20 November 2025, Melbourne
8.15 Registration
8.30 Opening Remarks from the Chair
8.40 Projecting strong leadership within work design initiatives
- Utilising effective leadership for impactful work design
- Enabling line leaders to draw upon coalface experience in designing work
- Developing key leadership qualities for effective work design
- Reinforcing good work design principles across your wider organisation through leadership
Omikami Bailey, Manager Health, Safety and Wellbeing, NAB
9.30 Anticipating future trends, implications and impacts of work design
- Exploring emerging trends and technologies influencing work design
- Preparing for the organisational and operational impacts of AI and automation on the design of work
- Designing adaptive and resilient organisational structures to manage change
- Ensuring jobs are designed to meet new expectations around flexibility and technology
Lucinda Iles, Research Associate – Future of Work Institute, Curtin University
10.10 Collaborating with coalface employees and key stakeholders in work design
- Encouraging meaningful design input from those performing the work
- Overcoming barriers to collaboration across organisational functions and levels
- Centring continuous feedback and regular review of job and task design
- Ensuring buy-in for work design initiatives through meaningful engagement
Tamara Wakeman and Lynn Gunning, Assistant Directors, Strategic Programs and Engagement, Comcare
10.50 Morning Coffee
11.20 Designing work design strategies collaboratively across organisational branches
- Identifying key stakeholders for effective and sustainable work design
- Creating a shared sense of ownership over work design interventions
- Meeting key outcomes across key actors in the work design context
- Building a work design strategy which operates effectively within different business environments
Alexandra Mitchell, Senior Advisor, Mental Health, ABC
12.00 Leading change management effectively in work design initiatives
- Applying workplace change frameworks to work redesign projects
- Identifying points of resistance and proactively addressing them
- Communicating and engaging with stakeholders to streamline change processes
- Creating accessible and practicable roadmaps for work design projects
Daisy Matsika, Senior Advisor, Change Management and Engagement, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
12.40 Lunch
13.40 Supporting task mastery in designing rewarding work
- Strengthening links between task/role design and skill development
- Designing roles to promote continuing professional development
- Creating a culture to facilitate engagement and meaningfulness in work
- Building confidence to improve motivation, satisfaction, and retention outcomes
Mariana Polzella, Head of People Experience and Capability, Building and Plumbing Commission Victoria
14.20 Managing workload and reducing burnout through effective work design
- Approaching burnout as an issue of poor work design
- Applying job design techniques to limit trauma, stress and exhaustion
- Identifying red flags in organisational structures which may exacerbate burnout
- Tailoring burnout interventions to organisational, team, and role-specific needs
Diya Dey, Director, Health Safety and Capability, Court Services Victoria
15.00 Afternoon Tea
15.30 Managing psychosocial risks as a fundamental work design outcome
- Identifying psychosocial risks and their underlying structural causes
- Integrating safety risk management into HR functions
- Meeting psychosocial safety compliance responsibilities through work design
- Developing tools for ongoing monitoring of psychosocial safety
Louisa Detez, Principal Psychologist, Australian Psychological Services
16.10 Navigating regulatory dimensions of work design
- Establishing current legal obligations relating to work design
- Designing work around obligations in employment law and due diligence
- Adopting federal and state recommendations according to your organisational requirements
- Meeting legal best-practice work design requirements in diverse organisations
Andrew Douglas, Managing Principal, FCW Lawyers
16.50 Closing Remarks from the Chair
17.00 End of Conference