Industry Newsletter: Spring 2024 Edition
LeavePlus
Insights
Your biannual newsletter offering insights into Victoria's Construction Industry Long Service Leave Scheme.
Welcome to our Spring 2024 edition of LeavePlus Insights – giving industry stakeholders the inside track on all the news and developments in and around Victoria’s Construction Industry Long Service Leave Scheme.
Since our last biannual LeavePlus Insights publication in Autumn 2024, we have fully kicked into gear with our Business Transformation project, with the objective of enhancing of our processes, systems, and people to significantly improve member experience and industry compliance with obligations under the LeavePlus Scheme.
We have seen strong results across both our business operations and our investment strategy, with the Fund maintaining a robust financial position. The accrued funding ratio has again increased, demonstrating the Fund’s strength and our prudent financial management. We’re thrilled to take you through some of our highlights in our Year In Review video for Financial Year 2023-2024 (FY2024).
The past financial year has been transformative for our organisation, marked by significant milestones that move us closer to our vision of being the best operator of a portable entitlement scheme. In our FY2024 Fund Highlights, we are excited to share the insights and results captured in our recently published Annual Report that are driving us towards this vision. We have also been increasing our engagement and connection throughout the Construction Industry. In October we invited our Employer members and industry stakeholder to the first in our series of preventative wellbeing events, at our free Workplace Wellness breakfast event, hosted by a panel of health and wellbeing experts.
Looking ahead to FY2025, we are committed to pursuing our ambitions with renewed vigour. With initiatives like our business transformation project, completion of our building refurbishment, and supporting our regulatory effectiveness with enhanced compliance and enforcement campaigns, we are confident of a bright and resilient future for LeavePlus, our members, and the Victorian Construction Industry.
Craig Bell
Chief Executive Officer, LeavePlus
Explore our story
Who is LeavePlus?
Since 1976, we have been proudly supporting members of the construction industry to take their well-earned break by providing portable long service leave.
FY2024 YEAR IN REVIEW VIDEO
The twelve-month period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 was a truly historic time for your Construction Industry Long Service Leave Scheme.
We commenced refurbishment work on our office building (including the development of a brand-new member centre), and, perhaps most notably, we rebranded the Scheme from CoINVEST to LeavePlus.
FY2024 saw strong returns to the Long Service Leave Fund, and it also marked the introduction of our hugely significant business transformation project. LeavePlus CEO Craig Bell takes you through the key milestones of FY2024 in our ‘Year In Review’ video.
BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION
As well as updating our brand identity and renovating our office building; our commitment to being the best operator of a portable entitlement scheme also extends to transforming the way we work.
In 2024, we launched a large program of business-wide initiatives to modernise our services, technology, and ways of working to improve the way we deliver value to our members. We named this transformational program Project Elevate to emphasise our dedication to improving how we can administer the portable long service leave scheme to our members in a way that is efficient, comprehensive, and scalable.
Over the course of the transformation project, we have been consulting and collaborating with Employer and Worker members in the Construction Industry to improve the experience when interacting with us and how we deliver our services. The program is being delivered across a series of project increments, with the completion of each stage delivering incremental value to our members whilst simultaneously contributing to the completion of the
overall transformation.
Foundational Focus:
The initial stages of the project took aim at foundational improvements such as policy implementation and setting up systems and technology platforms. This has laid the groundwork for future contingent stages to be mapped out and scoped for delivery using an agile framework.
Elemental Elevation:
After primary foundational improvements had been delivered, the project has now transitioned into a more targeted focus on elevating the elements that impact members early in their regulatory and administrative journey, such as registering with the Scheme, submitting Returns, and payment compliance.
Cross-Functional Collaboration:
Project Elevate brings together a wide range of collaborators and skillsets into a cohesive team comprising data experts, software engineers, business analysts and experience designers to break down where the current pain points are and how we can uplift our Service delivery to members.
We’re achieving our goals by simplifying the way we work and the tools we use, and we’re making data-driven decisions to help us continuously improve. Project Elevate has an anticipated duration of around two years to completion, and we have already made great progress throughout FY2024. We are excited to bring our members further updates as the transformation progresses through each delivery stage.
LeavePlus was thrilled to invite our Employer members and industry stakeholders to our free WorkPlace Wellness breakfast event focussed on preventative wellbeing on 17th October 2024. The event marked the first in a series of events that reshape how we approach wellbeing and uncover why prioritising prevention may just be the secret to a happier, healthier life, for you and your team members. As part of our commitment to giving back and investing in the wellbeing of our industry, the WorkPlace Wellbeing event series aims to bring together thought leaders and experts for insightful discussions.
