The slower clocks behind a technology workforce

Hosting work for defence suppliers and some state systems requires staff who hold a government security clearance. As a member of the Defence Industry Security Program, we can sponsor clearances, but the vetting itself happens outside our control and our recent median wait has been about seven months. I therefore plan backwards from the day a cleared person is needed, not forwards from the day a contract is signed. My team keeps a forecast of nominations, expected grants and the people who will leave cleared roles. Eligibility generally depends on citizenship, so I make sure that colleagues who cannot be nominated still have a credible path to senior work elsewhere in the company. Cleared staff also carry continuing reporting obligations, which we explain plainly rather than bury in induction material that most new starters will skim.

Our critical-facilities technicians work under an enterprise agreement that must pass the Fair Work Commission's better off overall test against the relevant award. I treat the roster as the heart of that agreement. Twelve-hour rotating shifts, call-back rules, shift penalties and minimum breaks between shifts decide whether a technician can sustain the job for ten years. I bargain directly with delegates and the relevant union, and I bring operating managers into the room so that commitments are made by people who will keep them. Consultation is a legal obligation for major workplace change, and I also treat it as the cheapest way to find the flaw in a roster before it is published. Our on-call engineers now have written call-out windows, which also respects the right to disconnect in the Fair Work Act.

Work health and safety law requires us to manage psychosocial hazards such as fatigue, isolation, high job demands and aggression in the same disciplined way as electrical or mechanical risks. In a data centre and service desk those hazards are ordinary: the technician alone at three in the morning during a cooling fault, the analyst taking forty calls from frustrated clinicians, the engineer paged repeatedly during a major incident. I ask managers to record them in the same risk register as physical hazards, with named controls and owners. We review overtime, consecutive night shifts, extended shifts and call-backs by site every month. When a control costs money, I take it to the executive with the risk stated in the same terms as any other operating risk, rather than as a wellbeing initiative competing for discretionary budget.

Cloud, network and security engineers can work from home; facility technicians cannot. I resisted a single hybrid rule because it would have been equal on paper and unfair in practice. Engineers agree team days that suit their customers and incidents. Technicians receive a site allowance, more predictable rosters and first call on training places. Engineer turnover was 19 per cent in 2022 and was 12 per cent in the year to June 2026. The biggest improvements came from a technical career path that pays for expertise without forcing people into management, and from telling engineers early which customer environments they would work on next. Exit interviews still show that some engineers leave for higher pay at larger firms, and I report that honestly instead of claiming that culture can always outbid them.

Pay-secrecy terms can no longer be enforced in Australian employment contracts, and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency publishes gender pay gaps for employers of our size. I want every employee to be able to understand why they are paid what they are paid, and why a colleague in a different role may be paid more. Our gender pay gap is shaped by a technician workforce that is mostly male and receives shift penalties, so I report the gap by job family as well as for the whole company. Managers receive the salary range and the reasons for each placement in it before any review conversation. Where an employee finds an unexplained difference, we investigate within a set period and, if the difference cannot be justified, we correct it from the date it began.