Mathew Paine is the director of human resources for the new International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney). He was given the enormous task of creating the HR department from scratch to staff the $1.5 billion facility. Paine developed policies, procedures, and systems to attract and recruit 1800 staff. He focused on creating a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. Now as the opening draws near, Paine is ensuring staff engagement strategies are in place for once operations begin.

1. 18 hrmonline.com.au
WITH THE CLOCK TICKING DOWN ON THE OPENING OF
Sydney’s massive new International Convention Centre, Mathew
Paine appears incredibly calm. As the centre’s director of human
resources and responsible for some 1800 employees, Paine could
easily be excused for feeling stressed as the mid-December launch
draws near.
Sitting in a conference room, overlooking the new venue in the
city’s Darling Harbour precinct, it’s clear that this HR veteran is not
only relaxed about the massive task he has taken on, but relishing it.
“It’s going very well,” he says with a smile. “I’ve had two years of
planning and strategy-creation to get to this point and now it’s all
about the execution. Working on something like this is a once-in-a-
lifetime opportunity, and I’m excited to be involved in what will be a
legacy for Sydney.”
FROM THE GROUND UP
International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) is one of
NSW’s largest infrastructure projects in recent years and has
been built through a public-private partnership, with global venue
management company AEG Ogden serving as the operator. Designed
to replace the obsolete Sydney Convention and Entertainment
Centre, the $1.5 billion facility is large enough to host three major
events simultaneously, and features 35,000 square metres of
exhibition space and three theatres. Once fully operational, it will
be staffed by a workforce of 300 permanent and 1500 casual staff,
operating in areas as diverse as hospitality, food and beverage,
customer service, events, finance and live entertainment.
Mathew Paine’s involvement in the project began in 2014 when,
while working as director of human resources at Sofitel Luxury
Hotels in Sydney, he spotted an advertisement for a new human
resources position at ICC Sydney.
“Working in the industry, I had heard about it and I knew it
was something that I had wanted to have a go at,” he says. “I’m
motivated by challenge.”
Paine, who is an AHRI Certified HR Practitioner, successfully
interviewed for the role and joined the organisation as employee
number 10. He was then given the enormous task of creating an
HR department from scratch and given carte blanche about how to
proceed.
a lifetime
Once
in
BY DANIEL DASEY
As a historic new Convention
Centre rises in Sydney,
HR director Mathew Paine
was determined to craft a
people strategy worthy of the
building. Did he succeed?
CPHR
“I SAT DOWN FOR A WEEK AND
RESEARCHED OTHER ORGANISATIONS
AND WHAT THEY’RE DOING IN THE
DIVERSITY SPACE.”
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2. December/January 2017 HRMonthly 19
INTERVIEW
Photography:StudioCommercial
MATHEW PAINE’S FIVE TIPS
FOR LAUNCHING A NEW,
LARGE-SCALE HR PROJECT
HAVE A VISION.
Knowhowyouwantthebusiness
tooperatefromapeople-strategy
perspectiveandalsohowyou
wantyourHR team to operate. It’s
important to be crystalclearon
thatbeforeyougetintostarting
anythingelse.
PLAN WELL.
Have detailed plans and make
sure that during the planning
process you also look at
contingencies. Consider what
you’ll do if things don’t go well.
REVIEW AND REVISE
YOUR PLANS AS
YOU GO.
Have a nimble approach to
change when needed. New things
come out all the time, such as
new technology. Make sure that
you do have good exposure to the
industry and to new ideas.
RECRUIT THE RIGHT
PEOPLE IN YOUR TEAM.
Communicate your vision and
then let them run with it. While
we have written strategy, I have
given my team the freedom to add
or change things that they feel we
could do even better.
HAVE FUN.
Live in the moment. It’s a
rare opportunity to be part of
something like a pre-opening
team. Make sure that you’re
grounded and that you are having
fun with your team.
HRM28_18-21_COVERSTRY_v2.indd 19 17/11/2016 9:34 am

3. 20 hrmonline.com.au
“When I started I was given a blank sheet of paper and told, right,
now you’ve got to write your strategy, come up with a staffing plan
and how you are going to run this HR department,” he says.
