In this episode of Executive with a Cause, host Tammy Ven Dange chats with Julia Whitford, the CEO of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety.
We hear about Julia and her long career in membership associations and the lessons she’s learned about leadership and digital transformations.
We also learn more about the Australian Institute of Health and Safety and how they have migrated to new applications, including their recent investment into AI.
You won’t want to miss this episode, where we get deep into the operations of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety.
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Topics from this episode:
- 00.00 | Introduction
- 00.44 | About Julia
- 01.25 | What are Membership associations?
- 03.01 | About Australian Institute of Health and Safety
- 04.50 | Digital transformation – lessons for executives
- 05.55 | What is a Digital Transformation?
- 10.03 | Using AI at the Australian Institute of Health and Safety?
- 13.47 | Digital Transformation revisited
- 18.27 | Final Thoughts
- 19.49 | Find out more about the Australian Institute of Health and Safety
Podcast Transcript with Julia Whitford (Minor modifications have been made for clarity)
Introduction
Tammy Ven Dange
I’m Tammy Ven Dange, your host of Executive with a Cause. Today I welcome Julia Whitford, the CEO of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety. Today we’re going to chat about the good, bad, and hard things about running in an association.
Hi Julia, welcome.
Julia Whitford
Hi Tammy, thanks for having me today.
About Julia
Tammy Ven Dange
We’ve actually known each other for a few years.
Your first role, the Chief Operating Officer at the Australian HR Institute.
Julia Whitford
Correct, I was there for 11 years.
Tammy Ven Dange
And then before that, I know you’ve been in associations for a long time, can you tell us more about how you got involved in associations in general?
Julia Whitford
Sure, I was working for an insurance company and did some training with the Insurance Institute of Australia back then.
I was asked or invited to join them and we went through a name change and incorporated New Zealand, so it became the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance.
And I just found my passion for serving members and working with member organisations, I think, smaller organisations as well, you get exposed to a lot of different areas.
And so the experience was fantastic.
What are Membership associations?
Tammy Ven Dange
Now, some people may not understand membership associations, it might be helpful to give a little bit of a view on that.
Julia Whitford
Sure. So obviously, we’ve all got a full purpose. We might be a Not for Profit, but we’re not a for-loss organisation either.
So every bit of revenue that we generate goes back into serving our members, better products, better services, to make sure that they have professional support in their career, at whichever level they’re at. Hopefully the cradle to grave would be good if they stick with you.
With the current association I’m in, it’s not necessarily a first career choice.
So you have to change tactics a bit to encourage people and get your message and your brand out there.
Tammy Ven Dange
I think that’s a good segue for where you’re at now as a CEO of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety. I think you’ve been a CEO there for about two years now?
Julia Whitford
Yes, coming up to two years in about two weeks.
Tammy Ven Dange
And it’s one of those professional associations that a lot of people might wonder, “Well, how do you get into the health and safety industry?”
Julia Whitford
Yes, it’s, as I said, usually a second career choice. So people move, they’ve usually got an interest in health and safety and start as a health and safety representative. And obviously with smaller organisations, the office admin or the office manager who might look after HR might also look after health and safety.
And then they find their passion and gradually move towards a health and professional career.
About AIHS’s members
Tammy Ven Dange
So, tell us more about your members.
Julia Whitford
My members, they range from students who are studying tertiary qualifications, through to new members, new entrants, emerging professionals who have just started in the industry, all the way through to our college of fellow members who are very experienced in the profession.
And some come from a very academic background, we’re evidence based. And that’s how our support is driven by evidence and also our policy positions.
Tammy Ven Dange
What kind of services do you provide your members?
Julia Whitford
Like most associations, we provide events, usually a national conference and state conferences and webinars, we provide networking opportunities, we’ve got learning and professional development, more so e-learning these days after COVID.
But we also have certification of our profession at different levels. So whether they’re a practitioner, a professional or chartered.
We have, what else do we do? We’ve got a mentoring programme. And next week, we will be celebrating our excellence and innovation at our awards night in Sydney.
Tammy Ven Dange
So how many members does that include when you think about students all the way to your fellows?
Julia Whitford
Yeah, we have about four and a half thousand members.
