The new year at CSIRO will soon be kickstarted by the outcomes of the Annual Performance and Investment Review (APaIR) as well as the next round of Interchange opportunities.
Additionally, the Staff Association will continue to be heavily involved in ensuring COVID-19 safety and wellbeing at work and equitable access to working from home.
In February, the CSIRO Executive is scheduled to communicate its decisions from APaIR – essentially determining the various amounts of funding and targets that will be allocated to Business Units (BUs) and functions of the organisation.
All BUs and functions made pitches to the Executive late last year and the funding allocations will signal updated strategic and science directions, following last year’s Federal Budget boost to appropriations.
For the Staff Association, APaIR decisions impact in many ways for members, including on job security and opportunities, science direction and with collaboration and consultation. We are fully prepared to represent members with any changes that arise from APaIR decisions.
After successfully implementing the program last year, CSIRO will be conducting another round of Interchange in February or March following the APaIR outcomes. New opportunities will be available for staff in Missions as well as in BUs.
Last year, the Staff Association successfully worked with CSIRO senior management to ensure that staff were provided opportunities for which they were suitable, including members who were not fully allocated or identified as potentially redundant by their BU.
The Staff Association’s advocacy for individual members and for the integrity of allocating capabilities through Interchange will continue with this upcoming round of opportunities.
Staff Association representatives met with members of CSIRO’s Situation Management Team (SMT) on Thursday 21 January for the first engagement meeting of the new year. The SMT has already met twice in 2021 and is focusing on assurance work, including with site-specific Covid safety plans and preparedness for outbreaks.
All CSIRO sites are currently in Phase 4 except for Sydney sites which are expected to return to this ‘Covid normal’ phase shortly. Phase 5 status for CSIRO sites will only occur following substantial rollout of vaccines in Australia.
Working from home, at least in part, will continue to be a feature of work at CSIRO in 2021, although many staff are expected to be working from sites more frequently from February.
