Defence Housing Australia
Defence Housing Australia has been selected as an ABA100® Winner for Change Management in The Australian Business Awards 2023. The Australian Business Award for Change Management [CMA] recognises organisations that have successfully implemented initiatives that demonstrate excellence in change management.
DHA appreciates the fantastic recognition from ABA100 in the work we have achieved in implementing change management. Through investing in an in-house Enterprise Change Management function, we have established tailored frameworks and strategies that ensures our people are both considered and supported through times of change. We are proud of our change maturity growth and are continuing to build change capability across the organisation.
Defence Housing Australia (DHA) is an Australian government business enterprise established in 1988 to meet the operational needs of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the requirements of the Department of Defence. The purpose of DHA is to support Defence capability and deliver value to the Australian Government by providing housing and related services to ADF members and their families. DHA has a workforce of approximately 580 personnel. Its structure includes eight groups divided into two Delivery streams: Service Delivery and Service Delivery Support. The Service Delivery Group includes Property, Service Operations, and Service Strategy and Design. The Service Delivery Support Group comprises Business Solutions and Technology, CFO Group, Governance and Communication, Human Resources and Legal.
Defence Housing Australia (DHA) supports Australian Defence capabilities by providing housing and related services to Australian Defence Force members and their families. In 2020, DHA underwent a transformational change with changes to roles, structure, process, policy, technology, and culture and a 23.6% reduction in workforce size. Employee feedback showed staff had been significantly affected by the change, further compounded by the unexpected Covid-19 impacts, resulting in poor engagement results.
DHA established an in-house Enterprise Change Management (ECM) function to respond to this feedback at the end of 2021. Over 12 months, the Enterprise Change Management team focused on improving the change management maturity of the organisation to improve DHA’s ability to manage change effectively. As such, a range of activities occurred over ten months, including consultation, development of frameworks and templates, recruitment, project and program support, change networks, change sponsors and a thorough change management maturity assessment.
All this was achieved while supporting DHA’s technology refresh program and other change initiatives. As DHA continues to implement change, the ECM function has built a solid foundation to support the organisation while continuing to grow its maturity. DHA is now also working across the APS to support change management maturity at a whole government level in partnership with two other agencies.
For information about Defence Housing Australia, visit dha.gov.au