The NSW Ombudsman oversees the operation of the Public Interest Disclosures Act (PID Act) across the NSW public sector.

With new PID Act legislation coming into effect at the start of October 2023, the NSW Ombudsman required a suite of training, educational and marketing artefacts to support in fulfilling its statutory responsibilities. All agencies — more than 450,000 NSW public sector employees — not only had to be equipped with the right materials, but motivated to get ready for the Act, empowered to train employees and primed to implement new policies.

Our e-learning program and materials had to provide education at a universal level, so every public official could understand and undertake their PID responsibilities with confidence.

Learning Strategy

We commenced the project with a learning strategy session, hosted at BEING’s offices in Sydney. With a clear understanding of the legislative changes, the Ombudsman had already been engaged in the process for some time and had pre-prepared detailed documentation to support communications, engagement and training.

Drawing on this knowledge, as well as discussion guided by the BEING Connection Strategy Model, we used the session to develop a framework for a series of products that would ensure broad awareness and universal uptake of the PID Act.

Target audiences for training varied across three distinct groups. Executives, managers and public officials with PID responsibilities — primarily nominated disclosure officers, HR staff, legal officers, risk and assurance staff, professional standards and ethics staff. It was decided learning would be divided across a series of deliverables; e-learning for managers and people with PID responsibilities, face-to-face training for all three groups, and general awareness marketing materials and videos for other public sector staff.

It was determined all training materials must use the right language to be accessible and create cut-through, be visually stimulating, support understanding and engagement, use behaviour science to generate enthusiasm, commitment, build a sense of competence and the motivation to apply knowledge, be based on sound education principles, and support self-sufficiency.

Branding

From the strategy session, the key outcome the Ombudsman sought was for public officials to know what do when they receive or witness a public interest disclosure and feel confident to act on it.

The graphic device icon alludes to multiple PID themes — it can be adapted into a speech bubble, but it also suggests a process or the way forward. While flexible, the lock-up is also dynamic and angular in its approach.

The tagline — Act for the public interest — uses the Act as both a noun and a verb to demonstrate the impact and ease of the update. In keeping with the legislation, anyone can act for public interest. The tagline is highly flexible and can be worded in a general way or with specific focus. It is simple and memorable, to highlight and engage the diverse sectors the Act applies to.

Informed by the ideas of colour psychology, the palette selects optimal colours for education and retention. This palette is curated specifically to enhance the learning experience, while aligning with colours outlined in the NSW Government brand guidelines.

Green boosts concentration, improves focus and helps maintain concentration and clarity. Orange provides comfort, enhances neural functioning and stimulates mental activity. And blue increases productivity, allowing users to focus on complex information in a calming, reliable way.

Video and Photography

Video and photography incorporate the theme of representation by using diverse props and costumes to allude to various industry sectors.

Videos were scripted to address key learnings in the Act, then edited into a compilation. Cast for diversity, actors were captured against a white wall illuminated with colour codes from the branding to ensure dimension and depth. Roles included those most heavily represented in the NSW public sector, such as nurses, doctors, teachers, council staff and office workers.

Videos were edited and released in multiple phases. Interim animations were created to explain the essentials of the Act ahead of the official implementation date. Live action videos and animations were developed to break up e-learning and face-to-face learning, while keeping participants engaged. And additional live action videos on key topics were developed as standalone tools for the Ombudsman to share, post or use as needed.

E-learning

E-learning is broken down into two modules for different audiences: a detailed 45-minute module for people with PID responsibilities and a shorter, simpler 20-minute module for managers.

The aim of the “Identifying and dealing with PIDs” module is to equip disclosure officers, and other staff who have responsibilities dealing with PIDs or managing compliance with the PID Act, with sufficient knowledge to be able to undertake their responsibilities.

After completing this training, participants have an understanding of an agency’s obligations when they receive a PID and during the course of an investigation, the considerations which must be taken into account when referring a PID to another agency, an agency’s obligation to take appropriate corrective action, ensuring PID makers are kept informed, mandatory notifications and reporting to the Ombudsman, and ensuring an agency meets its responsibilities to train staff and to promote a speak-up culture within an agency.

“PID for people leaders” focuses on managers’ obligations to communicate all PIDs they receive to disclosure officers and their responsibilities as recipients of PIDs. The module helps managers understand what the features of a PID are, that staff they supervise may make a PID to them and, their responsibility to communicate reports to a disclosure officer as soon as practicable after a report is made.

Both modules include live action video, animation, static text and interactive activities to test their knowledge and understanding, as part of mandatory training every three years.

Module design brings a different approach to layouts, using zoomed in shapes as windows for imagery and key information. It continues the green, blue and orange colour palette — enhancing the learning experience by matching different colours to different kinds of content.

Following development and approval, both modules were provided in a SCORM package for individual government departments to upload on their own learning management systems.

Training Materials

In addition to the e-learning modules, we developed face-to-face training materials for executives, managers and people with PID responsibilities. These comprised PowerPoint presentations, facilitator guide books (with context for any trainer to easily follow) and learner booklets for each audience. With the ability to deliver these materials in-person or virtually, they were necessitated by the fact not every department would be able to host e-learning.

General training materials for all NSW public officials included posters to meet awareness requirements, addressing topics such as what a public interest disclosure is, how to make one, and who to make it to.