Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
formation they need in one place, including a map of the full range of services and
supports across all levels of government. The Report also called for easier access to
employer incentives such as the Workplace Modifications Scheme, which pays for
the costs involved in modifying the workplace for eligible employees with disability.
JobAccess responds to the Report’s recommendations, providing a comprehensive
and coordinated resource dedicated to improving the employment of people with disability
and providing easier access to employer incentives.
The project team was constituted by staff from five branches including staff with IT,
legal, communications, programme and policy expertise. An internal steering committee,
including a project owner and sponsor from senior management, tracked the
project’s success. To ensure that the website covered the full range of services and
support available, three Commonwealth departments and two Commonwealth agencies
were invited to submit content relevant to the site. Commonwealth departments
were also encouraged to seek input from their relevant state and territory counterparts.
As a result, JobAccess contains information about services and support regardless,
of which department or level of government is providing the service or support.
The Department used a phased implementation strategy to progressively release JobAccess.
Given that JobAccess was the first service of its kind in Australia, the objective
of a phased implementation strategy was to gauge stakeholder satisfaction with
the service and to respond to demand for the service as it became known. It allowed
the Department to manage the risk that the service would greatly exceed anticipated
demand and available funding.
The first release of JobAccess included a fully functional website with approximately
700 pages of content and another 1,000 pages of content in the online database of workplace
adjustments and solutions (the Workplace Adjustment Tool). The JobAccess Advisers,
a team of approximately eight staff, were also fully operational upon the release
date. A pre launch took place initially to ensure that the website and service were ready
to cope with further demand. The official publicity launch took place a month later
when the Department was confident that the service was operating as planned.
Four subsequent releases of JobAccess in 2006-2007 responded to feedback received
through post-implementation user testing and accessibility testing, which was carried
out among members of each of the target audiences. These four releases also allowed
additional online forms and content to be added to the site once the demand for JobAccess
became fully apparent.
Complementing each release of the website was a phased and targeted communication
strategy, which was designed to respond to over or under demand for the service
as required. This strategy was developed and implemented by the Department’s communications
team.
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