Benefits and Conditions

Paid maternity, adoption and parental leave

We offer attractive maternity, adoption and parental leave options for employees who have completed 40 weeks of continuous service within NSW Health. This includes 14 weeks paid maternity leave and one week paid parental leave with up to 51 weeks of unpaid parental leave is also available to the other parent. Paid and unpaid adoption leave provisions are also available to all full-time and part-time employees who are adopting a child and are to be the primary care giver. Payments may be made, on a normal fortnightly basis, in advance in a lump sum, or at the rate of half pay over 28 weeks for maternity and adoption leave or two weeks for parental leave.

Allocated Days Off (ADO)

If you are a full time employee and work 40 hours a week then you can take a day a month as a paid ADO. You can accumulate up to three ADOs at a time.

Family and Community Services Leave (FACS)

FACS leave is available for a range of personal reasons encompassing family responsibilities, performance of community service or cases of pressing necessity.

Career Break Scheme for Nurses

All Nurses and Midwives employed in NSW Health have the option to apply to participate in a Career Break Scheme. The Scheme allows employees to defer twenty per cent of their net salary for four years, and be paid this deferred salary with interest earned in the fifth year. Employees approved to participate in the Scheme may take a break of one year away from their position covered by the Award – the Deferred Salary Leave Year. This one year absence may be for professional and personal development, such as participation in other industry experience; post graduate study; working in overseas health systems; or for other activities, including those of a non-professional nature unrelated to the practice of nursing and midwifery.

ISLHD is committed to recruiting and retaining quality staff. Orientation and induction are the first steps in building a mutually beneficial relationship between ISLHD and our new employees.

To support our new employees in their new role we have developed a comprehensive orientation and induction program for all staff, consisting of face-to-face orientation, induction checklists and mandatory training.

Corporate Orientation

Face-to-face corporate orientation is a mandatory district wide full day program of information and activities designed to welcome new employees to their new work environment.

The morning session consists of a variety of presentations from staff on topics such as CORE Values, Communication and Work Health and Safety.

The afternoon session is dedicated to completing Respecting the Difference face-to-face mandatory training. Managers will need to advise new employees of other arrangements for the afternoon if they have previously completed this training or are not required to attend.

Induction

Induction involves familiarising a new employee with their workplace, role and responsibilities. New employees with Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District  can expect to receive on their first day of work a Site Induction and perhaps a Position Induction.

The Site Induction will introduce the work environment and is focused on pre-commencement and first-week tasks.

The Position Induction occurs where individual job roles require specific position induction information. A separate position induction may be undertaken for specific professions or disciplines.

Our organisation has a performance appraisal system in place to ensure that everyone in the workplace is clear on what is expected of them. It’s a great way to ensure that employees know what they are tasked and how they are progressing. The system includes the setting of goals, development to support achievement of goals and regular feedback on work performance. The focus is on helping our employees to achieve their full potential.

Our people are the very heart of our organisation and we passionately believe that the growth and development of each individual within ISLHD is fundamental to our organisation.

Our aim is to improve our organisation’s capability to operate as an integrated and productive organisation, where levels of staff motivation and engagement are high.

We can do this by providing a range of development activities that enable staff to learn the skills relevant to their current role, and develop skills and abilities that will equip them for their career advancement.

There are a range of profession specific development programs including nursing, medical and allied health that are run throughout the year.

ISLHD is also committed to developing our leaders and managers and offer a wide range of programs that increase their knowledge and skills. This is supported by ISLHDs Leadership Practices Framework and Guide.

Additionally, all staff are required to undertake a range of role specific mandatory training programs to ensure they are skilled to undertake their role and provide quality and safe services to our community.

Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District's impressive performance has been achieved through the passionate commitment, outstanding achievements and hard work of our staff.

We value and celebrate the achievements and performance of our staff through ISLHD’s Recognition and Reward Framework. ISLHD has five (5) key formal recognition awards:

In addition to formal activities to recognise and reward staff performance, ISLHD is committed to ensuring staff are recognised and rewarded locally. These local activities have the opportunity to be more immediate, thereby quickly reinforcing desired performance and behaviours. Local recognition and reward activities should be a part of regular team activities, a way to acknowledge people’s contributions and celebrate their success.

An opportunity exists for you to reduce your taxable income – this means more take home pay!

Employees working for public health facilities may elect to receive part of their pay through salary packaging. Salary packaging works by reducing the employees gross salary by the cost of the benefit provided (which includes the employer’s share of the tax savings and the administration fee).

The maximum dollar value of benefits that employees can ‘package’ without creating a Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) liability is $9,005 per annum (which equates to grossed up taxable value of $17,000).

If you package, your tax savings can be between $489 and $2160 per annum depending on your income.

Salary packaging can be used for a variety of living expenses such as mortgage repayments, residential rent payments, credit card payments, school fees etc.

Employees are encouraged to contact a financial adviser for further advice regarding taxation considerations relevant to salary packaging.

All eligible employees are paid super into a complying super fund or retirement saving account (RSA). They have the freedom to choose their own superannuation scheme or alternatively, if no election is made, an account will be set up with First State Super. Contributions are based on minimum legislative requirements and calculated based on ordinary hours of work. Salary sacrifice is available for all non-Senior Executive employees, including temporary and casual employees.

Would you and your family enjoy having access to multiple gyms and pools in the area for less than the cost of membership for just one gym or pool?

Permanent employees and their immediate family members are eligible to participate in Fitness Passport.

ISLHD staff can sign-up with Fitness Passport, an external service provider. Fitness Passport offers employees access to gyms and fitness services that are current members of its program on a minimum 12 month contract.

A Fitness Passport means you're not locked into just one facility but have access to all the member facilities as part of your contract - and prices are generally cheaper than a standard gym membership at one facility.

Check current prices and find out more about the facilities on the website https://www.fitnesspassport.com.au/IHS

The Hillview Child Care Centre provides Long Day Care for babies and children of the general public, employees of ISLHD, and other State Health Care organisations.

Located at the Port Kembla Hospital campus, Hillview Child Care provides:

• care for babies from 6 weeks old, up to Transition to School age
• a nutritionally balanced menu which caters for every child's individual needs
• a curriculum incorporates Transition to School, which is supported by the Department of Education guidelines
• fully qualified and experienced Early Childhood staff
• early intervention programs.

The NSW Department of Education and Communities has voted Hillview Child Care Centre as overall exceeding the National Quality Standard.

The Centre hours are 6:30am-5:30pm, and can be contacted via T: 4223 8099 or E: ISLHD-HillviewChildCentre@health.nsw.gov.au.