David Locke, CEO of financial ombudsman service AFCA, is passionate about creating an environment where inclusion is meaningful and genuine. The valuable insights of his HR leadership team have enabled him to bring his vision to life.

HR in 2024 serves as the cornerstone of an organisation’s culture, shaping the company ethos, attracting top talent, ensuring diversity, nurturing innovation and resilience, and supporting sustainable growth. 

However, when the company’s raison d’être is providing fair resolution, the bar is exceptionally high. 

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is an ombudsman service that works with consumers and financial firms to resolve financial disputes. In its five years of operation, AFCA has registered more than 450,000 disputes and helped secure over $1.3 billion in compensation and refunds.

“We’re always dealing with people in dispute, and often they’re in crisis too,” explains AFCA CEO David Locke. “For me, AFCA is about fairness, helpfulness and kindness. For that to have legitimacy, it’s essential we treat our own people that way.”

At AFCA, HR plays a critical role in recruiting individuals who are passionate about justice, and developing a workforce where fairness and kindness are intrinsic. 

“We need to be people-focused in both our outward-facing work and internally as well,” says Locke. 

“The HR team is central to our culture, our values, our strategy and our direction. They’re enablers of our business.”

Executive support is the other essential ingredient, he adds. 

Locke chairs AFCA’s Accessibility and Inclusion Council, sponsors one of its Employee Resources Groups, and meets regularly with the People and Culture (P&C) team to discuss leadership development, strategy, employee engagement and wellbeing, and opportunities for people to grow.

He also believes CEO endorsement sends a message of permission and freedom.

“You want [HR] teams to feel confident to challenge the business, to come up with fresh ideas and to help move the organisation forward rather than just do what’s safe. 

“And they need to know that they have the CEO’s backing on that.”

Strategic HR partnership in action

One initiative requiring close collaboration between Locke and the HR team was the company’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging strategy, for which Locke was named CEO Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Champion of the Year at the 2023 AHRI Awards.

Launched in March of that year, a three-year plan outlines the steps AFCA will take to ensure all employees feel safe, respected and able to bring their full selves to work.

“Before this initiative, we offered general training around diversity and inclusion, but hadn’t unpicked what this meant for our people, the barriers they faced, what great things other organisations were doing in this space and what we could be doing.”

Together, Locke and the P&C team created Employee Resource Groups to engage and foster a sense of belonging among all employees, particularly those living with disabilities, people from diverse cultural backgrounds, women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those with family and caring responsibilities.

In addition, Locke worked alongside the HR team to embed an industry-leading culture at AFCA, known as Flourish.

“We asked people right across the organisation to define culture and tell us what our priorities should be. Then I worked with P&C to decide how to embed a culture reflective of those priorities.”

Flourish had four central components: a human-centred approach, a passion for diversity, empowering teams to take ownership, and fostering innovative ideas to move the company forward.

“The HR team is central to our culture, our values, our strategy and our direction. They’re enablers of our business.” – David Locke, CEO, AFCA

“It was about creating a culture that is innovative and where people can use their ideas to help us move the business forward, rather than it being top-down.”

Diversity, inclusion and belonging are topics close to Locke’s heart. His experience working in legal centres, for regulators, in the private sector and for the community at AFCA, have provided multiple examples of situations where people are excluded. Meanwhile, his formative years growing up gay in a small mining town in northern England provided first-hand experiences of exclusion. 

“I’ve always felt like an outsider, so I’ve always been passionate about building inclusive teams where everybody feels safe.”

For this reason, he admits it wasn’t a challenge for the HR team to gain his buy-in for DEI initiatives.

“They were pushing at an open door.”

Gaining executive buy-in for cultural change

But, of course, gaining executive buy-in is not always straightforward.

In such cases, the HR team must present a compelling business case to demonstrate how the initiative will empower employees to perform at their best, says Locke.

Studying best practices, both locally and globally, is the optimal way to do this, he says.

“We’re never the first to do anything. It’s about examining what has worked elsewhere, identifying positive outcomes, and seeing if we can adapt and trial some of those practices at AFCA.”

Good practice, of course, evolves constantly, so staying current with the latest trends is essential, he says.

It was the P&C team’s research on the latest work being done in Australia and globally around menstrual, fertility and menopause leave, that led to systemic improvements for AFCA’s 55 per cent female workforce.

“They put together a package that would support our women throughout their working life,” says Locke.

AFCA’s Women’s+ Health leave, introduced last year, provides those with female reproductive organs with five days paid leave for things such as menstruation, fertility care, endometriosis and menopause.

How expert guidance from HR can shape executive strategies

Collaboration between HR and executives is key, says Locke, and he believes every organisation needs an AHRI-certified leader at its helm to offer expert guidance.

For AFCA, that role is filled by Chief People Officer Mathew Paine FCPHR, who’s a member of AHRI’s DEI advisory board and a co-convener of its NSW Industrial Relations Employee Relations Network.

Locke believes the specialised knowledge provided by a certified HR leader is crucial.

“Mathew has a lot of expertise, he’s a real star. Having an AHRI-certified leader boosts our credibility as an organisation.

“We wouldn’t recruit lawyers or accountants who weren’t properly qualified, so why would we do that with an HR professional?

“Leaders who are AHRI-certified not only bring competence and knowledge, but they also uphold ethical standards and a commitment to continuous improvement.

“HR is a rapidly changing environment, so you need to keep up with changes in the law and regulations, as well as in best practice.”

Explore AHRI’s brand-new Certification program to enhance your career and strengthen the broader HR profession.

What can CEOs learn from their HR partners?

Executive leaders have much to learn from their HR teams, says Locke.

“As a CEO, I know a little about everything, but I don’t know about many things in great depth. A lot of the time, what you see can be what people want you to see.

“I walk the floors and I spend time in all the offices. I like to think I’m very approachable; people can email me or send me anonymous ‘messages in a bottle’ through our engagement surveys. But even so, I’m still the CEO of an organisation of 1100 people.”

The HR team removes the veil and reveals the true picture, he says.

“My P&C team tells me what’s really going on, on the ground, how people are feeling and the issues that aren’t being presented through management lines. And they provide ideas about how we can further develop and improve the organisation.”

Two ‘messages in a bottle’ he’s received have truly moved him, demonstrating the value of his DEI collaborations with HR.

“I had an employee who talked about never feeling comfortable wearing the hijab at work until she came to AFCA.

“Somebody else said they struggled to feel accepted and had never felt truly included anywhere until they came here.

“All the work I’ve done with HR is about making people feel genuinely included. I’m proud of what we’ve created and I think that’s reflected in some of the awards we’ve won.”

In its most recent employee engagement survey, over 90 per cent of employees said that AFCA was a great place to work.

Locke believes that his HR is a critical reason for that statistic.

“As a CEO, you have a significant shadow; people look at what you value and what you talk about.

“But fundamentally, so much of it is about delivery and application. I’d never be able to do any of it without HR.”

A longer version of this article was originally published in the August/September 2024 edition of HRM Magazine.

Don’t miss the chance to attend this year’s AHRI Award reception, hosted in Sydney. Reconnect with your HR peers and celebrate all the hard work that has gone into helping organisations to be prepared for new ways of working. Book now.