Conversations with The People and Culture Group; An Interview with Tracey Green, General Manager - People @ Cancer Council Queensland

In this series of interviews, we ask executives and senior human resource professionals about the effects of Covid-19 and other cultural impacts, more generally, on their organisation and themselves.   

Recently, Kim Keating had the pleasure of talking to Tracey Green, General Manager People (Employment and Volunteering) at Cancer Council Queensland (Qld). The Cancer Council Qld has just under 200 employees. Approximately 64% are full-time, while 31% are part-time. In addition to a small number of casual staff, Cancer Council Queensland enjoys the support of up to 3000 volunteers.  

As you will see, the people of the Cancer Council Qld may have surprised themselves with untapped reserves of agility, flexibility, collaboration and technical know-how. And for Tracey – despite throughout lockdown, having a full house, their kitchen being renovated, and her managing a COVID response  – there was a new kind of flexibility, a sense of extra closeness through team collaboration and togetherness, and an appreciation of the simple things.  

Find out what Tracey had to say below and read more about Tracey’s background in her short ‘bio’ following this story.  

Our conversation with Tracey: 

Kim Keating (KK): Regarding its people, what in your opinion were the biggest learnings for Cancer Council Qld during Covid-19?  

Tracey Green (TG): Our biggest learning was positive! We learnt that we were really agile and were able to adapt very quickly. Prior to Covid we had implemented Microsoft Teams, and this proved to be a great collaboration and communication tool. Being supported by the tech of Microsoft Teams made the move to lock down and working from home much easier and smoother for, not only my team but for the organisation as a whole. Gosh! It was actually so great to realise that we can be agile and use technology effectively to underpin strategic and operational objectives.  

 KK: How prepared was Cancer Council Qld for managing a “working from home” workforce at such short notice? What were the greatest challenges and obstacles? What did you do that you are proud of? 

TG: We were reasonably prepared as we already had in place flexible work arrangements with 30% of our workforce involved in flexible work pre-Covid. As a result, all we really needed to do was condense processes and make them more “user friendly’ to enable working from home. It was actually good to see how well set up we were.   

In terms of challenges and obstacles, there was a lot of communication, online learning and documents that were newly required to support our workforce. During this time, my team worked tirelessly as we put in place policies not only for business as usual but to integrate JobKeeper as well. We came up with remote working online learning modules for various groups within the organisation and reviewed processes and working requirements. This was a huge task, but we did it and I am extremely proud of the way people within the organisation from the top down committed to and helped achieve this.  

Overall, I was so impressed with how well we pulled together and were able to navigate a mass of information efficiently. 

KK: Did the Cancer Council Qld need to “stand down” or make redundant any employees? If so, how many? (approx. number or percentage) 

TG: Thus far only one person has been “stood down” as we had no choice but to close one of our lodges and consolidate residents into a nearby lodge, in doing so there was, unfortunately, one person who could not be redeployed.   

KK: Did Cancer Council Qld qualify for JobKeeper and if so, did this scheme “save jobs”? 

TG: Yes, we did qualify and have used the Jobkeeper scheme. At this stage, we believe that there will be long term benefits of the scheme and that it certainly contributes to stabilising the financial side of the organisation. So yes - there will be some short-term benefits. 

KK: Did the Cancer Council Qld have to reduce the hours/salaries of any employees? If so, all or just some roles and by how much? 

TG: We did. Most employees since May have been reduced by 20% in terms of salary and hours and this is scheduled to remain until mid-September. This also included the Executive team; we were mindful to ensure that any reductions made were applied across the organisation at all levels.   

A small number of employees needed to be reduced by up to 40% and these were in roles where physically there was not enough work to do under lockdown conditions.  

KK: Were people able to still work effectively on reduced hours or were there many instances of people working longer hours whilst on reduced salary? 

TG: We were very careful to adjust workloads. Having said that we have an extremely committed workforce and there were definitely circumstances where some went “above and beyond”. This was not an expectation and we were also careful to consider people having to home school, care for other family members and things like that, so we provided flexibility around those things for individuals as needed.  

KK: Have those affected by reduced hours/salary returned to normal hours yet – if not do you have any idea when they may be returned to fulltime hours?    

TG: For the majority, the restrictions will still be in place until mid-Sept 2020 as mentioned. We do have a very small number (<5%) who have by the nature of their role been able to increase their hours. Our objective from the start of Covid has been to keep as many people employed as possible, we take that seriously and will be looking at JobKeeper v2 as well as how Queensland fares over coming months with a view to continue to support this objective as best as possible.   

KK: What are Cancer Council Qld’s current workplace arrangements?  

TG: Our offices remain closed, with only our lodges staying open. This will continue again until at least mid-September. For most employees, we have introduced a gradual return-to-work program. For example: If a team member works four days a week, they might do two to three days in the workplace and one to two from home. In doing a graduated return to the workplace we are looking to maintain social distancing and also continue to provide the benefits of working from home which in many ways is cheaper for employees (no travel costs) and thus helpful while employees are on reduced salaries. 

