As I have indicated a few paragraphs back, for almost 12 months I have been collecting bits of information along the way. One of my favourite pastimes is the study of OSINT and data acquisition methods, including an old favourite SET (social engineering techniques).

These days, there are loads of websites where leaked data is just sitting, waiting to be explored. The Panama Papers is one such depository, not to mention WikiLeaks the famous Australian led organisation that specialises in gathering data and making it publicly available.

In addition to these depositories of data, there is a group out there competing with each other to see who can make the best tool for gathering online data – the science is breathtaking. The point I’m trying to make, is that if you want to hide data, you do that from the outset. There is no benefit trying to hide data once it has been out there on the internet, emailed, SMS’d, or even tweeted. The classic example is someone suddenly changing their privacy settings on Facebook and thinking they can hide all their friends that previously were publicly available.

In the search for relevant data in this part of my investigation, the financial investigation, a tool managed to find a link to the document about AFFORD’s ethos – it is quite possibly the CEO’s manifesto.

The document is impressive and likely to have been dated around 2017, so it is relevant in terms of the current planning strategy. A quick examination revealed, in my view, some major flaws.

The underlying basis of the document indicates the intent of changing employee culture to one accepting the shifting of responsibility from management to the employees that are heading up the individual premises, called the Team Leaders. They are referred to as “owners”, as if they are some kind of franchisee.  See excerpt from the CEO’s manifest below;

Our Culture and Foundations

Culture is crucial to the success of Afford’s overall strategy. While operational guidelines govern how employees should act, where these are yet to be formed or do not exist, it is culture that will step in as an employee’s guiding force. The past 2 years has seen the setting of foundations and the emergence of our new culture. We have morphed from a staid, employee centred, bureaucratic culture to the beginnings of a commercial, flat, customer-centred culture. To fully achieve the right culture will take another year or two as we juggle significant organisational & market changes with our own journey of cultural change. Conversely, our cultural change is what will dictate our success in traversing the changing market and where we land in the years to come, the biggest factor in the next 2 years being our ability to cope with change. Beyond this horizon we need the right culture to succeed as a Multi-Site Service Retailer, and we are already well on our way to this.

The stark reality here is that these team leaders are neither trained nor skilled in executive management, and thus not equipped to deliver at this level. If it was that simple, businesses everywhere would hire team leaders instead of executive managers, and save hundreds of thousands in salaries.

I am not qualified to argue the pros and cons of this strategy. But what I am qualified to do is investigate and examine the data I find.

I do know from people whom I have spoken to within this organisation that those who have been burdened with this level of responsibility are afraid to report certain things to management because management don’t want to hear it and they get bullied and/or forced out of the organisation if they continued to do this. So many key personnel have left the organisation already.

It’s interesting to note that since the current CEO arrived in 2015, AFFORD has had 5 CFO’s and if my information is correct, they don’t have a CFO at the moment.

I must question if this forced cultural change, of making team leaders enforce lean budgets and then rewarding them for complying, is actually a good thing. Readers will recall in one of the earlier parts in this blog, it was reported to me that it is common for sites to have little resources such as cleaning products, gloves, wet wipes, changing mats, disposable bathroom aprons, sanitisers/hand wash, kitchen stock such as milk/tea etc. There have also been reports of a lack of food for the clients with relatives bringing in food and on occasion staff has to put their hands in their pockets to cover it. There are often no supplies onsite for client activities such as arts and crafts.

There is a system known as PACES. If staff maintains a lean ship, by not taking sick leave, not accepting overtime, working within strict guidelines, and settling complaints within 30 days, they receive bonuses. If they don’t do this they are punished in one way or another and forced out of the organisation.

See another excerpt below from the CEO’s manifesto. So here we have it, “The flat lean structure has been achieved and our Senior Executive structure is the very best in the sector by a long way.”

There are two structures, a lean structure for everyone else and the largesse that big business brings that is clearly enjoyed by the Senior Executive crew.

