Explore research partnership opportunities with the Future of Work Institute Partner with us Explore research partnership opportunities with the Future of Work Institute Partner with the Future of Work Institute Partnering with the Future Work Institute connects you with leading organisational psychology researchers who can help tackle your organisation’s most pressing challenges. Our research has helped organisations navigate complex workplace challenges, implement evidence-based solutions and achieve measurable impact across sectors. We provide opportunities for engagement and partnership at all points of the impact cycle Challenge framing Involves opportunities for discussion and planning to identify important future issues and establish the institute’s priority directions Collaborative projects The engine room where applied research is conducted across multiple themes Application and dissemination The production of practical resources including online tools, training programs and policy guidelines Evaluation Involves assessing effectiveness and building an evidence base for effective practices We have helped major organisations solve the following challenges: Equipping the mining industry with evidence-based recommendations into creating positive cultural change Applying work design interventions to address psychosocial risks within the healthcare and social assistance industry Working with organisations to understand their employees’ perception of their wellbeing and engagement Enhancing human capabilities and optimise overall system performance between humans and unmanned autonomous vehicles Investigating responsible and effective use of generative AI technologies in the workplace See our list of partners Our impact cycle Interested in partnering with us? Contact us for more information

We welcome PhD candidates who are passionate about improving work and contributing to healthier, more productive workforces. Study with us Browse current opportunities and find out why FOWI is the perfect place for a PhD. Is a PhD the right next step for me? Are you excited by the idea of conducting original research that could influence how millions of people experience work? Do you thrive on deep, sustained investigation into complex workplace problems? If you are intellectually curious, passionate about addressing complex workplace challenges, and eager to make a meaningful impact through research, pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) may be the ideal next step. At the Future of Work Institute (FOWI), we welcome candidates who are passionate about improving work and contributing to healthier, more productive workforces. What support and funding options are available? Eligible candidates may receive a Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, funded by the Australian Government. Each scholarship includes: Tax-free living stipend Tuition fee offset Additional allowances for research expenses In addition to financial support, you will benefit from a rich research experience, including: Opportunities to collaborate on industry-funded projects that shape real-world policy and practice Individualised supervision and mentoring from internationally recognised researchers A collaborative, inclusive environment with opportunities for personal and professional growth Publication and writing support to help you build a strong academic profile Access to conferences and networking opportunities to connect with global experts and peers Illustrative research projects (2026) PhD Project: Generative Artificial Intelligence Disruption in Talent Acquisition The project aims to unpack how generative artificial intelligence co-pilots will impact both the assessment of candidates seeking paid work and the evaluation of incumbents’ job performance. Supervisor: Professor Patrick Dunlop PhD Project: Motivational Assumptions of Leaders The project involves a comprehensive business school curriculum assessment, following the development of business school students’ motivational assumptions, developing a valid psychometric assessment of motivational assumptions, and testing different methods to change motivational assumptions. Supervisor: Professor Marylene Gagne PhD Project: Motivational Architecture This project involves developing and validating organisational design assessments across a variety of organisations and assess their influence on (1) manager’s leadership styles, and (2) employee motivation, performance, and well-being. Supervisor: Professor Marylene Gagne PhD Project: Modelling Human-Automation Team Decision Making This project addresses a major gap in our understanding of human-automation interaction, with direct implications for safety, productivity, and technology design in domains like aviation, defence and