About CARE Australia

CARE Australia supports women around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. We work in partnership with local communities to provide equal opportunities for women that they have long been denied: the ability to earn an income, gain access to their fair share of resources, to lead and participate in decisions that affect their lives, and to be able to withstand the increasing impacts of climate disasters and other crises.

CARE Australia is a member of the CARE International confederation. We strive for a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.

About the Department

The Enabling Services Department is responsible for partnering with CARE Australia to deliver a range of enabling support services and advice relating to strategy, governance, risk, quality, compliance, human resources, financial management, business improvement and information technology. The Department plays a pivotal role in organisational change by collaborating with business units to design and deliver organisational improvements, planning and enabling the delivery of desired organisational outcomes and the meeting of/or exceeding of agreed service delivery expectations. The Department also provides support to a range of international CARE Country Offices and liaises with the CARE International confederation.

About the Role

The Head of Business Improvement is a role focussed on continuous improvement and strategic capability building with a focus on strengthening our planning, business improvement, project, change, business intelligence, reporting, risk, quality, governance and compliance processes, systems and capabilities.

The dual objectives of the role are to find ways for us to become more efficient and effective from an organisation-wide perspective (using both a continual improvement mindset as well as bigger picture thinking to initiate strategic change projects), whilst also overseeing and strengthening our existing risk, governance, audit, policy and compliance functions.

The Business Improvement focus of the role will include identifying, planning and implementing tangible improvements to how we operate so that we can swiftly and continuously improve our operational efficiency and effectiveness whilst also laying the foundations and enabling conditions for us to achieve our strategic intent and also respond in a timely manner to our ever-changing external environment. It will include simplifying our policy and business process environment.

In addition to improving existing business activity and extending our business capabilities to support strategic outcomes, the role will oversee and guide a broad range of existing risk, governance, audit, policy, insurance and compliance functions. This includes leading our safeguarding and safety and security functions.

Initially the role will have the existing Risk and Compliance Team reporting to them, but the scope and capabilities of the team will potentially expand (as needed, on a time limited basis) to help us improve and strengthen our planning, business process review, business improvement, project management and business intelligence capabilities (including data, reporting, analysis and information management capabilities).

Whilst additional team members may be required from time to time to support our business improvement activities, this role will also need to directly contribute to delivering business improvement activity as well as supporting other roles and teams across the organisation to identify and implement improvements.

In addition to a very strong internal focus, the role will collaborate with the Country Offices for which CARE Australia is the lead member as well as represents CARE Australia in high-level meetings, working groups and discussions with CARE International, Country Offices for which we are not the lead member and peer organisations and peak bodies as required.

CARE managers exemplify our commitment to the prevention of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, and the protection of children in our work. CARE managers are role models for their team, and consistently demonstrate our values of Courage, Ambition, Respect and Equality.

Key Responsibilities

The role will work collaboratively across CARE Australia to understand existing arrangements and practices and then work to review and improve business processes, practices and capabilities that enable the organisation to deliver on our strategic intent. In addition to identifying ways to make us more efficient and effective, the role will ensure we have appropriate governance, policy and controls in place to both manage risk (including safeguarding), facilitate continuous improvement and empower staff to achieve strategic intent.

Some of the key functions of the role will include:

Business Improvement Focus:

• explore ways to design (and then deliver) operational excellence, with a focus on interrogating complex business problems and processes and initiating actions to introduce improvements (big or small)
• look for ways to simplify, streamline, redesign and/or reimagine business processes, including liaising with the Technology Team to identify opportunities to automate processes and find innovative ways for CARE Australia’s information and digital solutions to support efficient, effective and customer-service oriented processes and outcomes
• strengthen and improve our approach to developing and implementing policies, so that they are simple, fit for purpose and successfully implemented
• strengthen our organisational planning and reporting capabilities, including facilitating and developing a range of plans (organisational plans, departmental plans, Country Office Plans, project plans and planning for BAU critical activity), facilitating dynamic resource planning to ensure plans are being delivered (ie sourcing, mobilising & allocating resourcing) and reporting against plan progress
• initiate, design, deliver and/or facilitate improvement projects
• facilitate the change management required to support business improvement activities, including ways to mitigate risk or strengthen compliance capability
• over time, strengthen CARE Australia’s ability to take data-driven decisions, through building our data analysis, data governance, information management and reporting capabilities
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement through engagement with business leaders and employees at all levels