Tammy Ven Dange
Wow.
Julia Whitford
Yeah. And we work very closely with industry, governments, regulators, unions and universities.
And that’s to improve the regulations and influence policy. And as I said, gather that evidence to enhance workplace health and safety across a range of industries.
We really believe that we’re all better together.
We can make a change together.
Digital transformation – lessons for executives
Tammy Ven Dange
Well, when you look at associations in general, I mean, those are the services you’re providing to your members. But the back office side of things and trying to actually make it a sustainable organisation is always a lot more complex than people realise.
You’ve been through, at least with me, two different transformations specifically around technology.
Julia Whitford
Yes.
Tammy Ven Dange
And I know that there are different size organisations, but I’d be curious to know if you have any lessons learned for other executives that have gone through similar types or are planning to go through similar types of transformations.
Julia Whitford
I was put on because we did have a lot of operational priorities that needed addressing. And with my experience at AHRI, that gave me a great foundation.
So it was really making sure that we couldn’t really grow the business until we had our foundations right and our operations right.
And that was from technology through to people, capability and competence. So there was a lot to unpack there. And we’re still going through it two years on.
But we’re in a much better position to be able to grow the organisation now.
What is a Digital Transformation?
Tammy Ven Dange
When we think a little bit more about the, you know, what is a transformation, everybody has different definitions of what that entails.
When we think about AHRI, that started off in an interesting way. We looked at the learning management system first.
Julia Whitford
Yes, we did. And then it was all about interoperability and how all these systems would work with each other to reduce that manual intervention.
Tammy Ven Dange
And I guess the smaller the organisation, we think, you know, you’re so resource constrained, but every organisation’s resource-constrained.
Julia Whitford
Yeah, absolutely right. And I think coming in with a mentality of designing a business for tomorrow and looking at incubating and piloting the organisational shift.
And it’s not just with the employees, you’ve got to consider all the volunteers.
Every association is very well supported by dedicated volunteers and shifting that paradigm as well has been a challenge. And it’s taken some time.
Tammy Ven Dange
And you’ve talked about the fact that it’s two years on now, you’re still changing.
I know you have a new technology you’re trying to implement sooner rather than later as well that I’m excited about. I’m just wondering, how do you manage that change fatigue when you have been doing it for so long?
And this is the same thing when you’re at AHRI, like that was a multi-year transformation, as well.
Julia Whitford
Absolutely. Taking the cues from the team is really important and it’s celebrating the little wins and really emphasising the contribution that they’re making.
Not one person can do this alone and it takes the whole team to rally behind, to continue to get BAU done, but also to look towards the future and see the possibilities and how their roles can change because of technology or because of other transformation and their contribution can be so much more than maybe what they’ve possibly had the capacity to do.
So, bringing them on the journey is really important. And yes, I’m a kind of, “I want it done yesterday type of person.” So I am a little bit impatient, and I have had to slow down a little bit to take into account that change fatigue from the team.
We moved into a new office, we had new staff, we had a new leader, we had new technology and it was a lot, it was a lot.
Tammy Ven Dange
And what about the members? Have they been impacted the same way?
Julia Whitford
They have been impacted, but in a positive way. Our brand has really shone. We have looked at consolidating our brand.
We had different names and brand or different colour schemes for a whole lot of different events and things that we put on and we were diluting our brand.
And even me coming in, I didn’t even realise how much the organisation actually did.
So consolidating the brand, showing a united front, working on a governance structure and taking the pulse of the members, what’s their major concerns and addressing them.
They wanted access to free legal advice. So we added that as a member benefit in partnership with another organisation. We’re also advocating for free standards that are referenced in legislation, particularly for small business who with the cost of living crisis, it’s just that extra hurdle to comply.
So we’re really listening to them and adding and changing our benefits accordingly and moving towards, as I said, that mindset of tomorrow, what do they need?
Tammy Ven Dange
It’s interesting you said that because I noticed on your website that you just released an article not too long ago about the mental health impacts of AI.
Julia Whitford
Correct, yes.
Tammy Ven Dange
That’s really forward thinking.