In our first event of the series, an audience of industry peers was joined by an expert discussion panel from diverse backgrounds whose experiences intersect at the junction of preventive wellbeing. Our MC for the day was former AFL player and coach, Nathan Buckley. Nathan was joined on the panel by Adam Schwab, co-founder and CEO of Luxury Escapes, and Dr Caroline West, a medical leader in the prevention and wellness space.
From advice about diet and nutrition, to habit stacking and taking mini-break vacations – the panel had wealth of pro tips, and practical applications that our audience could take back to their workplaces to nurture a healthier and happier environment for their teams. Throughout 2025, we will be sharing deep-dive insights from our inaugural event to share the wisdom imparted upon the audience by our panel.
FY2024 FUND HIGHLIGHTS
The results are in for the performance of the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Fund for Financial Year 2023-2024 (FY2024). Overall, the year produced some excellent results, despite market volatility and some challenging economic conditions. The Fund grew by 10% (from $2B to $2.2B) over the year, as a result of a 7.85% investment return for the year (well above the 5.88% objective). The Fund also collected $271.7M in Long Service Leave Charges paid by Employers throughout FY2024.
In targeting a funding ratio of 120% (the Fund’s ability to pay current and projected long service leave benefits at 30 June 2024) LeavePlus again produced a result beyond target at 125.4% as at 30 June 2024. The strength of the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Scheme is underpinned by our responsible investment model for managing the Fund.
This positive performance and the stability of having a centrally administered Scheme reassures LeavePlus members that the fund can pay our members’ Long Service Leave Benefits when they need to take their well-earned break. For a comprehensive review of the performance of the Fund over FY2024, take a look at The Fund Report 2024 publication on our website.
$2.2B
VALUE OF THE FUND
$219.7M
BENEFITS PAID TO MEMBERS
7.85%
INVESTMENT RETURN TO THE FUND
9 YEARS
SCHEME HAS BEEN FULLY FUNDED
125.4%
FUNDING RATIO
71,982
CALLS RECEIVED
12,299
EMAIL ENQUIRIES ACTIONED
24,212
LONG SERVICE LEAVE BENEFITS PAID
11.70
AVERAGE BUSINESS DAYS TO PAY BENEFITS
3,041
NEW EMPLOYER MEMBERS REGISTERED
18,971
ACTIVE EMPLOYER MEMBERS REGISTERED
26,722
NEW WORKER MEMBERS REGISTERED
$9,080
AVERAGE BENEFIT PAYMENT AMOUNT
$271.7M
TOTAL LONG SERVICE LEAVE CHARGES COLLECTED
$475.30
AVERAGE QUARTERLY LONG SERVICE LEAVE CHARGE PER WORKER
250,429
ACTIVE WORKER MEMBERS
74,335
MEMBERS ELIGIBLE TO CLAIM A LONG SERVICE LEAVE BENEFIT
Building Our Office of The Future
In first edition of LeavePlus Insights for 2024, we introduced you to our refurbishment project for our home at 478 Albert Street, East Melbourne. Work commenced in April 2024 to completely renovate the ground floor of our office building and bring to life our new Member Centre. Whilst stage one is nearing completion, works on stage two for the other levels of the building have been gathering pace.
Ground Floor and Member Centre
The project kicked off by extending the ground floor facade of the building to meet the profile of the floors above, providing a uniform footprint and facade for the whole building. This clever use of space has helped to transform the previously underutilised vertical space and create an inviting atrium which will house our new member lounge and large open meeting areas. By carving out space for windows from the existing concrete walls, the existing ground floor tenancy has been converted into multi-use conference and function spaces big enough to accommodate educations sessions and seminars for our Employer and Worker members. After months of hard work, the finish line is in sight for the first stage of construction. The progress shots below show just how much work has gone into the project so far.
Upper Office Levels
Work for stage two has been happening in tandem with the ground floor transformation, with the vision beginning to come to life for our office of the future. Multiple floors of the building were taken back to base, providing a blank canvas and an opportunity to create types of working spaces which were previously not available.
In today’s hybrid office environment, working spaces must accommodate a diverse range of workstations, social spaces, and video-conference capabilities to meet the needs of the modern workplace. Incorporating the newest technology into these spaces to allow for efficient working is critical to achieving our vision of becoming the best operator of a portable entitlement scheme.
The new LeavePlus office will feature a brand-new internal staircase to link our different teams together and encourage active collaboration across different floors. As seen in the digital renders below, the spaces have been designed to maximise natural light and to provide a sense of continuity and warmth through wooden features and natural green-hued finishes. With construction pressing ahead, we hope to be moved into our new home by the early stages of 2025.
LeavePlus acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land where we work and live, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.
- 478 Albert St, East Melbourne
- 1300 264 683
- info@leaveplus.com.au
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