health care. By advancing theory and translating it to applied contexts, this project offers a rare bridge between psychological science and critical workplace challenges. Supervisor: Dr Luke Strickland Expressions of Interest have now closed Download our prospectus to learn more about the PhD experience at FOWI, explore available research projects and find detailed information on Curtin University’s Higher Degree by Research (HDR) application process. Download Current PhD candidates Contact Natalya Desai Project title: Adapting to new technologies in multidisciplinary healthcare units Natalya is investigating the introduction of two new technologies: Remote Monitoring System, designed to improve the quality of healthcare by 24/7 monitoring of acute patients, and the Undiagnosed Diseases Program (UDP), designed to increase the diagnostic rate of rare diseases. Supervisors: Professor Mark Griffin, Professor Marylene Gagne and Dr Georgia Hay Contact Eyüp İlker Camgöz Project title: Want more Leaders? Think Enriched Work Design Ilker is investigating whether enrichment of one's work design (which basically means the "awesomeness level" of one's work in terms of psychological factors) affects one's aspirations to become a leader (i.e.., leadership motivation, intentions and actual emergence), which may help us tackle the leadership shortage. Supervisors: Professor Sharon Parker, Dr Florian Klonek and Dr Anu Jolly. Contact Annika Mertens Project title: The Role of Work Design in the Technology Implementation Process in Healthcare In collaboration with Perth Children’s Hospital and Fiona Stanley Hospital, Annika is investigating how a new technology introduced at work changes existing work design and how existing work design impacts the technology implementation process. Supervisors: Professor Sharon Parker, Dr Madison Kho and Dr Gareth Baynam. Contact Rachel Xia Project title: The social class effect on employee selection Rachel's thesis aims to investigate how job candidates' social class signals influence recruiters' hiring evaluation and decisions, with the ultimate goal of helping organisations develop effective practices to mitigate unintentional discrimination and improve hiring quality. Supervisors: Professor Patrick Dunlop, Professor Amy Tian and Associate Professor Serena Wee. Contact Shannon Rowley Project title: Employee Recruitment Messaging, Anticipated Universal Needs Satisfaction, Value Congruence, and Individual Characteristics Shannon is investigating if employee recruitment activities, including information provided on career websites and job advertisements impacts jobseeker attraction and pursuit intentions through a motivation and fit perception lens. Supervisors: Professor Patrick Dunlop and Professor Marylene Gagne. Contact Yijing Liao Project title: Understanding how Generative AI Tools Influence Task Performance: The Role of Skill Level and Human Learning Yijing's research employs a range of experimental interventions to explore how Generative AI tools can impact workers learning or 'skill levelling'. Supervisors: Professor Sharon Parker, Dr Claire Mason and Professor Eva Kyndt. Contact Guofan Li Project title: Will AI Hire Me? - How and when AI Decisions Affect Applicant's Psychological Mechanisms, Reactions, and Intentions Guofan is exploring how AI decisions affect workers' psychological mechanisms, reactions, and intentions, as well as providing intervention measures to alleviate workers' negative reactions. Supervisors: Professor Sharon Parker, Dr Fangfang Zhang, and Professor Patrick Dunlop. Contact Wanghuan Lin Project title: A Unified Cognitive Model for Understanding Human Operators' use Automated Advice Wanghaun is using computational models to explore the affects of automation on human learning and decision-making, her research will examine if an over-reliance and dependance on information aids can influence cognitive processes, and whether key task-related factors such as workload and time pressure are impacted. Supervisors: Dr Luke Strickland and Professor Mark Griffin. What our students say "Professor Gagne is a walking example of a need-supportive and committed leader who brings out the best in people." - Dan Agate, PhD Candidate from the United States Learn about Dan's story PhD Alumni Dan Agate Project title: The Communication Dynamics Behind Team Motivation Emergence Completion year: 2025 Supervisors: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Marylène Gagné, Dr Florian Klonek, and Professor Thomas O'Neill Eva Zellman Project title: The role of leadership in managing an ageing and age-diverse workforce Completion year: 2024 Supervisors: Associate Professor Daniela Andrei and John Curtin Distinguished Professor Sharon Parker Hayley Moore Thesis title: I Can't Get No (Need) Satisfaction: Applying Basic Psychological Needs Theory to Foster Human Connection and Improved Applicant Reactions to Asynchronous Video Interviews Completion year: 2023 Supervisors: Professor Patrick Dunlop, John Curtin Distinguished Professor Marylène Gagné, Dr Djurre Holtrop Lucinda Iles Thesis title: An Investigation into the Organisational Challenges Associated with An Ageing and Age Diverse Workforce Completion year: 2023 Supervisors: Associate Professor Daniela Andrei and John Curtin Distinguished Professor Sharon Parker Notable achievements: Hal Kendig Prize for Best ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) PhD Thesis 2023 Cheryl Sykes Thesis title: Thinking Beyond 'Sticks' in Australian Employment Services: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective Completion year: 2022 Supervisors: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Marylène Gagné and Professor John Phillimore Cheryl Yam Thesis title: Examining the Curvilinear Effects of Autonomy at Work Completion year: 2022 Supervisors: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Sharon Parker and Dr Laura Fruhen Notable achievements: Best paper in the Journal of Organisational Behaviour (2019) Belinda Cham Thesis title: Endurance in Extreme Work Environments Completion year: 2021 Supervisors: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Mark Griffin, Associate Professor Daniela Andrei, Dr Micah Kate Wilson, Dr Sam Huf Notable achievements: Eureka Prize Finalist (2021) Bin Wang Thesis title: Thrive in a Digital Age: Understanding ICT-enabled Work Experiences through the Lens of Work Design Completion year: 2020 Supervisors: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Sharon Parker and Dr Yukun Liu Notable achievements: Recipient of the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad Fangfang Zhang Thesis title: Reorienting Job Crafting Research: Theoretical Clarification and Novel Investigations into Demands Crafting Completion year: 2020 Supervisors: John Curtin Distinguished Professor Sharon Parker and Professor Marylène Gagné Notable achievements: Best paper in the Journal of Organisational Behaviour (2019) 10 reasons to do your PhD at FOWI Learn more Testimonials from our PhD Alumni "Knowing that the research I do has a real impact on people in society, is a really rewarding experience." - Dr Cheryl Yam, FOWI Research Fellow and PhD Alumni Learn about Cheryl's story "One of the best aspects of doing a PhD at FOWI is that I can do both of these things at the same time. I receive great mentorship and guidance to develop my own research expertise, but I also get to conduct research that is impactful, multidisciplinary and collaborative... This has made my PhD journey more meaningful, interesting and varied." - Dr Belinda Cham, FOWI Research Fellow and PhD Alumni Learn about Belinda's story "The Centre for Transformative Work Design is a place where Work Design is researched, understood and practiced. You can hardly ask for a better environment in which to learn and conduct research." - Jia-Xin Tay (Jay) Ready to begin your PhD journey? Submit your Expression of Interest by 18 August 2025. Download our prospectus to learn more about the PhD experience at FOWI, explore available research projects and find detailed information on Curtin University’s Higher Degree by Research (HDR) application process. Download

Our Partners Browse through our extensive list of government, industry and not-for-profit partners Research partners The Future of Work Institute collaborates with other research partners in order to fulfill its vision of helping people and organisations thrive in the digital age. Work Science Center CEPAR The ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) produces world class research on population ageing. The Centre is a unique collaboration bringing together academia, government and industry to address one of the major social challenges of the twenty first century. CIAO Centre of Expertise Inclusive Organisations Research Partners Industry partners The Centre works with industry partners across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Corporate Consultancy Societies and Interest Groups Not-for-profit Government partners The Centre works with a diverse range of state and federal government departments across Australia. State and Federal Interested in partnering with us? Contact us for more information