KK: What issues has Cancer Council Qld experienced or are you expecting to see as people return to the workplace?  

TG: So far, most of the feedback we have in regard to this is in reference to the cost and extra time factors in returning to the office whilst still on reduced salaries. Petrol, travel time, parking etc all add up and are not an issue when working from home. 

On a more personal note: 

KK: What were the highlights of working from home for you? 

TG: A big one for me is not having to think about travel time! I can wake up, get ready and grab a coffee from the local café and can be logged in all within half an hour – which is a huge time-saving and something I have really enjoyed. In line with that, I have also enjoyed having the flexibility and time to go for a long walk (in the daylight!) and the ability to do an online Pilates class, have dinner with my family and then log back on if I need to. Previously there was little time for a walk or a class.  

KK: What are the biggest challenges for you while working from home? 

 TG: I’m sure many can relate to this, in the middle of lockdown we had all of my family at home including my 2 daughters one who is in year 12 and one at Uni. We were also in the middle of having our kitchen renovated and I had my Mother-in-Law, staying with us as well! It was quite literally a fight for space at times with lots of noise and people everywhere, not all running on the same schedules! There were a couple of times where I definitely had to jump in the car to hold work conversations just so I could concentrate and get some quiet! 

 KK: Would you prefer to work from home, the office or a mixture of both?    

TG: A mixture of both. I really have enjoyed the work-life balance and being able to go for a walk before it gets dark, also taking less time to get ready and the gaining back of travel time. There are times, though, when face-to -ace with my team and the Executive team is necessary and that works too.   

KK: What did you learn about your own work style and preferences during this time? 

TG: I don’t know if there were any major revelations because I kind of knew this about myself, but it certainly cemented that I enjoy a challenge and am able to work at and process information at a high level. At the height of it all, keeping up with legislation, looking after our teams, not having clarity and things changing all the time seemed to bring the best out in me and I really enjoyed working in the midst of all of that. It also highlighted to me that when I know my stuff, I am happy to take the lead and that I thrive in that busy, reactive environment whilst still being able to work proactively to minimise disruption down the track.   

My team also really rose to the occasion at this time and they too enjoyed the challenge, I was so impressed by them individually and collaboratively. 

After the initial period of reactivity, by the end of April, we were having to look more pro-actively. It was good to know that apart from navigating unchartered waters, I was also able to juggle my BAU responsibilities with my team as well. 

KK: Zoom or Facetime or Skype or MS Teams – what's your preferred mode of tele-meeting? Can you give a couple of words to describe why?  

Microsoft teams – easy-access and user-friendly! 

KK: Were you or anyone close to you affected directly by Covid-19? If so, how? 

TG: Luckily not directly, but we did come close just a few weeks ago! We had three visitors from NSW who stayed with us and when they returned home one of them found they had an association with one of the hot spots – they were tested and we all waited on the results, which were negative. But while we were waiting for their results it was interesting because we fully quarantined the room and bathroom they’d stayed in – just closed the doors and left them until we had the results and even then donned like a hazmat suit with gloves and masks to give it a really thorough clean. The whole thing was a shock, I couldn’t help but think of the flow-on effect for all of us and the people we’d been interacting with.

KK: Is there anything you will miss about “lock-down”?

TG: Something I’ll really miss is that extra close team collaboration and togetherness we shared while in ‘lock-down”. Even though we were all physically separated, everyone was in “the same boat” and I found we shared a lot more personal stories and experiences during that time which is not the case so much when we’re working face-to-face. 

The other thing, on a more personal level, is that appreciation for the simple things – as restrictions ease, I can feel that feeling slipping away more quickly than I’d like… 

KK: Overall, which of the following best describes your Covid-19 experience:  

TG: 'Better than anticipated' - I think we all thought “oh goodness it’s going to be very hard”, but I think that me and my family really did cope better than we'd expected. 

KK: Thanks so much for your time Tracey – we really appreciate the insight of your experience over the past few months.  

About Tracey Green, General Manager People (Employment and Volunteering) at Cancer Council Queensland 

Tracey Green is a highly experienced and qualified human resources executive leader with a functional background in Human Resource Management and Corporate Services. She has had proven career success as a transformational leader working closely with CEOs, Executive Leadership Teams and Boards. Tracey has demonstrated the ability to drive and achieve outcomes in a broad range of complex and dynamic business environments encompassing aeromedical, health, retail banking, hospitality and retail. She has developed and implemented human resources strategy to align with and drive overarching business, cultural and employee engagement objectives in many organisations. 

Tracey has worked in a not for profit environment for 13 years and in the health industry for nearly 20 years. Before joining Cancer Council Queensland, she worked with the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Qld). However, prior to that, the majority of her experience was in a corporate/commercial environment, working for organisations such as Ramsay Health Care, Stamford Hotels and Hilton. She has an Honours Degree in Social Science, a Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management and attended the Harvard Business School. She has recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Executive Leadership with the University of Queensland.