Australia Engagement Manager, Industry & Regional Relationships – PLF

Project Overview:
The Pacific Labour Facility (PLF) facilitates seasonal and longer-term work opportunities for Pacific workers in Australia. It connects Australian employers with Pacific workers under the newly introduced Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme which combines the existing Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) and Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP).

Role Overview:
The Australia Engagement Manager – Industry & Regional Relationships will be responsible for the overall growth and management of the Pacific Labour Facility’s (PLF) regional presence as well as overseeing engagement with state and regionally based employers, industry and government stakeholders. The role will help drive the ongoing engagement, growth and sustainability of the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.

Leading a team of State Managers and Regional Relationship Managers (RRMs) the Australia Engagement Manager – Industry & Regional Relationships will oversee engagement with PALM scheme Approved Employers (AEs) to grow and effectively support their workers. The Australia Engagement Manager and their team will act as a conduit for; management and escalation of issues, AE access to service functions within the PLF and connection to other stakeholders to support the continued development of a community of care for Pacific workers.

The Australian Engagement Manager – Industry & Regional Relationships will oversee PLFs engagement with Australian state and territory governments on policy and planning issues relating to the PALM scheme. They will also build awareness of the scheme and engage on strategic workforce planning issues with industry bodies in the Agriculture, Horticulture, Aged Care, Construction, Tourism, Hospitality sectors. The State/Territory Manager will also engage and educate other labour mobility stakeholders based regionally including country liaison officers, community organisations, councils, state and federal government agencies.

Responsibilities:

Leadership and Management:

• Provide leadership to state and regionally based staff to ensure they remain aligned with the culture, practices, and processes of the PLF.
• Contribute to the development of standard operating procedures for PLFs regional operations.
• Oversee operational procedures and complementary practices for delivery of PLFs regional relationship management services across Australia.
• Supervise and provide support to state and regionally based staff including:
  • Facilitation of team/ individual meetings
  • Human resource management including assessing activities, workloads and performance management
  • Facilitate induction of new staff (as required)
  • Monitoring work plans
  • Ensuring staff compliance with PLF systems and polices
  • Acting as an escalation point on state manager and stakeholder issues.
• Provide timely and accurate reporting through PLF systems, including health and safety incident, fraud and child protection reporting as well as project activity reporting to PLF and DFAT.
• Support appropriate data management (and use) practices across relevant functions and team members.
• Review of relevant communication and media content relating to the regional approach
• Support for PLF and PALM scheme commitments such as promotion of gender equality, disability and social inclusion, as well as continuous improvements in cultural competence, including Indigenous Australian engagement and the Pacific Islands/Timor Leste.

AE Relationship Management:

• Oversee all state and regional AE relationship management activities, acting as an escalation point on issues and ensuring that relationship management functions work seamlessly with the Brisbane based relationship management, worker and AE support functions.
• Provide ad-hoc relationship management services to PALM scheme Approved Employers (AEs), across Australia.
• Relationship management activities include providing employer onboarding support, AE education & capacity building, support to recruitment planning & coordination and issue & exception-based management.
• Where appropriate the Australian Engagement Manager – Industry & Regional Relationships will work with the Worker & Employer Support Service (WESS) team to identify/provide appropriate support in response to worker critical incidents aligned to the response and escalation process.

Partner Management:

• Cultivate high priority stakeholder relationships at a state and regional level, including with regional partner organisations, with a vision for stakeholder buy in and long-term system change to support the PALM scheme.
• Oversee all relationships and contracts with PLF regional partner organisations, which may include Councils and Chambers of Commerce.
• Provide oversight to identification of new regional partners, based on required needs.
• Provision of capacity building and information sharing to regional partner organisations as required.

Strategic Industry Engagement:

• Manage PLFs engagement with industry organisations to promote the scheme and explore workforce planning issues relating to the industry.
• Engage with large prospective employers to promote the scheme.
• Represent the PLF and PALM scheme at key State/Territory industry events.
• Inform the adaptation of the PLF service functions and PALM scheme to industry needs.

Broader Stakeholder Engagement:

• Oversee Australian state and territory government engagement on policy and planning issues relating to the PALM scheme.
• Oversee engagement and education of other labour mobility stakeholders based in the state or territory region including country liaison officers, community organisations, councils, state and federal government agencies for the benefit of PALM scheme workers and Approved Employers.
• In conjunction with other PLF stakeholders, provide oversight of Ministerial, international delegations and DFAT/PLF staff, and where appropriate, sending country representative, visits to regional locations.
• Work closely with DFAT and internal PLF stakeholders on all activities in the stream to ensure alignment of activities for employers and workers.

Qualifications and Experience:

The Australia Engagement Manager – Industry & Regional Relationships will possess the following qualifications and experience:

• Significant work experience in team leadership and management.
• Demonstrated high level relationship management and partnership skills, including the ability to negotiate beneficial outcomes for a wide range of stakeholders with diverse interests and expectations.
• Well-honed management skills, with the ability to lead a multi-cultural team based across multiple locations.
• Project management, time management, reporting and analysis skills, including ability to manage budgets and write progress reports.
• Experience engaging with senior industry stakeholders and driving business development in one or more of the following industries: aged care, construction, hospitality, agriculture, horticulture, meat processing, forestry, fisheries, tourism, maintenance and trades.
• Experience engaging with state, federal and local government on policy issues relating to industry.
• Demonstrated knowledge of labour mobility in Australia, including the challenges and issues and experience working effectively with stakeholders from different cultures including Indigenous Australian and the Pacific Islands/Timor Leste, as well as making considerations for gender equality, disability and social inclusion or the ability to learn quickly.
• Highly developed information management and analytical skills, evidence-based judgement, ability to prioritise, and work calmly under pressure.
• Excellent written and oral communications skills with demonstrated experience in using communications strategically for advocacy purposes.
• High level proficiency in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and web browsers.
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously with limited supervision, to work to deadlines, and to balance competing priorities.

• Driver’s licence and flexibility to undertake frequent travel, including after hours and weekends and including interstate and international.

  This position is classified at C3 under the DFAT Aid Adviser Remuneration Framework (ARF). The successful candidate will be offered an initial contract to 30 June 2023. This is a Brisbane based role with options for flexible working. Candidates who are willing to relocate for the position must do so at their own expense.