Attracting and retaining the best staff

The City of Melbourne’s Attraction and Retention Framework was launched in November 2008 to support staff development in line with the organisation’s needs.

The City of Melbourne is one of the city’s largest employers. From child care workers, fitness instructors, administrators and event managers to planners, analysts, traffic managers and customer service specialists, having the right mix of skills and abilities is crucial to the organisation’s success across its broad range of activities.

The Attraction and Retention Framework’s website helps staff identify career paths and access the organisation’s development opportunities. This includes the Corporate Learning and Development Program, which provided 190 workshops such as leadership development, risk management and cultural awareness to staff in 2008–09. Nineteen staff also participated in nationally-accredited Diploma of Management or Master of Business Administration programs, managed through Deakin University’s DeakinPrime.

Since implementing the Attraction and Retention Framework, the ratio of internal appointments to total appointments has increased by 30 per cent. Voluntary staff turnover for the organisation has decreased to 8 per cent in 2008–09, from 13 per cent the previous year.

Click here for more details on City of Melbourne staff

Strengthening international relationships through sister cities

In November 2008 the City of Melbourne commemorated its 25-year sister city relationship with Thessaloniki by unveiling a gift from the Greek city, a marble stele in Lonsdale Street. The 20th anniversary of the Melbourne–St Petersburg relationship was also celebrated in 2008–09 with a performance in St Petersburg by students from the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of the VCA and Music and St Petersburg Conservatory.

Sister cities Melbourne and Boston celebrated their shared strengths as knowledge cities and centres of medical excellence by announcing Dr Robert Anderson as the Melbourne Boston Medical Research Exchange Fellow for 2009. Dr Anderson will work in Boston researching alternative diets for those with coeliac disease, as part of the City of Melbourne and Melbourne Boston Sister Cities Association program.

The highlight of Melbourne’s sister city relationships for 2008–09 was the 30-year anniversary of the bond between Melbourne and Osaka, Japan. Around 50,000 people visited the celebratory exhibition, Kimono – Osaka’s Golden Age, which achieved a higher average daily visitor rate than any previous exhibition at the Immigration Museum. Extensive media coverage of the event provided Melburnians with an insight into the culture of our sister city.

Melbourne has six sister cities and one strategic city alliance. These are:

• Osaka, Japan
  
• Tianjin, China
  
• Thessaloniki, Greece
  
• Boston, USA
  
• St Petersburg, Russia
  
• Milan, Italy
  
• Delhi, India (strategic alliance).

Positioning Melbourne as a leading tourism destination

Malaysian low cost carrier, Air Asia, launched direct services to Melbourne in November 2008 and the United Arab Emirates national carrier, Etihad Airways, also launched direct services to Melbourne in 2008–09. The opportunities presented by these new services for tourism, business and education-related travel were welcomed by the Melbourne Airline Development Group comprising the City of Melbourne, Tourism Victoria and Melbourne Airport.

In the 12 months to June 2009, the City of Melbourne’s visitor services network including the Melbourne Visitor Centre at Federation Square, the Melbourne Visitor Booth in Bourke Street Mall, the City Ambassadors program and the Melbourne Greeter Service helped 2 million international and domestic visitors.

The services rated highly in our May 2009 survey of visitors with 98 per cent of respondents saying they would recommend the City of Melbourne’s tourism services. These services are supported strongly by volunteers and this high rating is recognition of the important role volunteers play in the life of the city.

Melbourne’s Indigenous and international student communities were provided with opportunities to be part of the City of Melbourne’s tourism services in 2008–09. The City of Melbourne partnered with AFL SportsReady Traineeships and Swinburne University for the Indigenous Trainee Program. Two hospitality students completed internships with the City of Melbourne’s tourism branch and three international students completed training and now volunteer as City Ambassadors.