Julia Whitford
It is and it’s really thinking about how the whole organisations can work together, how their HR teams and their workplace health and safety people can come together and redesign roles to make sure that that psychological safety is there.
Using AI at the Australian Institute of Health and Safety
Tammy Ven Dange
Now, am I allowed to talk about the fact that you’re thinking about rolling out some AI?
Julia Whitford
Absolutely. It’s called Betty Bot and we are changing the name for our members, but we’re using it as a website concierge for members and non-members to easily ask questions, but it is based on information on our website.
And then we’ll have a member-only version, which will be a knowledge assistant.
So it’ll be on demand. We’ve got this fantastic body of knowledge and it’s hard to search, but it’s evidence-based. We’ve got some international flavours in there as well.
What’s happening overseas? How do we compare?
There’s no consistent regulation across the states.
So if somebody’s working in New South Wales and they drive a truck into Victoria, this bot or this knowledge assistant will be able to tell them the differences in regulation across states.
We’ve been able to feed it specific information. So unlike just a generic ChatGPT, it doesn’t pick up incorrect information.
Tammy Ven Dange
What an incredible way of using AI too. Given that, as you say, it’s so complex if you’re working across jurisdictions to understand the WHS regulations.
Julia Whitford
Correct. Absolutely. And that’s one of our pain points of our members.
Harmonisation would be fantastic, but Victoria specifically haven’t found the justification. It would cost a lot of money for them to change. And I recently met with their acting executive director.
So that was fantastic to have a conversation with him as well about what he sees as the challenges for Victorian workplaces.
The Business Case for Investing into AI
Tammy Ven Dange
When you’re thinking about investing in AI, what were some of the things that you thought about in terms of risk, in terms of opportunity, in terms of that return on investment financially?
Julia Whitford
So, from an opportunity perspective, we thought that we could have five people sitting here behind a computer answering people’s questions, or we could actually get this product, which is teachable, and give all the information into that.
And that members have this at hand anytime they want to search for something or, as I said, ask for different regulations. So, the member benefit is huge.
We have this enormous amount of IP that we just weren’t utilising effectively. And I think we’ll retain members, we’ll gain more members as a result of it.
The risks I saw, well, I think because it’s a closed bot, I think that eliminated the majority of the risks for me, which was really around incorrect information, being served to people, and then the Institute being at fault for that.
Tammy Ven Dange
And did your board require any additional justification or training to get them across the line?
Julia Whitford
No, they didn’t. I’ve got an extremely supportive board, which is fantastic. But some of the board members are using AI in their various organisations.
And so they absolutely see the need for us to progress with this technology.
Tammy Ven Dange
Yeah, well, excited to hear about what happens once you go live with it, because I think there’s a lot of people watching you and others that are investing in AI right now and are not quite sure, “Is it safe? Is it actually worth the money?”
Julia Whitford
Yeah, and we’re doing a final testing at the moment. So we’re hoping that we will be able to launch it next month. (Editor’s Note: the AIHS bot, SPARK, is available now)
Digital Transformation revisited
Tammy Ven Dange
Now, when we did the other part of the transformation, you actually changed everything from CRM, finance systems.
You’re not done yet, so how’s that going at this point in time? What are some of the lessons you’ve learned that other executives might learn from?
Julia Whitford
Unfortunately, we had a really quick implementation. And I say unfortunately, in two ways, I think, you know, it was great to get it done. It didn’t lag too long.
But there are some parts of the implementation that are still not 100% working. And we did know that there would be a post-implementation improvement plan that we would be working on.
Some of the initial objectives haven’t been met as yet, which is causing a bit of frustration, particularly my finance team.
So I would have gone for a longer lead time if I had the opportunity. It was just that our old systems were going to be inaccessible.
Tammy Ven Dange
That’s the hard thing, I think, with a lot of executives is that sometimes, I mean, you are coming into a new work to discover this, but a lot of organisations wait too long. And then they’re forced to make these changes as you were in that predicament, and not your choice.
Julia Whitford
Yes. And what was really fantastic was the cost benefit analysis that we did with you, because we had multiple systems paying for multiple APIs.
And when we moved to a new system that we’re really looking at interoperability and future proofing and member and staff experience, it wasn’t going to cost us anymore, it was just going to be a better system for the future of the organisation.
