Services Australia is the largest agency in the Commonwealth Government and touches the lives of nearly all Australians. It provides payments and services every day to millions of Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support customers through online digital channels, face-to-face service centres, and telephony calls. The agency operates in an environment of continual and increasing change—from responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters, to increasing digitalisation, service delivery modernisation, routine government policy changes, regulatory oversight, and sustaining large-scale day-to-day operations. To respond effectively and sustainably to these changes, Services Australia needs a strong and focused approach to enterprise change management and assurance.

Following a 2019 review by the Chief Operating Officer, a dedicated team designed a new enterprise-wide approach to change. Drawing on world-best practice methodologies and research, the team developed a comprehensive and contemporary approach, comprising a foundational Enterprise Change Model (ECM) and a Change Assurance Framework (CAF). A new centralised team was also established having agency-wide accountability for change. The ECM is tailored to the agency’s operational service delivery needs, placing a people-centred approach at its heart. It describes a 6-element change process applied consistently by change practitioners across the agency. The ECM also considers the broader enterprise environment in which change takes place, to manage its cumulative impact and avoid change fatigue. The CAF outlines 8 principles to provide implementation guidance and change assurance to initiatives throughout their change lifecycle. To gain support and endorsement for the new approach, stakeholders and the senior executive were consulted extensively throughout the design and implementation process.
Successful execution of the new enterprise change approach relied on 3 factors: organising people and resources effectively, adopting operational processes and tools, and establishing strategic networks to engage and mobilise staff across the agency.

A centralised enterprise change team operates a single front door and account management model to provide advice and assistance to change initiatives across the agency. A range of control structures ensures a high- quality service is maintained. The team applies a risk-based approach, tailoring support and assurance to initiatives based on the level of change impact and risk. They assist change initiatives by undertaking change impact assessment workshops and developing strategic action plans. The team recently introduced mandatory change health checks to improve change assurance outcomes. A weekly change pipeline report provides the senior executive with a 4-week forward view of change events to indicate cumulative change impact across the agency and support decision-making. Strategic networks of change practitioners and champions engage almost 2,000 staff across the agency up to senior executive levels in discussion and awareness-raising on change.

The outcomes of the agency’s successful enterprise change approach are felt at all levels and in all business areas.

For change practitioners, greater assistance and advice is now available on practical ways to manage change well, to help develop change strategies, and to identify and mitigate change risks.

For the senior executive, greater transparency and insights on the volume and impact of change helps inform decision-making and risk management.

Frontline staff are better equipped to prepare for and adopt change. Dedicated training modules on the enterprise change approach have achieved significant uptake and there is now widespread awareness of the importance of good change management.

Across the agency, annual employee census results indicate improvements in staff sentiment on change management in recent years. Specific case studies on change health checks, staff networks, and change reporting indicate how the enterprise change approach is impacting positively on the ground. Services Australia also engages with other government agencies to share its experience and collaborate to improve change management across government.

Finally, the enterprise change approach is continuing to mature, becoming more integrated with project, program and benefits management frameworks so the agency remains at the forefront of good portfolio governance.

For information about Services Australia, visit servicesaustralia.gov.au