1. Major capital projects
2. Our people and culture
3. Inclusion and diversity
4. Employee relations
5. Work, health and safety

Major capital projects

The University defines major capital projects as those costing more than $5 million. During 2016, in line with the Capital Asset Management Plan, the University spent $26.02 million on major capital projects. Expenditure on the University's entire Capital Program in 2016 was $34.03 million.

The Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre – Crawley reached practical completion in 2016 at a cost of $66.66 million. The centre is a collaboration that brings together four of Australia’s leading research organisations working in and around the Indian Ocean, including UWA’s Oceans Institute, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and the Western Australian Department of Fisheries. The new building was designed by Ferguson Architects and constructed by BGC Construction. It was completed in September 2016.

A major redesign and refit of the Reid Library ground floor was also achieved in 2016 at a cost of $8.9 million. The project has created a light, open and welcoming space, accommodating more students and providing them with increased options for collaborative learning and individual study.

Schin Architects and Western Projects delivered the refurbishment, producing:

• informal and collaborative learning spaces by creating smaller, customisable learning modules, without compromising the unity of the space
• a dedicated learning suite reflective of the changing mode of teaching that supports interactive, tutorial-style teaching for up to 60 students
• a large, central space, the Circle, which lends itself to multiple uses for teaching, research, exhibitions and displays

Major projects in progress at 31 December 2016.

Our people and culture

The people priorities for 2016 have been largely focused on the successful delivery of transformation within the University. Ongoing consultation with our workforce culminated in a new organisational structure and the introduction of four faculties and five Service Delivery Centres. This new structure provided the flexibility for staff to reshape their roles and pursue new career paths in different teams. It has also provided an exciting opportunity to embark on an international recruitment campaign focused on UWA’s teaching and research priority areas.

Understandably, development of staff in 2016 concentrated on the delivery of programs to ensure staff had the skills and tools to manage their performance in a changing environment. The focus was on leading and managing change, expert career advice and benchmarking performance.

During 2017 a simplified UWA Leadership Capability Framework will be launched to systematically develop our leadership capability at all levels through work-based projects, development programs, coaching and mentoring, and aligned to a simplified staff appraisal process. This will support the continued focus on a high-performing culture and the expectation of academic excellence against international benchmarks along with delivering the service culture charter.

Inclusion and diversity

In line with the Inclusion and Diversity Strategy 2015–2020, UWA established five working groups to ensure continued focus on Gender Equity, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity (CALD), Disability, Indigenous and LGBTI–inclusion.

UWA continues to maintain its stellar performance in the LGBTI-inclusion space achieving platinum status as the only institution to be ranked as a Top 10 employer in the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) since the inception of the awards in 2011. Successes of recent programs include the ALLY Program and Courageous Conversations about Race delivered across Australia and New Zealand, and equal opportunity online training modules (to prevent workplace bullying and sexual harassment) implemented across the University.

The University remains committed to achieving bronze status in the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) Athena-Swan pilot focused on encouraging women in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) areas.

Employee relations

Bargaining commenced for academic and professional staff with a focus on achieving new agreements that are simple, contemporary and fair. It is expected that the ELICOS agreement will begin bargaining in early 2017. Once agreements are complete, focus will move to strengthening existing policies, processes and practices to better align with UWA’s values and culture.

Work, health and safety

While the University, Senate, senior leaders and other officers are accountable for ensuring a safe, supportive, protective and healthy working environment, safety remains everyone’s responsibility. This is achieved by ensuring that health and safety management is a key priority in all areas of planning, implementation, measurement and review – quarterly reporting of key areas is provided to each portfolio and signed off by the Executive.

During 2016, there were 324 incidents and injuries reported with 34 accepted workers’ compensation claims, and 10 people requiring time off work with a total of 167 work days lost (average time lost was 17 days). By comparison, in 2015 there were 309 incidents and injuries reported with 38 accepted workers’ compensation claims, and 10 people requiring time off work with a total of 98 work days lost (average time lost was 10 days).

Detailed information on the work health and safety, injury management, and health and wellbeing program priorities, activities and reporting is provided in the University Safety Committee Annual Report.

Reportable key performance, work, health and safety indicators — 2016

1 Lost time injury/disease (LTI/D) incident rate = Number of LTI/D divided by FTEs times 100
2 Lost time injury/disease (LTI/D) severity rate calculation = Number of injuries > 60 days divided by LTI/D times 100
3 Return to work (RTW) within 13/26 weeks calculation = Percentage of LTI/D with a RTW outcome within 13/26 weeks