Client overview
Atwea College (formerly Workers Educational Association – Hunter) is one of NSW’s largest providers of community-based adult learning. With a team of around 100 plus seasonal staff over multiple sites, it provides accessible, meaningful education opportunities from high school to skills training and ‘learn for fun’ courses.
The challenges
Due to significant growth and a change in strategic direction at the start of 2020, followed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Atwea was considering its organisational effectiveness and seeking advice on ‘future-proofing’.
The solution
The Board and Executive Director were asking:
- Do we have the most effective organisational structure and supporting documentation to succeed well into the future?
- What’s currently working well?
What can we do to improve our operating structure and processes to ensure success and sustainability for Atwea in years to come?
“We recently engaged Seed to undertake a project looking at our organisation structure, management and leadership. The project was completed on time, of extremely high quality, and most importantly, was totally tailor-made to our organisation’s requirements. The team was amazing to work with – professional, capable and generous in their approach.”
Rowan Cox, Executive Director
Atwea College
We partnered closely with the Atwea Executive Director (ED) to co-design a solid project plan. The focus was on collecting as much information as possible from relevant sources in the organisation, especially at the coal face. It included:
- A review of policies, procedures and structures ‘on the papers’
- Consideration of legal and compliance requirements under the relevant regulatory bodies
- An organisation-wide survey to gather feedback from all employees on the current state, what was working, and what could be done differently
- In-depth one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders, including board members, employees and senior leaders, to dig deep into the current and desired future states of Atwea
- External research on best practice approaches for similar organisations and industries
We then fused this data into a comprehensive, action-focused report handed to the ED and Board for consideration.
The results
Consolidation of insights into three core actionable focus areas:
- Articulation of five priority actions to improve the efficiency and cultural health of Atwea, with additional non-priority actions, recommended with timeframes
- Endorsement by the ED and Board for the Review and Recommendations Report
18 months from the approval of the report, Atwea have implemented approximately 75% of the recommended actions.
