Hunter based OPRA Psychology Group has been recognised on a global scale at the International Brandon Hall Awards.

The Excellence in Technology Award was received by the group for their Innovative Future Skills Mapping Project, which was developed in partnership with their client Westpac.

OPRA Psychology Group provide practical, robust human resources and industrial/organisational psychology solutions to all industries and sectors across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Australia’s head office for OPRA is based in Newcastle and is led by born and bred Novocastrian, Ben Hainsworth, who is the national General Manager and Lead Psychologist.

Ben said that partnering with Westpac was a no brainer, as their way of looking into the future for workers is relevant and provides direction for employees.

“While many have speculated about the future of work, Westpac has pioneered providing clarity and direction to sustain future career relevance and success for all its employees,” Ben said.

The online assessment project is customised to Westpac’s environment and is applicable to all roles across the organisation.

The experience centres on a framework of ten future focused skills that Westpac believes will be most relevant to career success in the future including agility, human machine interaction and being digital.

Through the program employees will undergo a series of diagnostic assessments, including innovative video simulations, to measure abstract reasoning and problem-solving ability; interests, preferences and motivations; and behavioural indicators underpinning the future focused skills.

The experience culminates in the delivery of a detailed, personalised report to the individual that enables them to understand how their existing transferable skills measure against the future focused skills. Importantly, it provides the individual with a personalised learning plan which includes applicable experiences to develop their capabilities through Westpac’s e-learning platform, LearningBank.

“Our team is extremely proud of this project and enjoyed working with Westpac on every detail. It’s great to be at the forefront of technology in human capital management,” Ben said.

“The initiative, currently in its early stages, has proven very successful with those taking part. We’ve received so many positive testimonials. Employees are excited about their results being matched with personalised and relevant learning experiences, giving them a pathway to action rather than just a report.”

Through Future Skills Mapping, Westpac is helping empower individuals with valuable insights about their skills and provides access to future focused development opportunities.

The results have allowed the teams to make informed decisions on where to direct funding for training and development.

Based in the USA, research and advisory firm Brandon Hall Group is the authority on recognizing excellence in Human Capital Management with the most extensive and longest-running Human Capital Management (HCM) awards.

OPRA Australia is part of CGH Group, a national, leading provider of human resource and

IMAGE | The OPRA team – Ben Hainsworth, Joyce Seetoo-McEvoy, Kiera Parr Georgie Withers from Westpac, Sarah Burke and Glenn Brown (left-right)