Risk and Compliance Focus:

• lead our existing risk and compliance team, continuing to find ways to strengthen and simplify our risk, governance and compliance functions (including our safeguarding capability)
• manage the risk, governance and compliance frameworks for CARE Australia; including oversight of organisational safeguarding functions including child protection and protection from sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse
• Coordinate and support organisational compliance with all legislative and regulatory obligations, including accreditation and other quality standards and organisational governance requirements
• Coordinate development and implementation of corporate policies
• Conduct compliance checks, including internal audits and risk assessments
• Work with other key compliance roles in the CARE confederation to support safety and security
• Support CARE Australia’s Senior Management Team to respond to crises through coordination of crisis management responses
• Manage CARE Australia’s insurance requirements and business support functions, including travel activity

Essential

To be successful in this role, we are looking for someone who can translate our strategic vision and intent into practical processes and ways of working to make us operationally efficient and effective. You will be ready and willing to roll up your sleeves to work from the ground up to build strategic capabilities across planning, business improvement, project management and business intelligence, whilst continuing to strengthen our risk, governance, safeguarding and compliance activities.

• Tertiary qualifications (and substantial experience) relating to Business Improvement, Business Process Review, Transformation and/or Organisational Redesign
• A deep understanding of Service Improvement methodologies and a true passion for humans and continuous improvement (experience with human centred design, lean, business analysis or other like methodologies an advantage)
• A demonstrated ability to use a variety of problem-solving approaches to frame a problem, gather and analyse quantitative and qualitative data, construct process and value stream maps to identify and prioritise improvement opportunities, reduce process variation, establish a baseline and define success measures
• Demonstrated experience in initiating, leading and managing improvement projects
• Strong experience in Change Management
• Experience with risk management and quality management methods and techniques (Risk, Compliance and or Quality qualifications desirable), including the development of policies and procedures and supporting oversight and implementation of policies
• Experience with designing or maintaining organisational governance systems and processes (including familiarity with DFAT standards, Australian laws, rules and regulations relevant to the NFP sector)
• Experience facilitating development of plans, and reporting against them
• Experience with data gathering, analysis, reporting and developing business intelligence systems
• Experience of audit and compliance processes and demonstrated ability to develop and apply controls and identify improvement opportunities
• Customer focused with the ability to understand the business needs, objectives and constraints of an environment
• Services process based mindset, strong analytical skills and excellent interpersonal and communication skills

Desirable

• NFP sector knowledge and experience
• Knowledge and understanding of opportunities for technology to improve business outcomes
• Passionate about transformational change and continuous improvement
• Curiosity

What we can offer you

• A flexible and supportive working environment
• Generous salary packaging benefits
• 17.5% leave loading
• Professional development and training opportunities

CARE Australia will seek information from job applicants’ previous employers about incidents of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment, and/or child abuse the applicant may have been found guilty to have committed or about which an investigation was in the process of being carried out at the time of the termination of the applicant’s employment with that employer. By submitting the application, the job applicant confirms that s/he has no objection to CARE Australia requesting the information specified above.

CARE Australia is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and encourage applications from people living with a disability and/or have lived experience of disability. We also encourage Pacific Islander people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to apply.

How to Apply?

Please review the Candidate Information Pack available on our website and complete the online application form by clicking ‘Apply Now’ via the portal on our website. Please ensure you attach your CV and cover letter addressing the selection criteria (max 2 pages). After submitting your application you will receive an automatic confirmation of receipt. Only applicants who fully address the criteria will be considered.

This will be conducted as a rolling recruitment process, with shortlisting and interviews being completed as applications are received. Please submit your application ASAP if you are interested in the role. More information can be found at careaustralia.connxcareers.com/Job/ViewJobs

Questions about the role?

Please contact Sue Cunningham on [email protected] using the subject line: Head of Business Improvement enquiry via EthicalJobs (please do not email applications to this address).