Relationships

Downer has been a proud supporter of the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation’s (ALNF) Wall of Hands Appeal since 2013. The ALNF works with Indigenous communities and schools around Australia with the aim that five out of five kids will learn to read – the vital first step to a satisfying and successful life. The ALNF is the first national charity dedicated to raising language, literacy and numeracy standards in Australia. Closing the Indigenous literacy gap is a serious, long-term issue and Downer is a proud supporter of this very worthy cause.

In May 2021, Downer joined national mental health organisation Beyond Blue as its Major Partner. Downer also matched donations from the public for Beyond Blue’s 2021 national fundraising campaign, up to a total of $250,000.

Downer is proud to be a Founding Member of Australian Veterans Employers Coalition (AVEC), which connects transitioning service members, job-seeking veterans and their partners with Australia’s largest community of employers.

AVEC was founded in 2017 by six leading Australian organisations, who recognised their collective strength in offering a wide variety of opportunities, across numerous skill levels in almost all sectors and industries.

Downer employs hundreds of veterans – in the Downer Defence business and across the Downer Group. As a Steering Committee member, we actively drive the ongoing development of AVEC to promote awareness for sustainable engagement and improved employment outcomes for veterans.

Downer is currently working with Workplace Giving Australia on the introduction of a workplace giving program for Downer employees. It is anticipated there will be a soft launch of the program in October 2021 with a whole-of-business launch in February 2022, progressively maturing the program over FY22 to FY24.

Downer has been the Principal Partner of Sunshine Coast Lightning Super Netball club since the team’s inception in 2017. In October 2020, Downer re-committed its support for the Lightning for a further two years, taking our partnership into its fifth and sixth seasons.

“The alignment between Downer and Lightning centres around both organisations recognising that people and relationships are the cornerstone of enduring success,” Lightning CEO, Danielle Smith, said. “Securing Downer as a Principal Partner long term plays a pivotal role in ensuring Lightning’s future viability and it is a partnership that we are excited to maximise in years to come.”

Downer is the first organisation to partner with the Māori All Blacks as well as the Black Ferns and Black Ferns Sevens women’s teams.

Our partnership with NZRU is founded on a core set of values held by both organisations, including: the celebration of diversity; inclusion of all cultures, people and genders; investment in high performance; and investment in the mental and physical wellbeing of our people.

The partnership is a cornerstone of Downer’s diversity and inclusion initiatives in New Zealand and also includes sponsorship of the referees in New Zealand’s Mitre 10 Cup provincial competition.

We strengthened our relationship with NZRU in FY21 by hosting a workshop on sustainability initiatives and goals for the women’s Rugby World Cup, which will be played in New Zealand in 2022. It was an opportunity for Downer to share our sustainability knowledge and expertise, focusing on the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Downer was proud to again be naming rights sponsor of the New Zealand Masters Games in 2021. The Downer New Zealand Masters Games is held every second year in Whanganui, and is a key event for the local community. Our people are also active participants in the games. Downer had over 100 employees participate in the 10-day event, after we paid the entry fees for Downer, Hawkins and Spotless employees.

We use this process to assess how well Downer understands and delivers on the customer’s service expectations. Through this, what is important to the customer is validated and we learn where Downer is doing well and where improvements are required. This information helps to identify improvement strategies and opportunities to create more value for the customer and position Downer for ongoing work with the customer, which can be retention of an existing service contract, extension of scope or future project and service contract opportunities.

This involves a more detailed assessment of Downer’s relationship with a key customer, going deeper than assessing their satisfaction with Downer’s performance on any individual project. We do this to validate what is important to them at an organisational level, and how they perceive Downer as a service provider. These reviews typically involve several surveys, with the aim of sourcing feedback at operational, management and executive levels. This information helps us identify opportunities to bring new services and create more value for Downer’s customers.

Surveys of customer groups (for example all customers within a specific market or service offering), which we use to gauge Downer’s strengths, weaknesses and market positioning, as perceived by key customer personnel.