MAPNet Rethinking work skills for the future of work Project team Project lead Professor Mark Griffin Project member Melissa Chapman Project member Katrina Hosszu Project member Megan Orchard Project member Professor Sharon Parker Project member Professor Karina Jorritsma Project member Professor Marylène Gagné Project member Professor Patrick Dunlop MAPNet overview Our approach To explain the deep structure of work tasks. The MAPNet approach allows organisations to identify the multitude of skills and activities that are fundamental for enabling success in uncertain and interdependent work environments. The MAPNet framework details key skills required for employees and organisations to be successful for the future of work. Understanding the future of work The changing nature of work is a growing concern. Technological innovation, automation, big data, and demographic changes such as longevity are leading to substantial disruption across industry sectors. There is an urgent need for a better understanding of future work skills and how they develop. What is driving the change in work? Governments, organisations, and communities are grappling with the demands of future work. We have reviewed the key trends that demand newways of thinking about skills and work requirements. MAPNet skills Foundation Skills: Mastery The foundation of MAPNet is the concept of mastery; the ability to perform core tasks with a high level of proficiency. Transformational Skills: Adaptivity Adaptivity involves adjustingoneself and reconfiguring responses in a changing environment. Through adaptivity, people apply their current knowledge and skills to new situations that are more diverse and more complex than the ones they have previously encountered. Transformational Skills: Proactivity Proactivity is a set of self-starting, action oriented behaviours that change the situation or oneself to improve personal or organisational effectiveness. Two types of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) have been noted as key to proactivity; a thorough understanding of one’s work (job-related KSAs) and context relevant knowledge. Network Skills: Local Networks Team work in local networks allows individuals to achieve something greater than their individual capabilities through utilising a network of skills and abilities. Networked Skills: Complex Networks Modern work often requires a complex network of skills achieved through multiteam systems. Multiteam systems are defined as when two or more teams work interdependently towards shared goals. Integration Skills: Transformational Networks The above skills do not function in isolation and high performance is achieved when individuals integrate transformational and network skills. Building blocks for the future We have defined some of the most commonly noted key abilities, which we suggest as the building blocks of future skills, as outlined by the MAPNet framework: Critical thinking Problem solving Collaboration and communication Creativity and Innovation Information and Communication Technology (ICT) / Technical literacy Foundational skills and STEM Developing and supporting the MAPNet skills The key conditions and systems that are needed to develop and support the MAPNet skills are: Work design Motivation Teams Selection and training Leadership To support and develop the MAPNet skills, adaption in these areas are usually required at the organisation level. However, there are also a number of opportunities for individuals to engage their own sense of agency in preparing for the future of work. MAPNet report Download the report summary Download the full report

Undiagnosed Diseases Program Project members Project lead Professor Sharon Parker Project lead Florian Klonek Project lead Georgia Hay Overview We have partnered with Genetic Services WA and the Office of Population Health Genomics (OPHG) to study the Western Australian Undiagnosed Diseases Program (UDP-WA), an interdisciplinary ‘expert panel’ which reviews the cases of chronically undiagnosed patients. The aim The current project is to understand the cognitive, motivational, and social-psychological factors that contribute to or inhibit the success and sustainability of the program. Data collection is ongoing and includes interviews with the UDP-WA expert clinicians, short written surveys, and systematic observation of the monthly expert panel meetings. With the final goal being to develop a evidence-based recommendations on how to further enhance and sustain the success of the UDP-WA, specifically by improving clinician engagement and communication in the expert panel meetings. These recommendations will be developed in consultation with the OPHG and UDP-WA management team, and will include follow-up evaluations. Industry outcomes Building a fit-for-purpose framework The proposed immediate outcome of the project is a comprehensive, multi-level framework of the UDP-WA that describes the factors that contribute to the current program’s success. Communication of our findings Dissemination of these findings will provide significant support for the further globalisation and sustainability of UDPs internationally.

