Driving employee engagement all year round

For the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA), capturing employees’ views on their experience of work through the WfQ survey is incredibly important because it helps drive positive workplace change.

Employee engagement surveys are recognised globally as a best-practice way to gather insights which enable organisations to design policies and implement key changes that can increase engagement and productivity.

The Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) shares some useful tips that all agencies can put into practice to help drive positive workplace change.

RTA Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Smith says capturing, analysing and actioning employee feedback through the WfQ survey is critical to supporting the RTA's customer focused workforce.

The independent statutory authority can attribute its success including higher participation rates, greater employee engagement and more positive perception of organisational leadership to its active, year-round approach to engagement.

“The RTA is committed to fostering an agile, resilient workforce that can deliver an exceptional customer experience for the Queensland rental sector,” says Ms Smith.

“To achieve this, we drive a dedicated engagement approach with a strong focus on consistent, clear communication, divisional leader workshops and face-to-face briefings, supported by our Learning and Organisation Development team.”

Ms Smith says communication and commitment from all levels of leadership – including the RTA Board and executive leadership team – helps embed workplace improvements and ensure everyone works together to deliver on their purpose.

“A key part of the CEO's role is clearly articulating the importance of the WfQ survey and encouraging participation,” Ms Smith explains. “It's a valuable tool to help understand what it is like to work at the RTA and how we can continue to improve the employee experience.”

The RTA WfQ survey results identify strengths and opportunities for improvement, such as 'agency engagement' and 'organisational leadership', and these are shared with all RTA employees.

“We demonstrate a commitment to maintain transparency and work with everyone on the results to build trust and really drive workplace change,” Ms Smith says.

“By unpacking the survey data, we can identify key focus areas for different divisions in the business and develop a customised approach to address feedback received.

“We develop and communicate clear action plans tailored to each RTA division's feedback, accompanied by a timeline which encourages leaders to take ownership of the results and the areas where a particular focus is required.

“To ensure transparency and accountability, this information is also easily accessible on our staff intranet in the form of dashboards, next steps and actioned items.”

What steps can you take to make positive change in your team and in your agency?

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