Staff Council Co-Chairs Benjamin Frost and Oliver Mason with Staff Council member Kiran Paul.
We recently held a Staff BBQ for staff to celebrate Peer Responder Week, Harmony Week and International Day of Happiness. Well, it appears that a free sausage sizzle puts everyone in a good mood as we had so many staff come by to grab a bite to eat and have a chat. Thank you to everyone who waited so patiently during the first half hour rush. Thank you also to our Staff Council members who helped organise the Staff BBQ and gave their time to help with set-up and pack down and to serve the food.
While staff were waiting in the queue, we asked them to fill out our Staff Council feedback form. The STARS Staff Council welcome the feedback we receive via our feedback form, with the suggestions received referred on to the Executive Team. Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the form – we had an amazing response with 90 new submissions.
If you missed filling out the form on the day and would like to do so visit this link.
We would like to share just a few of the wonderful things that staff said they liked about working at STARS.
Celebrate staff and provide a culture of inclusivity.
Care for wellbeing and home/work life balance.
Friendly environment. Hard working staff who are team players.
Small hospital vibe – a nice place to work.
Lots of great initiatives and avenues for staff support.
Best hospital I have worked at!
Supporting patient needs, their journey and goals. It’s such a person-centred facility.
We also received some great suggestions in the ‘what would you like to improve’ section. We would like to provide some updates on some of these suggestions.
The need for more variety and cheaper food options
While we don’t have the capacity to change the available food options at STARS, the RBWH’s food truck events are now included in the STARS staff bulletin. The RBWH food truck events feature several food trucks and are typically held once a month near the Education Centre. In addition, we will soon be adding a retail page to the STARS website, including a link to Google maps so that staff can see other Herston options such as Café Dose, Marketcart, Mad Kitchen, Mo’Pho Vietnamese and Uno Sushi. Uber Eats may provide another option for teams who would like to make a group order, with delivery fees starting as low as $1 and the ability for people to still pay individually.
In other exciting news, Hello My Dear are due to open a permanent retail outlet in the near future on ground floor of the Lady Lamington Building. They are currently serving hot drinks at a pop up at the top of the stairs near Lady Lamington from Monday-Saturday 7.30am-11.30am.
Order a STARS polo shirt
The Staff Council are currently investigating different suppliers for a new order of ‘We are STARS’ polo shirts. We will bring you more information when we have secured a supplier and confirmed payment information.
It would be good to have a Brief the Boss event, like at the Royal
From this month there will be a regular Brief the Boss event, similar to that which occurs at the RBWH. The STARS Brief the Boss sessions will provide staff with an opportunity to come and have an informal chat about any new initiatives they might have or things they think we could improve here at STARS. The Brief the Boss events will occur on the first Thursday of every month with the first being held this Thursday 2 May, 11 am on the Ground Floor at STARS (in the area near the stairwell).
LGBTQIA+ safety and inclusion
Metro North recently launched Pride in Metro North, a safe-space and forum for collaboration, to share experiences, ideas and resources, provide advice on matters affecting LGBTQIA+ people and identify opportunities for improvement in our service and facilities. Read more about the launch.
Pride in Metro North has been established as part of Metro North Health’s commitment to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all employees and consumers regardless of their sex, gender, variations of sex characteristics or sexual orientation.
If STARS staff would like to be involved in Pride in Metro North, visit this link.
Metro North have also developed some new LGBTQIA+ swing tags which include a helpful guide to using inclusive language.
Kind regards,
Oliver Mason and Benjamin Frost
Staff Council Co-Chairs