 

Flat, Team-based and Lean structure

Afford embodies a structure that is simple, team-based and lean. There is no place to hide in a lean organisation; performance becomes far more transparent and results can be quickly attributed and where needed, corrective action taken. Our teams are led by a Team Leader. Leaders leading leaders, and turning everyone into a leader. The NDIS demands that even our front line staff must think as leaders & problem solvers as thousands and thousands of hours of services will be provided 1 to 1, in the absence of Team Leaders or supervision. This structure is not just financially the most viable. More importantly it allows for agility and imbeds a frugal ‘small business’ approach as opposed to the largesse that big business brings. The flat lean structure has been achieved and our Senior Executive structure is the best in the sector by a long way. Our competitors are living in the past.

Here again below is another excerpt, showing the ownership culture I spoke about earlier.

Ownership by our People

Personal accountability and ownership allows for Afford as an organisation to ‘think big’ while our sites maintain an unrelenting focus on delivering person-centred and exceptional customer service to clients. Leaders need to show that they follow through on promises, deliver and lead by example. All of our people are owners of their business and while we have a way to go to reach the level of ownership that we desire, we are starting to see Team Leaders taking ownership for their site and clients, and importantly, staff. As the framework is now clear with progression through the ranks to different roles and our Step Up program for future leaders, Team Leaders are mentoring their team members rather than relying on Head Office. This is seeing the emergence of much greater camaraderie and commitment to a group in the site by site teams, and the emergence of a small business culture.

So here we have it below, the formula for success. Enjoying fortnightly unlimited Margaritas’ or the cocktails of your choice, is a reward for being frugal and running a lean centre. Being flown all expenses paid to 4 / 5 star hotels with unlimited alcohol is success. Buzz nights cost about a few thousand dollars each night, for each team each month, depending on the size of the team so the cost can vary more or less around the $2k figure.  There are about 50 team leaders so potentially this costs AFFORD up to $100,000 per month or more. I have heard reports of Senior Executive managers (who shouldn’t be Senior Executive managers) putting their AFFORD credit card behind the bar, covering up to $10,000 worth of drinks for a large group. Is this really success? A magician costs about $350 for a 2 hour on site magical show, and I’m wondering why this isn’t a measure of success too.

The bonus systems are generous all the way up the management chain to the top for running a lean ship.

Celebrating Success – what gets rewarded gets done

To remain engaged and striving as an employee, people must feel that their individual efforts make a difference. We have implemented numerous methods to recognise and celebrate success. This ranges from the most significant being PACES team incentives to monthly customer service awards to monthly staff meetings/buzz nights and so on.

 

The CEO commenced on a salary of about $350,000 in 2015, plus bonuses. So it is evident that Senior Executives and upper management need to be showered with huge bonuses and enjoy regular functions and banquets fit for royalty, or otherwise they cannot do their jobs properly despite their huge salaries. Rewarded for running a very lean ship down the bottom end and making profits at whose expense?

So in a nutshell that’s the system in place. The clients provide the funds so they can “enjoy” a lean ship and suffer all the other consequences that go with it that have been discussed before in this blog, and the upper management shower themselves with huge salaries and bonuses and other rewards for bringing in new clients. So the emphasis has shifted from delivering care – to being a big business deploying clever marketing techniques to secure new clients and their NDIS funding packages.

Equality and Egalitarianism

There is no such thing as privilege of rank at Afford. Visible signs of superiority that boost egos, are a divisible wedge between those who get them and those who don’t. Salaries & Wages reflect the market price for performance of a role, and not the seniority of the role.

Managing for Change, Growth & Sustainability

These three aspects are what underpin the long-term success of Afford and cement the care we are able to provide to our clients into the future. In short, this means cultivating a business acumen in our Leaders, a commercial view. The way we talk as a Senior Exec, the various forums we have every week and the calibre of Leaders we are developing has seen a rapid move from a welfare culture to a commercial one. New stars have emerged in the team who may have had retail experience and understand margins, location and selling techniques.