BGC Wellness Project members Project lead Professor Mark Griffin Project lead Daniela Andrei Overview A couple of years ago, staff from the Future of Work Institute began working with of Australia’s top ten private companies BGC. BGC is a family-owned West Australian group of companies, with interests in construction, manufacturing of building products, mining, industrial maintenance, heavy road haulage and property management. The Institute is working in partnership with BGC’s leadership team to provide a fresh perspective on employee wellness. Specifically to ensure BGC’s safety and health initiatives are focussed on both mental and physical health and the initiatives are able to be evaluated. Our Mission In collaboration with BGC Contracting, the research revealed a link between their employees’ wellness and organisational performance. One finding that was particularly striking was that work environment factors, such as role clarity, job demands, job security, and co-worker support were the most significant contributors to employee wellbeing; much more than any personal or demographic factors (e.g. family support). Our Impact From a return on investment and effort perspective, BGC were able to demonstrate that initiatives they had implemented based on our research scored higher on wellness metrics were also the most successful projects in terms of profitability, performance, and safety. A real opportunity to directly intervene by addressing work-related causes of stress specific to their organisation. Shaping the future of wellness at BGC Contracting BGC plans to continue implementing initiatives based on its wellness strategy in order to meet their goal of reducing the overall health risks of their employees by 10%. The company will continue to measure the mental and physical wellbeing of their employees in order to monitor and track progress. BGC intends to implement the Institute’s Thrive at Work initiative across other sites, based on feedback regarding its success, and to develop more targeted interventions. This will allow the company to continue to create a thriving workforce.

ARC Training Centre for Transforming Maintenance through Data Science Project members Project lead Professor Mark Griffin Project lead Eden Li Overview Transform the maintenance management process Our vision to enable Australian companies to lead the way maintenance is conducted, increasing both productivity and profitability through the automation of the work management stages. Visit the website to learn more Purpose of the Centre To deliver the next generation of data science solutions focused on the problems that industry needs, which is to ensure the efficient and effective maintenance execution. Our academic-and-industry partnership will deliver the next generation of data science products coupled with training to ensure efficient and effective maintenance execution. Enable Maintenance Work Management by providing decision support solutions for activity that need a ‘human-in –loop’ for maintenance and automating activities that don’t. A framework around “person, tasks, and culture” will be developed that is specific to the maintenance context of the organisation and involves stakeholders from the maintainer, the engineer, and the manager groups. It is essential that the overall system, not just individual elements, supports the translation of analytic models into business practice. The framework Research themes The Centre is a partnership between Curtin University, The University of Western Australia, CSIRO and industry partners Alcoa, BHP and Roy Hill, as well as CORE Innovation Hub and the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia. To enable this transformation, the Centre will focus on the three key roles in a new digitally-driven maintenance management system. These are: The maintainers responsible for executing work on the assets and making crucial observations about as-found condition of the assets, The engineers responsible for the models and analysis necessary for fault detection, asset health assessment and remaining useful life predictions, and quantifying uncertainty, and The maintenance managers responsible for ensuring that decisions at the system level balance cost, risk and performance. Support the maintainer Triage support Support the engineer Managing uncertainty Support the manager Decision making Each research themes has a series of three blocks of work: Data driven The development of fit-for-purpose data sets, these will be provided by our Partner organisations.The aim here is that all data captured by the maintainers is machine readable, the data is cleaned and stored, and captured data in a way that is repeatable and requires minimal data wrangling by users. Building Suitable models. The data sets will be used to build suitable models, taking us to our second block of work. Models are themselves developed, validated, stored and updated in a trackable way. The use of these models by decision makers is also tracked and performance changes measured and assessed. Computational efficiency. The Centre has employed software engineers to ensure research outcomes are more easily translated into existing operations and/or provisioned via a consistent platform We understand that models by themselves don't deliver value; we also need to change organisational psychology/culture/training/software architecture/business process. What we believe makes this Centre special is that this is built-in alongside our translation themes. Translation themes The output of maintenance analytics creates new decision-making challenges for maintainers, engineers, and managers. The most significant risk is that the information is simply not used in Organisations. This theme will adopt a multilevel perspective to build a comprehensive picture of the factors that support decision making when using complex data. This aspect of the project translates the core research programs into business practice by integrating user issues hierarchically at three levels of analysis: Cognitive is particularly important for maintainers using information delivered through novel media and in a context that is different to traditional maintenance systems, Task demands is particularly important for engineers designing models, and for the maintainers using models. Use of data will be inhibited if the output of models is not a meaningful part of the overall task requirements of maintainers or generates tasks that cause fatigue, boredom, or distress Organisational culture is particularly important for managers implementing decisions based on analytic models. For example, if an underlying cultural belief places primacy on the intuition and implicit skill of senior managers, then analytics models can undermine the role of managers and limit the use of data output This translation project will work with the industry partners to implement a plan based on research at each level to integrate across the three levels.

