Public Tenant Employment Program (PTEP): the Pilot

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The pilot project

In early 2003, GJK Facility Services tendered for and won the Victorian State Government Office of Housing’s ‘Cleaning, Grounds & Maintenance, and Waste Management Contract’ at Melbourne’s Collingwood and Atherton Gardens Public Housing Estates.

This groundbreaking contract was the pilot for the Government’s Public Tenant Employment Program (PTEP), and included the mandatory clause that a minimum of 35 percent of the contractor’s facilities services staff must be engaged from the long-term unemployed who lived on the estates.

Instigated as a core component of the Government’s Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy, the PTEP was developed to offer public housing tenants an alternative to welfare dependency, by empowering them in their own living environments.

As well as increasing social and economic investments being made in housing renewal across Victoria, it was envisaged that the PTEP would:

  • Increase people’s pride and participation in the community

  • Improve personal safety and reduce crime

  • Promote health and wellbeing

  • Increase access to key service and improve Government responsiveness

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

In the earliest days of the Public Tenant Employment Program (PTEP), the estates and its residents were in dire need of change. Prior to GJK Facility Solutions taking on the contract in 2003, the estates were characterised by unemployment, crime, poor delivery of cleaning services, and a vacancy rate of up to 40 percent. Accustomed to receiving a poor standard of maintenance services, public tenants were generally skeptical of GJK and their staff, which added to the challenges of recruiting public tenants to their teams.

We realised that in employing some of the most socially and financially disadvantaged individuals in society, some of whom were second or even third generation unemployed, we would need to employ significant innovation, planning, and leadership.

A RARE ALLIANCE: COMMUNITY, BUSINESS & GOVERNMENT

It was clear early on that GJK would need to work as part of a collaborative partnership in order to wholly understand the issues of the estates to ensure the project was a success. To address these concerns, we forged important partnerships that would give us the greatest chance of success. These included:

  • The Office of Housing (Victoria), empowered by the people of Victoria to set policy around public housing,

  • GJK Facility Services, an experienced commercial cleaning contractor and project manager, and

  • The Brotherhood of St Laurence, a community organisation that would play an important role in providing additional support services to the long-term unemployed

This rare alliance of community, business and government signalled a new way of doing business for GJK, and set an innovative relationship model for the entire industry. We were extremely honoured that this successful collaboration captured the minds and imaginations of business leaders across the world, and in 2006, GJK became the first Australian company in the world to win the prestigious CoreNet Global H. Bruce Russell Global Innovators Award.

UNDERSTANDING BARRIERS TO EMPLOYMENT

To help us further understand the challenges of engaging the long-term unemployed back into the workforce, GJK worked closely with the Brotherhood of St Lawrence. This relationship gave us valuable insights into the difficulties facing tenant employees, many of whom struggled with a range of issues including language and literacy, mental health, cultural differences, childcare challenges, and drug and alcohol dependencies.

All of these issues created further challenges to public tenants in the battle to break entrenched habits of unemployment.

GJK was proud to be part of the success of this pilot, by absorbing the financial and related operational risks associated with providing services to the estates.

TAILORED MANAGEMENT PRACTISES

Such a high-risk operation required an additional layer of management to address the training, supervision and problem-resolution that would be required. But by gaining an understanding of the obstacles these tenants faced, GJK was able to develop comprehensive leadership and management strategies to foster a sustainable career path for our new employees. These strategies include:

  • A social worker who regularly visits the sites

  • Support for tenants (facilitated by GJK’s relationship with the Brotherhood of St Lawrence) to access support services including legal aid, family support, counselling, childcare and drug and alcohol dependency support

  • Vocational management and ongoing training program to ensure tenant employees were adequately equipped to provide service delivery

  • A buddy system, partnering new employees with experienced cleaners, enabling new staff to learn on the job

I was proud of the way in which existing GJK staff-members readily went the extra mile to ensure our new employees felt like part of the family. As the project grew, stories of tenant employees conquering seemingly insurmountable odds to change their lives for the better became part of the foundations that made GJK staff proud of the company they worked for.

It has now been eight years since the start of the Public Tenant Employment Program, and I am immensely proud of our team, as well as our community and government partners. Together, in that time we have employed 53 public tenants, 28 of whom are still employed with our company today. What’s more, the success of PTEP is estimated to have saved Victorian taxpayers approximately $900,000 a year.

DIRECT BENEFITS TO ESTATE EMPLOYEES

This framework has enabled lasting changes to be made to the lives of public tenants, including increased self esteem and confidence, a sense of direction and purpose, and the sustainable work experience and training required for their career development and any future employment prospects.

More specifically, alongside the immediate benefit of providing some of the most disadvantaged people in our society with viable employment, PTEP has brought a number of longer-term benefits to the Estate employees, including:

  • financial autonomy

  • the training and accreditation needed to build a sustainable career path

  • breaking the cycle of unemployment

  • confidence to help them overcome other issues, such as substance abuse

  • the opportunity to support their families and become role models for future generations

  • a sense of belonging in the community

BENEFITS TO PUBLIC HOUSING TENANTS

Since we started this pilot in 2003, there has been an increase in employment levels on the Estates (well beyond the PTEP requirements), reduced drug traffic and use, a reduction in crime, improved maintenance of the Estates and, most importantly, a sense of worth and wellbeing in residents who engaged with the program.

A survey of public housing tenants found that they believed the Estate employees to be both committed and reliable, with a 30 percent increase in satisfaction across all buildings at three separate estates.

We believe that tenant satisfaction is also demonstrated in today’s vacancy rates. Prior to the PTEP initiative, there was a 40 percent vacancy rate. Since this project began, occupancy is now at 100 percent with a waiting-list for units.

BEYOND THE PILOT

For the Office of Housing, the outstanding achievements of this pilot program has led to the continued rollout of PTEP across Victoria, with more than 675 Estate employees now enjoying a new and improved quality of life.