The Uniting Church in Australia

Background

The Queensland Synod is a state council of the Uniting Church in Australia with over 250 congregations, 19 schools and colleges, 520 care outlets and 7 presbyteries. The Synod office, located in Brisbane, supports and resources the church especially in community services, early learning, mission planning, theological and other educational services, administration of ministers and property, and finance.

Challenges

Following a project to align the Synod office to the needs of those that the Synod supports, there was an urgent need to focus on culture, recognising that the Synod is not only an employer, but part of the Church. Grant Weaver, Manager of People and Culture, admits that there was a certain level of misalignment.

"The culture was very fragmented, with not a lot of commitment to company values. We were quite inwardly focused rather than externally focused in terms of the support that the congregations needed to be successful in their communities.”

Not only did the Synod need to realign their people with the company mission and values, but they also needed it to happen in a way that was engaging for everyone. They decided that reward and recognition would be their most effective tool.

 

Solution 

The team already understood the power of values in uniting individuals across the organisation, and had integrated theirs into performance feedback plans and formal awards. However, the opportunity to link these values with peer-to-peer recognition was key. The Perkbox platform, with its values driven Celebration hub, fit the bill.

Grant says that the Synod wanted to take “a best-in-breed approach, with something that would look at our values and allow that to be spread across the whole office, regardless of geographic location. Having a platform that allows everyone to participate in a timely and relevant manner was really important to us.”

Just as important was finding a solution that was simple, and Perkbox’s single global app provided this for both users and administrators. Grant adds: "Perkbox really met our user requirements. At the end of the day it was the simplicity of the solution and the fact that it exactly met our needs."

 

Outcome 

Having not worked regularly in an office since the beginning of the pandemic, Weaver says that the team used the polls function heavily in 2020, to regularly engage with staff when they were working from home.

“We wanted to know if they felt connected. Were they getting enough support or access to specific resources? The polls really allowed us to stay in touch, enhancing on staff wellbeing and be really proactive if certain teams or individuals needed extra support”.
As with many diverse and dispersed organisations, the Synod recognised that building strong relationships was a core part of improving and creating a harmonised culture - particularly in the pandemic. To this end, the recognition element of Perkbox was a key tool for Grant and his team.

“Peer-to-peer recognition was really important to us, and Perkbox allows anyone to participate and recognise each other, privately or publicly."

The Synod is currently transitioning over 24 childcare centers with 300+ staff, meaning they’re dealing with additional people who have differing levels of connection to the church. Finding a connection through business values is imperative and Perkbox is helping those values remain front and centre of people’s minds.

The Synod is also integrating Culture hub into their business, using this to inform and educate employees as part of their induction training. Grant is clear about the benefits the Perkbox platform will have on a long-term basis.

"The culture before Perkbox was ill-defined. We were somewhat divided and weren't too clear about who we were and what our purpose was. With Perkbox, we now have the building blocks for a great culture, and the platform underpins our reward and recognition efforts.”