Engaging Scouts Leaders Partnership with Curtin University and The University of Western Australia research team Project members Project lead Professor Marylène Gagné Project lead Professor Patrick Dunlop Project lead Djurre Holtrop Project member Jane Chong Project member Professor John Cordery Project member Christine Soo Scouts research overview Volunteer Recruitment, Retention & Engagement to find ways to attract and retain more adult volunteers to deliver Scouts youth programs.Why have you committed to staying with Scouts Australia is important to us and with this understanding we hope to improve the retention of greater numbers of our leaders… – Chris Bates, former Chief Commissioner Scouts Australia (Chiefy) Read our Research poster As Scouts organisations across the country would know, developing effective recruitment, training and retention strategies are essential for non-profit organisations to deliver quality youth programs. Non-profit organisations such as Scouts often struggle to attract and retain a sufficient number of volunteers, resulting youth who would like to become Scouts, but often find the experience challenging due to long wait lists. The key purpose of this partnership was to help Scouts find successful, innovative solutions to attract and engage volunteers who are crucial for delivering its youth programs and vision. Prof Marylène Gagné, Dr Patrick Dunlop, and Dr Djurre Holtrop from the Curtin Future of Work Institute and Dr Christine Soo from the UWA Business School, along with Professor John Cordery from Curtin University, provided their expertise to improve recruitment and retention at Scouts from 2016-2020. Together with Scouts WA, Scouts SA, Scouts VIC and Scouts TAS, they have been awarded an impressive Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant to try new state-of-the-art recruitment, training and communications strategies to improve the engagement and retention of Scouts volunteers.

Emergency Services Volunteer Experience Project Project members Project lead Jane Chong Project lead Professor Marylène Gagné Project lead Professor Patrick Dunlop Project lead Djurre Holtrop Overview Improving the experience of new volunteers Volunteers’ socialisation being one of their first experiences with the organisation is shown to significantly influence their engagement, motivation, and intentions to stay or withdraw from an organisation. Failure to socialise newcomers is known to lead to lower levels of commitment and premature departure from organisations, leading to an organisation not capitalising on their recruitment and training investments. Essentially, poor socialisation is financially and reputationally costly for an organisation. On the other hand, effective socialisation can lead to members feeling engaged, competent, and socially integrated with others in the organisation. The goal Therefore, it is important to optimise the socialisation process. DFES is partnering with Curtin University on research looking at improving the experience of new volunteers in the Volunteer Emergency Services. We are working to identify the most effective ways and biggest challenges to on-board and train new volunteers. Outcomes The purpose of this research is to develop tools, resources, and approaches that can help volunteer leaders improve the experience for new volunteers. With volunteers’ first hand input, we can identify important strategies to make sure future emergency service volunteers have a positive experience.

