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The award recognition comes off the back of an unprecedented and globally challenging 12 months, with QinetiQ Australia excelling in executing its people-first strategy and COVID response to achieve record performance and business growth.

Excellence Awardee, Best Graduate Development Program

QinetiQ Australia’s Graduate Development Program demonstrated agility and flexibility throughout the pandemic, adapting to meet the evolving needs of graduates and the business in the face of unprecedented challenges brought about by COVID.

Our 18-month Graduate Development Program fostered the development of graduates across four states and territories, and nine service areas, including Aerospace Structural Integrity, Explosive Ordnance, Mechanical and Electronic Design, and Advisory Services.

The blended learning approach was developed in consultation with external providers and internal stakeholders, combining hands-on work, formal learning and social learning to provide a program that kept graduates engaged, safe and mentally healthy.

Some winning initiatives included:

• The ‘Isolated – In Good Company’ wellbeing group, incorporating yoga and stretching sessions into graduate schedules;
• Regular team trivia or debate sessions for team building and wellbeing;
• Personality assessment workshops using Lumina Spark to help graduates understand who they are as professionals, rather than students;
• A revised development schedule to increase focus on industry acumen, Defence capability and professional; and
• Coffee chats, monthly meet-ups, additional touchpoints, adjusted pre-boarding journey, and more.

The revised Graduate Development Program’s success is demonstrated by a near-doubling of the cohort size across 2020 and 2021, with high retention across the cohorts.

Excellence Awardee, Employer of Choice (100-999 Employees)

Despite challenges throughout the year, QinetiQ Australia has continued to grow and retain its status as an employer of choice within the Defence Industry.
Throughout the period, our incredible team went above and beyond, to demonstrate dedication and deliver seemingly impossible outcomes that ensured the health, safety, engagement and wellbeing of our employees. Our people-first approach shone through in our leading COVID response plan and increasing levels of employee engagement.

Some of our biggest achievements included:

• Winning the Aviation/Aerospace Australia industry award for Outstanding Diversity Strategy;
• Recruiting 145 new employees into the business during a global pandemic and reaching a new milestone employing over 540 employees;
• Achieving record employee engagement and employee retention metrics;
• Furthering our progress against our D&I strategy, reaching 40% female representation at an executive leadership level, increasing the participation of women, veterans and Indigenous Australians through targeted recruitment programs;
• Recruiting and managing our largest ever early career cohorts; and
• Achieved the Workplace Gender Equality Agency ‘Employer of Choice’ Citation for the 3rd Consecutive Year.
  
  

Excellence Awardee, Hays Australian HR Team of the Year (≤1000)

During unprecedented and challenging times, QinetiQ Australia’s People and Capability team worked remotely across five states and territories to deliver strategic people outcomes to support the business to achieve a sixth consecutive year of record performance and growth.
The team went above and beyond to deliver key strategic outcomes for the business including:

• Record recruitment to support business growth;
• Record employee engagement and retention results;
• Seamless COVID response and approach to flexibility;
• Large scale SAP SuccessFactors implementation;
• Progression against Diversity and Inclusion strategy and goals;
• Delivery of our largest ever overlapping graduate programs representing 6% of our workforce; and
• Several industry award wins and finalist selections.

Working with agility, QinetiQ Australia’s HR Team delivered impressive results despite the challenges arising from the global pandemic. They have helped create a culture and brand in the market where QinetiQ is known for looking after their people and being a great place to work.

To learn more about Life at QinetiQ and to explore job opportunities, visit Life at QinetiQ or contact Jessica Ciccozzi.