Victorian Institute of Sport

The Victorian Institute of Sport in Melbourne has produced some of Australia’s most celebrated Olympians, Paralympians, World Champions and Commonwealth Games medalists such as Cadel Evans, Leisel Jones and Liz Watson.

Established in 1990, the Institute has experienced exponential growth and today supports almost 450 athletes across 48 sports with a team of 120 high performance staff.

The Institute provides talented Victorian athletes with access to the personnel and resources they need to excel in sport and life including nutrition, psychology, science, physical preparation, sports medicine and athlete wellbeing.

Daniel Simons, the Institute’s Director People & Community describes the organisation’s previous HR systems as ‘highly manual’.

“We were using spreadsheets to manage employee data, our recruitment and performance management processes were manual, and we were operating a separate payroll and employee leave system with neither having the capability to hold any employee data,” he says.

“Whilst these processes may have served us well as a smaller organisation, as we grew the lack of access to workforce and candidate demographics and insights was limiting our ability to be strategic and proactive in these areas.”

It became clear to Dan that the Institute needed a HRIS that could provide a single source of the truth, to streamline and optimise their HR processes and ensure the continued delivery of the HR experience their employees had come to expect.

Implementing ELMO has given Dan and his team everything they need to efficiently and confidently support the high-performance staff of the Victorian Institute of Sport.

“From the moment we pressed go with ELMO, we have had everything we needed at our fingertips,” Dan says.

“The system is very self-explanatory making it easy for both administrators and employees to navigate and all our paperwork is gone. We have been able to significantly reduce administration hours for everyone involved and minimise our environmental impact.”

In addition to hours saved on administration, Dan and his team now have visualisation of the organisation – something they’ve never had before.

“Within minutes we are now able to access customised reports on everything from workforce and candidate demographics to professional registrations and renewals,” he says.

“We can now track everything, be proactive and schedule automated prompts. It means we can be confident in knowing our staff are up-to-date with registrations, compliance documents and sports integrity training.”

Using the Recruitment module Dan and his team can be strategic and actively contribute to the Institute’s Reconciliation Plan and Gender Equity Action Plans through outlining how to attract a diverse workforce which reflects and supports their diverse athletes.

Meanwhile, ELMO’s Learning and Performance Management modules have had a significant impact on the Institutes’ ability to provide their high-performance staff with tailored learning and development opportunities and provide the support required to nurture successful teams.

“We are not your standard business. Operating in the sporting industry comes with specific complexities and requirements, so being able to tailor the learning module to our needs has been invaluable,” Dan says.

“The system also replaced our manual performance review process and empowers our managers. The process is now automated and they can see everything they need on one dashboard, from company and staff goals through to learning opportunities. Our managers are now able to dedicate more of their time to optimising the performance of their teams.”

Post implementation, Dan has been impressed by the support ELMO has provided to ensure the Institute continues to realise the full potential of their new HR systems.

“We have been really impressed with our Account Manager’s continued support and the ability to provide feedback on product enhancements. Our suggestions are always considered and we are frequently updated on the progress of the improvements that align with our needs now and in the future,” he says.