The Risk of Age Discrimination in Potential Appraisals of Employees Project members Project lead Giverny De Boeck Project member Nicky Dries Project member Prisca Brosi Overview The purpose of this research was to evidence the higher susceptibility of potential appraisals to age and gender bias in comparison to performance appraisals. To test our hypothesis empirically, we analysed two large archival datasets, one from a German chemical multinational and one from a Belgian finance company, using regression analyses and structural equation modelling. We also conducted a vignette experiment to replicate our findings, while keeping all other factors constant. Our results Showed that potential appraisals were biased against older employees who received systematically lower ratings than younger employees, and that this negative age effect was stronger for potential than for performance appraisals. Moreover, age also affected pay raises and promotions in the next year via potential ratings. Our experiment showed that the different scores of older and younger employees could not be attributed to differences in competence level, meaning that they reflected actual bias. For gender, effects were largely absent. In conclusion Our results suggest that potential appraisals entail a serious risk for age discrimination in organisations, because they structurally limit the career opportunities of older employees, creating a so-called ‘silver ceiling’. The collaboration Industry collaboration between researchers of the Centre for Transformative Work Design and two large companies: A chemical multinational corporation based in Germany, and an organisation active in the financial and insurance services industry in Belgium. Serves the mission of the Centre of Excellence for Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) and, specifically, the research stream on ‘Organisations and the Mature Workforce’ led by Prof. Sharon Parker which aims to deliver solutions to one of the major economic and social challenges of the 21st century. Jointly funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) as well as the Flemish Research Council (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - FWO). Industry outcomes Evidence backed by data Provide evidence for and identify actual sources of bias in organisations using statistical analyses to help employers decide where to target the investment of their resources. Build on theoretical knowledge Advise organisations on how to tackle bias (i.e., using a contextualised- rather than a competency-based approach to prevent age bias when identifying employee potential) Solution orientated Articulate suggestions for organisations and governments about how they can better manage demographic changes in the future. Promote fairness Develop fair appraisal procedures in organisations’ human resource management to break the ‘silver ceiling’ and keep older employees motivated to work longer.

Recruitment Roadmap Achieving Clarity, Diversity, and Support for Emergency Volunteers Project members Project lead Professor Patrick Dunlop Project lead Professor Marylène Gagné Project lead Djurre Holtrop Project member Hawa Muhummad Farid Project member Darja Kragt Project member Liz Pritchard Project member Aleksandra Luksyte Overview The Future of Work Institute (FOWI) has partnered with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) to deliver organisational resources that work to improve recruitment and retention practices of emergency service volunteers. The research was undertaken through a combination of questionnaires and interviews with volunteers and stakeholders, focused on understanding the recruitment, management, and retention activities that volunteers undertake. Project aim Recruiting and retaining volunteers is becoming an increasingly important issue that is being addressed head-on by emergency services organisations across Australia. This partnership empowers volunteer managers located in Brigades, Groups, and Units (BGUs) to effectively manage the recruitment and retention cycle of volunteers. The project has delivered resources that support the development of role descriptions and localised strategies that drive the effective recruitment, onboarding, and management of volunteers. The suite of resources provides a mechanism to recruit a wider diversity of volunteers who can now find a range of attractive operational and non-operational roles within the volunteer emergency services. Furthermore, the resources provide guidance to volunteer managers on how they can provide needed support to ensure volunteer longevity within their BGUs. Resources developed from our research were launched in Waroona with over 50 volunteer leaders in June 2018, followed by a second release of resources at the Western Australian Fire and Emergency Services (WAFES) conference in September 2019. A final resource on succession planning is currently in development for release in late 2020. Industry outcomes The onboarding and management resource Well-received at the Waroona launch and were praised as being “practical” resources that volunteer managers could use. Creating well-defined role descriptions The methods have been applied in recruitment and role advertisements that are currently being promoted on the revamped DFES Recruitment Website. Consolidated resources We created a training tool called “The Volunteer Recruitment Roadmap”, which has been positively and actively received by emergency services volunteers throughout Western Australia. Key findings from the recruitment resources Have contributed to the widely successful state-wide recruitment campaign, ‘Get Behind the Front Line’, that has generated interest into support and non-operational roles advertised within the emergency services.

L.E.A.D model - Safety Leadership Project team Project lead Professor Mark Griffin Project member Tristan Casey Integrating psychology and systems perspectives Developed by Mark Griffin, LEAD is a model for safety leadership that provides organisations with four clear capabilities to target in order to improve safety. Assessment tools, workbooks, workshops and case study materials are available to develop a complete safety leadership program. Read more about this project