Today as part of our financial results, I updated the Telstra team about our plans to extend the hold on job reductions for our permanent employees in Australia and international locations until February next year due to COVID-19.
We did this because it was the right thing to do – it has given our people more certainty in what has been a very uncertain time. And it is what being a responsible, purpose-led business is all about – to step up and be there in times of need.
As we approach the end of that pause, it is clear that the impacts of COVID will be with us for some time. So today we are extending our decision to keep our T22-related productivity role reductions on hold for permanent Telstra employees until February next year.
However, we expect to propose some job reductions between October and February where projects have finished or work is no longer required, volumes have declined (e.g. nbn connections) or fixed-term contracts end.
Our shift to Agile teams is helping us deliver better outcomes for our customers so we will also continue to shift additional teams to working in this way. Any restructures such as this would be made to better align to the current needs of our business. This may at times impact a small number of roles but we are committed to keeping these to a minimum.
As challenging as this will be for the people impacted, it would not be the right decision to keep them onboard when the work they are doing has ended. We will try to redeploy as many people as possible as we usually do. Those impacted would be supported by our career transition program and industry-leading retrenchment benefits.
We are still absolutely committed to our T22 strategy which we need to continue executing at pace across all other parts of our roadmap. While we believe the decision to pause job reductions until February is the right one, we will still need to face into some of these hard decisions around productivity initiatives early next year.
We know many of our people are doing it tough at the moment and we hope this decision gives some certainty in what is a very challenging economic time for Australia – and many of the countries in which we operate.
Andy Penn became the CEO and Managing Director of Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, on 1 May 2015. At Telstra, Andy is leading an ambitious change program transforming the business to be positioned to compete in the radically changing technology world of the future with 5G at its core. Andy has had an extensive career spanning 40 years across 3 different industries - telecommunications, financial services and shipping. He joined Telstra in 2012 as Chief Financial Officer. In 2014 he took on the additional responsibilities as Group Executive International.
Prior to Telstra, Andy spent 23 years with the AXA Group, one of the world’s largest insurance and investment groups. His time at AXA included the roles of Chief Executive Officer 2006-2011 AXA Asia Pacific Holdings, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive Asia and Chief Executive Australia and New Zealand. At AXA, Andy was instrumental in building one of the most successful Asian businesses by an Australian company that was sold to its parent in 2011 for more than A$10bn.
Other directorships & appointments: Member of the Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria; Board Director of the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA); Chairman of the Australian Government’s Cyber Industry Advisory Panel, created to guide development of Australia’s 2020 Cyber Security Strategy; Patron, on behalf of Telstra, of the National and Torres Straights Islanders Arts Awards (NATSIAA); Life Governor of Very Special Kids and an Ambassador for the Amy Gillett Foundation. He serves on the advisory boards of both The Big Issue Home for Homes and JDRF.
Recognition and qualifications: MBA (Kingston), AMP (Harvard), FCCA, HFAIPM. Andy has a national diploma in business studies (with distinction), is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, holds an MBA from Kingston University and is a graduate of Harvard’s Advanced Management Program. In 2008 Andy was recognised as Insurance Executive of the year in the Australian Banking and Finance Awards and in 2016 he was made an honorary fellow of the Australian Institute of Project Management. In 2018 Andy was named by the Financial Times among the top 10 male leaders globally HERoes list supporting women in business. In 2019 he was named by the Australian Financial Review as among the top 10 most powerful people in business.
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