Staff Association and Executive representatives have met as part of Consultative Council, a key forum empowered by the organisation’s enabling legislation to ensure accountability between senior leaders and the larger CSIRO workforce.
Big issues dominated the agenda including the Enterprise Services (ES) restructure, CSIRO infrastructure and property, research priorities and workplace health and safety.
That concentration mirrored the focus of the recently released Corporate Plan, a forecast from Executive on CSIRO’s strategic direction, that charts an increasingly challenging operating landscape ahead of the organisation.
The ES restructure rolls on with CSIRO on track to slash between 375 and 500 support roles. Staff Association representatives articulated concerns relating to the suitability of ES assessment processes to gauge adequate support levels and the impact of job cuts on CSIRO workloads.
What CSIRO Executive describe as the ES reform process is listed in the Corporate Plan as a key initiative of a strategic priorities aimed at ‘greater adaptiveness.’
‘We want our Enterprise Services (ES) teams to be efficient, effective and financially sustainable… we will review and enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and agility of our ES functions to ensure our teams are equipped to support CSIRO sustainably and effectively,’ the document reads.
Executive reiterated a commitment to the provision of CSIRO infrastructure – including property – that is ‘sustainable, safe and fit for purpose.’
The Corporate Plan goes further, calling for the development of ‘a roadmap for our research infrastructure, aligned to our research portfolio aspirations, to ensure our infrastructure remains relevant and responsive to Australia’s current and emerging needs while also encouraging strategic partnerships and allowing end users to engage more effectively.’
Consultative Council also heard that Executive are aiming to achieve 60 per cent workplace utilisation – in other words physical attendance or occupancy – to maintain vibrancy. The organisation’s international footprint shrank, with the Corporate Plan confirming the shuttering of CSIRO sites in France, Chile and the United States.
Work continues to reimagine the future state of CSIRO’s research portfolio, aligned with the organisation’s six national research challenges.
Those challenges – as set out in the Corporate Plan – include:
Executive have set up a research portfolio working group to assess the current state of portfolios, define research problems to solve, align ambitions with challenges and impact areas while developing key performance indicators to use.
The expanding requirement of managing psychosocial hazards, incidents and injuries was discussed by Consultative Council.
This followed concerns raised by Staff Association representatives of the psychosocial risks associated with significant job cuts to support roles and the impact on CSIRO workloads.
However, questions were raised regarding the organisation’s capacity to meet this growing demand. Despite spruiking a number of Mental Health Champions and a modestly resourced injury management team, Executive were forced to admit that as of now, CSIRO only has one psychosocial specialist engaged to address workplace concerns arising from the ES restructure.
Elsewhere, the Corporate Plan described the difficult funding environment for CSIRO and other publicly funded research agencies.
‘Australia’s research and development (R&D) investment as a proportion of gross domestic product… has declined over the last 15 years. The reduction is mainly due to the falling government R&D expenditure. Also, the declining business expenditure on R&D… in the last decade correlates with a drop in Australia’s productivity performance.’
‘Research funding in Australia is highly dispersed, with an estimated government funding of AUD$12.6 billion in 2023–24 allocated across 14 Australian government portfolios and the 160 distinct programs within them. Fragmented research capabilities, coupled with an opaque supply and demand for innovation, further limit industry‑research in Australia.’
Executive faces a tough task of rebuilding staff confidence and trust, starting with the organisation’s strategic direction, the province of senior CSIRO leaders.
The results of this year’s culture survey revealed that staff confidence in the strategic direction of the organisation took a major tumble, which represents a major challenge for Chief Executive Doug Hilton.
At the time, Dr Hilton commented on the survey results, stating that the “honest, candid, constructive feedback will be top of mind as we continue our work to simplify CSIRO and make us more sustainable so that we can continue to deliver benefit to the community.”