“I had to develop policies, procedures and systems and decide how
we would attract and recruit 1800 staff. It was also my task to create
and build a culture and an employer brand that didn’t exist.”
Paine says he was excited by the challenge. His first decision was to
create a distinct organisational structure for the HR division, which
he chose to divide into four parts: talent acquisition, learning and
development, workforce planning and rostering, and employment
relations. He next devised an HR strategy for the business and hired a
talent acquisition manager to help him recruit staff.
DIVERSE MAKE-UP
“We didn’t use a recruitment agency. We knew where we wanted
to attract talent and the market we needed to tap into. Being a new
business, we had no legacy and no diversity-inclusion strategy, so I sat
down for a week and researched other organisations and what they’re
doing in the diversity space to get a sense of best practice.”
Paine did a lot of planning to make sure the recruiment strategy
could accomplish his diversity objectives. The plan was to target
mature-age workers and youth workers, parents and carers returning
to work, and members of the LGBTI community.
“We took out ads on websites or magazines that those people
frequently read, such as FlexCareers and Working Mother, for those
who want part-time or casual work around childcare.” The ICC has
also established a mothers’ room to meet their needs while at work.
To attract youth workers, a partnership has been established with
Sydney TAFE that will see staff trained at work and receive nationally
recognised qualifications. Mature workers, meanwhile, have been
targeted through strategies that allow them to transition into
retirement rather than leaving employment in one go.
A stand-out focus is on LGBTI workers, with ICC Sydney
providing unpaid leave of up to 12 months for workers wanting
to change gender. “They can go off and come back as a different
gender,” says Paine. “We can then get together with that employee to
work out the communication strategy with their team and educate
them – and then help get the employee back into the workplace. As far
as I know it’s a first in Australia.”
“It was also important to make sure our internal policy, procedures
and enterprise agreements were inclusive with terms for those specific
diversity segments.”
“AT THE MOMENT, YOU CAN FEEL
THE BUZZ. BUT BUSINESS AS USUAL
WILL START TO SET IN AND WE’VE
ALREADY BEGUN TO WORK ON OUR
ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES.”
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4. INTERVIEW
December/January 2017 HRMonthly 21
Recruitment will continue until March 2017 with assessment
centres dealing with short-listed candidates from the hundreds of
applications for casual roles. From its small beginnings, the HR team
within ICC Sydney has now grown to 15, including managers for the
four key sub-divisions.
For the massive task of onboarding and inducting new employees,
Paine turned to outsourcing, finding companies that could supply
mass-recruitment and learning-management systems.
GREAT PLACE TO WORK
Paine says the start-up process has so far run smoothly, but challenges
have included getting up to speed with the convention and exhibition
industry – a sector he had not worked in before.
“I also had to learn about public-private partnerships, as I didn’t
know much about them. This is a State Government asset and we
manage it on behalf of the state.”
Another challenge was creating an employer brand from scratch.
“Initially nobody knew what ICC Sydney was,” Paine says. “[Now
we say] that it’s a really world-class convention centre with a bold
vision to be an employer of choice and a great place to work, offering
long-term careers across many sectors.”
While the first concert and first exhibition will be staged at ICC
Sydney in mid-December, Paine says there still remains much work
to do following the opening. He sees the next major challenge as
maintaining staff engagement.
“At the moment everybody is absolutely excited and you can feel
the buzz,” he says. “But once we are open and from early next year
business as usual will start to set in and then we’ve already begun
to work on our engagement strategies. I’ve been conducting team
member Net Promoter Score surveys already for the past seven
months and we’ll continue that.”
Mathew Paine is a certified HR practitioner (CPHR).
NATIONAL CONVENTION &
EXHIBITION 2017 IN SYDNEY:
Save the date for AHRI’s 2017 National Convention and
Exhibition, to be held at the new International Convention
Centre Sydney on 21 – 23 August 2017.
For registration and event details visit:
bit.ly/ahri_nationalconvention2017
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