Work. reinvented

In FY23 we launched work. reinvented, a cultural change program that’s reshaping our employee experience.  We continue to experiment across different areas of our business including autonomous teams, reinventing the traditional work week, reinventing meetings and cutting red tape.  

Autonomous teams to improve customer service delivery 

We continue to embrace new work practices and team autonomy through our approach to new ways of working; work. rhythm. Work. rhythm enables our people to continue to experiment with different ways of working to empower teams to provide faster, local decision-making and better customer outcomes. We also know that supporting greater autonomy with our teams is a key driver of their health and wellbeing.  

Reinventing the traditional work week  

In November 2023, Medibank launched a 4-day work week trial involving 250 employees, aimed at enhancing flexibility, wellbeing, and productivity. By fundamentally addressing traditional ways of working, our teams create capacity to access the ‘gift’ of time. This flexibility is decided by each team based on whether they have completed all their work and met their goals for the week. Following strong results in engagement, wellbeing, and performance, the trial has been expanded to include an additional 300 employees, bringing the total participants to over 500. The program continues to be independently evaluated by the Health and Wellbeing Research Unit at Macquarie University’s Business School, to inform key learnings and better understand the impact over time of this new way of working. 

Reinventing meetings  

A key way to reinvent work is to rethink how we meet to ensure every interaction adds value. We’ve introduced a set of meeting fundamentals that help us align on purpose, communicate clearly, and make space for what matters most. This includes knowing when to respectfully decline a meeting, identifying meetings that aren’t necessary, and ensuring every meeting has a clear agenda. As part of this reset, teams have created shared agreements and refreshed their calendars - setting the foundation for more focused, productive conversations. 

Cutting red tape  

We are committed to making it easier for our people to deliver impact through their work by removing bureaucracy and ‘cutting unnecessary red tape’. This initiative is driven by a community of over 150 internal Changemakers who are passionate about simplifying processes. In Phase 1, cross-functional teams came together to improve internal approvals - identifying pain points, reducing duplication, and creating more efficient workflows. This collaborative approach has helped build a scalable model for cutting red tape across the organisation. Looking ahead, we will expand the initiative’s scope and embed it into our FY26 objectives to ensure we continue targeting high-impact areas and enabling our people to focus on what matters most. 

We’re thrilled to have seen such positive results from our work. reinvented program to date and continue to focus on opportunities to keep improving our peoples’ and customers’ experiences.