At the completion of a tender process, Downer will typically seek a tender review or debrief session with the customer for both successful and unsuccessful bids. These sessions offer additional insight into our customer’s drivers and provide valuable information about how successfully Downer articulated its value proposition, to influence our current and future customers to work with us.

We seek informal feedback regularly throughout the year on our projects and contracts, for example through a general customer conversation or meeting. These are often a source of valuable feedback, capturing insights into potential issues with performance, as well as areas that Downer is performing strongly in and should leverage further.

Downer conducts a materiality assessment every two years to identify the issues that matter most to our stakeholders, which can therefore most influence their assessments and decisions. In FY21, we revisited our materiality assessment, using an independent research company to engage selected internal and external stakeholders (including a representation of our customer base) to identify and understand our material economic, social, environmental and governance risks and opportunities.

Local and central government knew they needed an exceptional customer engagement approach to deliver the AC36 yacht race on time.

The first phase was to nominate owner participant champions (Owner Interface Managers) who were skilled operators, able to crystallise public expectation, policy, and event operational issues into questions that constructors and designers could understand and solve. Owner Interface Managers deliver structured engagement making for confident customers.

The second phase was to involve Emirates Team New Zealand into both the specification and early optioneering processes – this allowed them to understand the cost of trade-offs being proposed. This effort filtered back through owner participants and event organisers, stabilising the decision-making discourses.

The third step was to start and sustain an operating rhythm of engagement with Mana Whenua. This engagement enabled the Wynyard Edge Alliance to anticipate the kind of engagement process and outcomes that Mana Whenua would need to ensure their narration was wrought into final design and build outcomes. Taking the time to evolve this kind of customer into a true partner pushed our design further than anticipated – it made it deeply human.

Finally, co-location with designers, constructors, workers and officials facilitated greater collaboration and turned risk resolution into a world without emails and minimised design re-drafting, which was all invaluable to the customer. One typical example was sustained debate, then agreement, about replacing all concrete 3.5m diameter pipes with HDPE, and forming all breakwaters out of HDPE encased piles, thus achieving 100-year asset renewals.

Hamilton City Council (HCC) has formed the Hamilton Infrastructure Alliance (HIA) in partnership with Downer to maintain Hamilton’s roads. Formed in October 2013, this is a 10-year contract and involves staff from Downer working in co-location with Hamilton City Council staff. The HIA is designed to deliver shared goals on integrated planning, customer service and delivery, efficiencies and value for money.

The ongoing success of the HIA requires a collaborative approach between Downer and Council, with the customer at the heart of every decision.

We know that a customer-centric approach is essential. People will accept change, but they want timely and accurate information so they can plan and make informed choices.

Underlining the collaborative integration that exists in the partnership, the HIA team works directly with HCC’s social media team to make announcements of upcoming works on its Facebook and Twitter pages. This complements more traditional communication means, such as letterbox drops and VMS boards. As a sign of trust and depth of the relationship between Downer and Council staff, Downer’s Stakeholder Coordinator has access to HCC’s Facebook page. These notifications enable customers to plan their journeys with an awareness of planned/unplanned works.

Our customer services staff receive over 7,000 service requests each year. To reduce the number of customer enquiries, we introduced a KPI for the number of issues reported by all staff in the HIA team, including office-based staff. The whole team was asked to take ownership and not walk past an issue without reporting it by email, including a photo. We actively seek feedback and have a 98 per cent success close-out rate. This improved team culture has ensured that we can address issues before the public reports them. This also delivered significant improvements to customer-related KPIs in a short period.

In order to maintain strong relationships with our customers, we rely on successful relationships with our suppliers and subcontractors.

We recognise that our relationships with our supply chain are critical in the initial planning or development phase of a contract or project. If materials, parts or services cannot be supplied to meet the scope requirements, deadlines or expected cost, Downer will not be able to adhere to cost and time considerations required to deliver on the promises we make to our customers.