and
approaches.
Employee Relations Risk Management Strategy of Energex
Purpose- Energex has exhibited high level of commitment to the persistent development of a
strategic and reliable enterprise-centric approach to employee relations risk management which
has further been supported by risk-aware culture (Energex.com.au 2018).
Policy Standards-
 Employee relation risk management must form and safeguard value of employee relation
and associations and further aim to emphasize on any forms of uncertainty, conflicts
which may have the propensity to impact the success of Energex (Parliament.qld.gov.au
2018).
 Standards of Employee Risk Management must be distinctive and comprehensive for all
relevant internal stakeholders-employees in order to ascertain effective management of
risk (Energex.com.au 2018).

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 Employee Relations Risk Management Strategy of Energex aims to facilitate through
proper employee induction, knowledge and development, persistent supervision,
communication and cooperation (Quezada et al. 2014).
Energex has adopted risk management process as explained in Australian Standard Risk
Management guidelines. Such a process has been established in the Enterprise Risk Management
Framework to ensure effective employee relation process within the organization (Energex2018).
Review of organizational HR services to Energex’s employees
There has been witnessed certain essential operating initiatives along with developing risks
under management across the human resources services program of Energex which incorporate:
 Current workforce development programs that aims to guarantee retention of highly
important and proficient staffs (Energex.com.au 2016).
 An employment value proposition with adequate skill management processes in order to
enhance the section of suitably proficient and experienced employee base to compensate
leadership and vital roles necessitated for Energex’s business in the future (Chester
2015).
 Decisive approaches in order to optimize employee efficiency productivity by further
ensuring employee safety and welfare (Quezada et al. 2014).
Recommendations
 Energex must purpose at effectively aligning individual behaviour and performance of
its workforce to its business purpose and values.

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 Fixed remuneration or wage policy for Agreement encompassing employee regulated by
the Energex union Collective Agreement must assign its employees job family,
evaluation as well as employee classification (Beaton-Wells 2015).
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that Energex has been immensely
committed to systematic and sustainable effective values and practices in regards to the
implementation of employee relation strategy and approaches. The paper has explicitly focused
on Energex’s employee relation approaches along with focusing on Energex’s Union Collective
Agreement and the benefits obtained by employees covering the framework of the agreement.

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References
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Beaton-Wells, C., 2015. Private Enforcement of Competition Law in Australia-Inching
Forwards. Melb. UL Rev., 39, p.681.
Chester, L., 2015. The privatisation of Australian electricity: Claims, myths and facts. The
Economic and Labour Relations Review, 26(2), pp.218-240.
Energex., 2018. [online] Available at:
https://www.energex.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/283680/Annual-Report-2014-
15.pdf [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].
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https://www.energex.com.au/about-us/our-commitment [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].
Energex.com.au., 2016. Our Connected Future ANNUAL PERFORMANCE Report 2015/16.
[online] Energex.com.au. Available at:
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Report-2015-16.pdf [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].
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at: https://www.energex.com.au/home/safety/our-safety-resources [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].

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Energex.com.au., 2018. Selection process - Energex. [online] Energex.com.au. Available at:
https://www.energex.com.au/about-us/contact-us/careers/working-for-us/selection-process
[Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].
Gollan, P. and Kalfa, S., 2013. Australia’s industrial relations system and the need for
organisational agility. Australia Adjusting: Optimising national prosperity, p.190.
Parliament.qld.gov.au., 2018. [online] Parliament.qld.gov.au. Available at:
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Documents/TableOffice/TabledPapers/
2010/5310T3182.pdf [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].
Quezada, G., Grozev, G., Seo, S. and Wang, C.H., 2014. The challenge of adapting
centralised electricity systems: peak demand and maladaptation in South East Queensland,
Australia. Regional environmental change, 14(2), pp.463-473.