So that was really eye opening for the board, I think, to see how much we were spending on legacy systems, and really educating that it’s not a set and forget. Technology is moving so fast that that’s where a lot of investment needs to go.
Tammy Ven Dange
Yeah, absolutely agree. And, you know, that doesn’t happen that often.
It does happen with bespoke systems, like what you had, where your administration cost was more expensive than a licence cost for another system, which was something that does occur, but, you know, not always.
So that made it a pretty easy business case, for sure.
Julia Whitford
Yes.
Leadership lessons
Tammy Ven Dange
Julia, you’ve been in leadership roles now for a long time.
And I can’t help but think that, you know, you were running organisations through COVID in Melbourne, specifically, where massive lockdowns occurred, you had to change your operating model just to survive that process there when you do live events.
And now going into a different type of organisation with a different membership base, and probably a different, you know, potential growth rate as well.
I’m just wondering, as a leader in these types of organisations, are there any lessons learned from an operation point of view, that you might be able to share with some of the listeners?
Julia Whitford
It’s really interesting, because I went through a massive learning curve myself, in terms of embracing more digital collaboration apps and systems and really understanding the need for the hybrid working.
And, you know, being able to trust that when people are working at home, they are doing their jobs. And that’s become a lot easier over time.
I think working with the team that I have now, they’re very accountable, very committed. And that trust is just there. And I think underpinning everything I do in trust has allowed the weight to, you know, kind of lift off my shoulders, but also to allow them having that flexible working environment that they can fit family in as well.
Tammy Ven Dange
Oh, interesting. I feel like right there, you just took your past and your present, you brought those two together, given the debate around working from home these days.
So yeah, like, interesting that, given your background and what you’ve experienced to understand that is very doable when so many other organisations are forcing the workforce back into office.
Julia Whitford
Yeah, I’d like the team to be in 50% of their working week, I think that face to face collaboration and overhearing conversations in the office is, you know, often part of that learning of what’s going on in the team, because sometimes when you’re at home, you may only call someone for a particular purpose. But we also have an all in day where everybody’s in the office. And we do have team meetings on those days and brainstorm and collaborate in other ways.
It’s probably the best day of the week. I love it. I love being surrounded by people and having the whole team in here and the energy is great, for sure.
Final Thoughts
Tammy Ven Dange
Is there anything else you’d like to share, Julia, about your experiences as an executive in associations, or just in general?
Julia Whitford
The relationship with the board and particularly the chair is extremely important.
And I have a fantastic relationship. I’ve had two chairs in this role so far. And I meet with I meet with them on a fortnightly basis.
I think transparency with them is critical. So, making sure that they know exactly what’s happening. They’re not surprised by anything, because I hate being surprised.
I like to be the one who knows if someone’s going to talk to me about something. And I wouldn’t want to ever put my chair in that position, either. So that relationship is critical and working on that.
The other thing is just having fun. I love coming to work every day, love the team, sharing the values and the purpose. And also, what makes a great day for me is watching someone grow.
And so exposing the team to different projects that might use other skills that they’re not actually using within their day to day job, and then you get to know them better, and they get better job satisfaction. So that’s a really great day for me.
Find out more about the Australian Institute of Health and Safety
Tammy Ven Dange
I think that’s a true representation of a leader, too, when you care about the growth of your own team. So, thanks for sharing that.
Julia Whitford
Sure.
Tammy Ven Dange
Julia, if people want to find out more about the Australian Institute of Health and Safety, where should we send them?
Julia Whitford
Please send them to our website, which is aihs.org.au.
But if anyone would like to reach out to me, I’m happy to have a coffee catch up or a team’s meeting, find me on LinkedIn.
Tammy Ven Dange
I’m just thinking about the number of people are going to hit your website very shortly to see what the AI functionality is all about.
Julia Whitford
Well, if anyone’s interested in hearing more, I’m happy to share successes and lessons learned as we roll into launching.
Tammy Ven Dange
Excellent. Julia, thank you so much for your time today and sharing more about what you do in your role. And thank you for everything you do for your professional community.
Julia Whitford
Thanks, Tammy. It’s an absolute pleasure to catch up with you again.
