Officeworks - Capability building for the future

At Officeworks, team members are central to the ongoing success of the business. As the world continues to evolve and adapt in response to new innovations and challenges, Officeworks needs to ensure its team members have the tools, capabilities and resources they need to succeed in their professional lives now and into the future. 

Each year, Officeworks conducts an annual engagement survey to measure overall team member engagement and gathers feedback relating to topics including career development, growth and learning opportunities. Ongoing learning and development along with leadership training continues to be an area of focus.  

As a result, Officeworks continues to invest in the rollout of its leadership program, SPARK, which aims to support leaders to build their confidence in core management and leadership capabilities. Approximately 250 leaders across the business completed the program between 2021 and 2023. The program is now in its second cohort, with a dedicated delivery to store and customer fulfilment centre coordinators with more than 500 team members commencing the program in May 2023.

To support a more mature model of capability and increasing transparency around the required behaviors and skills needed now and into the future, Officeworks has begun the rollout of a business-wide capability framework. This is a practical resource that provides team members with a framework for defining what it means to be successful at Officeworks and the skills and capabilities needed for ongoing career progression. This included the rollout of resources that enable team members to drive their own development when it suits them best and contribute to their career in a more meaningful way. 

Officeworks also undertook a process to define the technical competencies required for technologist roles across its business. Similar to the capability framework, creating transparency around technical competencies gives team members the ability to better drive their own careers and strengthens the ability for Officeworks to support meaningful development.  

In November 2022, Officeworks launched LinkedIn Learning as a resource for salaried team members, providing online learning content that allows team members to drive their own learning. Since its launch, more than 970 team members have logged in with an average of 1 hour and 13 minutes of content viewed per viewer.  

During the year, Officeworks Support Office team members worked remotely and in a hybrid way in line with new ways of working. Officeworks recognises flexibility plays a role in allowing team members to live their best life and its flexible ways of working policy supports a more diverse workforce where careers can be built through ongoing life change.  

Committed to the hybrid working model, Officeworks created Officeworks Moments, a helpful guide for team members to reference what moments should take place where. In its hybrid working model, Officeworks Moments outline the common people experiences and interactions that should be face-to-face, while allowing team members to make decisions on working days that are right for them and the business, ensuring a balance of connection, flexibility and productivity.  

To further highlight Officeworks’ commitment to building a capable team with a strong sense of belonging, in May 2023, Officeworks Support Centre team members moved from East Bentleigh to a newly refurbished office located in Chadstone, Victoria. Officeworks Place connects behavioral changes and Officeworks Moments together with principles of collaboration and connection. The refurbished office building includes a quiet place for individual focused work with minimal distractions and background noise, accessible and diverse spaces to support different ways of working, dedicated wellbeing spaces, including a prayer room, parents’ room and ablution room, as well as biophilic design features to create connectivity to the natural environment.  

The new building has obtained a 6-star Green Star rating, which addresses a significant number of environmental and social issues showcasing Officeworks’ commitment to making a positive difference to people and the planet.  

Officeworks continues to invest in several key areas to enable its team members to grow their career, skills and knowledge to enable them to adapt to new innovations and challenges and build their capabilities to succeed in their professional lives now and into the future.