While sustainability is multi-faceted, the bottom-line is that it requires profit. Afford believes in our organisation making a profit and maintaining a profitability focus. We accept that unless our organisation is consistently profitable, it cannot sustain operations and create opportunities for future investment. Modern Not for Profits all recognise the importance of surpluses to fund the exploration of new opportunities and ensure ongoing viability. We know that in a competitive marketplace profit is the best way to measure whether we are providing a service that the community values

 

Thus I make the conclusion from what I have observed from the outside, in the AFFORD’s marketing campaigns, does not accurately reflect what was observed thus far from the inside. There is a clear disparity. It is evident that a huge chunk of funding is not being allocated to the areas requiring the funds needed to deliver the care that the funding was initially intended for.  The funds have been diverted for ulterior purposes and information gleaned indicated that the vast spending on alcohol and lavish parties has been disguised from the normal accounting and funded from the companies investments, as opposed to NDIS funds.  

Let’s not forget that we cannot create clients. There is funding for each and every client meeting the NDIS guide lines, so if AFFORD missed out on an opportunity to recruit a client, that client would not miss out. However, by using aggressive and misleading marketing to secure new clients, AFFORD has denied the client the opportunity of the very best possible care because;  

a) they, AFFORD, spent the funds on marketing and rewarding themselves for doing this and,

b) denied the client a place in another organisation that provides better care.

The extra funding that is required to suitably deliver care to the clients that are in desperate need of this care is being greedily gobbled up by those few running the enterprise under a very sinister guise to reward the organisers and the supporters of this scheme for doing this with huge salaries, bonuses and lavish parties. There is of course thus, a quick fix for all of this.

It’s essentially bribery with a powerful and well-funded propaganda machine used to convince everyone on the outside, and the providers of funds that all is good at Disneyland by reporting glowing profits and glowing reports in glossy magazines to ratify the deal, and the ones at the bottom lean end, are in the main incapable of expressing a view.

Little wonder clients are being left unattended in bathtubs in premises not fulfilling minimum safety standards. It would not be too difficult for authorities to examine the accounts and establish the costs for replacing the many substandard doorknobs throughout the organisation’s premises the following day after the Merna Aprem incident of 23 May 2019. Certainly this subpoena to produce to get this information is at the top of my list.

On the subject of doorknobs I am wondering what the mayor of Penrith and chairman of AFFORD, Mr Ross Fowler has done about the many sites in the Penrith area within his jurisdiction where the premises used for disability services were of a substandard level. If he does not know how many doorknobs were changed on 24 May 2019 in all the AFFORD premises then he should know. He if did not send out building inspectors to all of the sites, then he should have.  We have seen him time and time again at AFFORD avail himself for marketing promotions alongside big business and dignitaries, but what has he done here? Quite frankly I do not know, but I am very keen to hear what he has done, and so far as marketing for AFFORD goes, it could not come any better (and cheaper)  than a statement from him highlighting what he has done in this regard to ensure the AFFORD clients are safe and receive the appropriate care.

The doorknob is relevant here for many reasons. So far as poor Merna was concerned, even if the carers heard her fall, or scream for help, they couldn’t get into the bathroom for about 30 minutes. As far as I can find out thus far, the doorknob was substandard and there was no risk management plans in place to address the issue of what happens in a situation like this, ie how to get into the bathroom quickly with that type of fitted doorknob .

Little wonder there is silence from management and gagging orders pushed on witnesses in this incident. They don’t want to risk interruption to their income streams is the only conclusion I can make at this point.

Little wonder when a female client is writhing in pain all day, management instruct the carers NOT to call an ambulance and dump her home ASAP. And make the election not to inform the parents of this!

Little wonder staff members are having sexual relations with senior management after being induced by ranking positions with high salaries and bonuses even though they are unqualified, and to cover this, we see the policy , “Salaries & Wages reflect the market price for performance of a role, and not the seniority of the role.” It’s interesting to note some staff with seniority and qualifications were replaced by juniors with no qualifications well before they could prove their performance of a role. Seems to be in some cases a pre-emptive promotion based on a premonition of outstanding performance.

Little wonder staff are stressed to the limit and often minding many other clients along with their 1:1 client and sometime supervising up to 12 clients where funding is being paid for 1:1 or 1:2 supports!

Little wonder clients are driving company vehicles, sitting in soiled attire for hours on end, or made to sit in the transport mini-bus for extended periods and sitting inside all day when funding was provided for them to attend day activities. The list goes on……

Staff are being bullied and sexually harassed and when voicing their complaints are being terminated.