What interested you about studying the Health Science degree?

In VCE my two main interests were Legal studies and Health, but a Bachelor of Health Sciences was a great degree to further my interests. I majored in Public Health and ran many health programs whilst at Uni. I then completed further studies at Deakin University in Health Promotion and Nutrition. Both Universities provided wonderful courses, with incredible staff that encouraged me to continue in the health industry.

Why did you apply for your first role at GMHBA?

Whilst completing my studies I worked in many different health practices, including Physiotherapy and General Practice and became a group exercise instructor teaching Body attack classes at local gyms. I also completed work experience at Women’s Health magazine and loved every minute of it! After a few years of working in small health practices, I was ready to see what working in a larger organisation was like. A role was advertised for a Customer Service role at GMHBA and despite the role not being directly related to my degrees, I was keen to try something new and understand the organisation. After my initial interview, I received a call saying a different role was available and more suited to my qualifications, an administration role within the Diversification team. The role was part of a newly formed team at GMHBA, with the aim of diversifying the business to become a health services provider. The team lead GMHBA to successfully provide Dental, Eye Care, General Practice and Physiotherapy. It was an exciting time for GMHBA and I loved being part of such an innovative and diverse team.  My experience and degree were frequently used in this role and I loved learning about the acquisition of health practices.

What were your next roles?

After being in the diversification team, I spent time in the Facilities team further understanding the project management side of the business. I then moved into the Strategy and Risk department as a Business Analyst where I was able to learn an incredible amount through working with so many departments in the business. I loved understanding how an organisation builds their strategy and the many different ways an organisation can operate to deliver an outcome. It was in this position that I was able to start exploring Value Based Health Care for GMHBA. I loved looking at all the different ways GMHBA provides Health value and created an ongoing paper for the Health Services Committee, highlighting the health value GMHBA delivers to its’ members and the community. I then moved into the role of Project Manager, leading a team of subject matter experts to deliver specific pieces of work.

Each role I have been in at GMHBA has allowed me to understand different parts of the business, build relationships, learn from incredible mentors and to be able to develop different skills needed for my current role as Project Manager.

You do you do in your current role? 

For GMHBA to deliver on its’ strategy, certain pieces of work need to be delivered.  When the work requires specific subject matter experts and will take a certain amount of time, a project manager is needed to ensure the project runs smoothly and delivers the expected outcome(s). As a project manager, I ensure project documentation is completed, including a project timeline and tracking of resources. I lead project meetings to ensure each project resource is clear on the work that needs to be done, understand if there are any risks or issues that could impact the project and to track how the project is progressing. Project management is incredibly important at GMHBA. There are many subject matter experts that are amazing at what they do, the project manager ensures the work being done is in line with the intended aim of the project and to help minimise any blockers or hurdles.

What do you enjoy about your current role?

I love working with different people from around the organisation and learning each and every day.

We are so lucky to have an incredible private health system in Australia and to have options when navigating our health journeys. When a member or customer calls GMHBA, sometimes they need to navigate the health system that they may not be familiar with. When I hear that GMHBA have been able to guide that person to manage or improve their health, I know I am working in the right company. GMHBA cares for our staff and our customers, and that makes me a loyal staff member.

How has your degree been useful in the various roles that you’ve undertaken at GMHBA? 

The role of business analyst has always allowed me to use my health sciences degrees. Articulating the different populations that require health services based on their demographics was very useful when looking at potential locations for health practices. Measuring health value and documenting the health outcomes from the many programs and services GMHBA offer was possible due to my University learnings.

3 pieces of advice for Graduates?

• Be open to any role within an organisation like GMHBA. There is so much to learn and you will never regret having the experience.
• Ask questions and put your hand up for things that interest you. It’s up to you how much you get out of your experience.
• If successful, have lunch or coffee with your new colleagues, the more people you can meet the better.

What’s your background?

I grew up in China and moved to Australia in 2015. I attended Monash University and was initially interested in Finance and Economics and so majored in those areas in my undergraduate degree and then went on to complete Masters in Business Law and Accounting. 

What were your first roles after Uni?

When I finished my Masters, I decided that I didn’t want to work as an accountant.  I thought that a marketing/social media/events type job might be interesting, and took a position as a Marketing Assistant for a plastic surgeon. 

It was in this role that I started to appreciate the power of data and the importance of this for making sound business decisions.  However, there was limited scope for me to use or gain any data analytic skills.  I decided I wanted to build my data analytic skills and so enrolled in the Monash Data Analytics Boot camp where, over 6 months, I learned everything about data analysis, both the soft skills and the hard skills. 

Why did you apply to GMHBA?

When I graduated from BootCamp, I was really keen to use my new knowledge and skills. When I saw the Provider Insights Analyst job advertised at GMHBA, I thought that the job description fitted me really well and I also thought that if I can deal with private health, then I can deal with anything as it’s a really complex industry!  I felt that GMHBA was a good fit with the experience that I had gained in the medical field. 

Tell us about your role as a Provider Insight Analyst?

As a Provider Insight Analyst, I worked with the data related to health care providers – like optometrists, hospitals, specialists etc.  

The most important thing that I analysed is the provider’s behaviour – I looked at the providers fees for the services that they provided to their patients, and what the patients out of pocket expenses were for those services.   This is then correlated with other data – so that we can figure out the roadmap of provider’s behaviour.  We also analysed how their claims were submitted to us, and checked for the way to improve business decisions etc.  This was all done using tools such as MS SQL, QlikView and Python. 

Tell us about your next role in the Business Intelligence (Finance) team

After about a year in the Provider Insight Analyst role, I was promoted to Business Intelligence Analyst in the Business Intelligence (Finance) team.

This role is very different.  As a Provider Insight Analyst, it was more ‘on the ground’ level work and the data was all related to ‘providers & claims’. 

In the Business Intelligence Analyst role, I’m looking at data from across the whole organisation – data that is related to our members, data related to the different private health insurance products that we offer, and even financial data about how the business is performing. 

In the Business Intelligence team, I still do data extraction and analysis and coding is still a large part of my role, but with a broader focus.  Also, in this team, a really important part of our role is to create dashboards and reports for other teams, so I get to interact with a wide range of people from across different teams at GMHBA.  The BI team are going to be moving from QlikView to PowerBI soon, so I’m looking forward to learning more about this migration progress.  

What do you think are the top skills needed for a business intelligence analyst?

The technical skills are obviously really important – I am coding every day, so you need to have an enjoyment of that.

Stakeholder engagement is also a critical part of this job as you need to understand the needs of different people from different teams at GMHBA to enable you to deliver the right thing.

Problem solving skills are also essential  so that you can get under the data and understand what the different users across GMHBA are looking for.

Why is this work important to GMHBA? 

The work that we do can be likened to being a Chef – a Chef takes unappetising raw ingredients and adds the magic that turns the dish into something delicious!  In the same way, we take raw data that is undigestible, listen carefully to your requirements, and add the magic that will turn your data into something valuable to you.  Not a lot of people know how to do the data stuff – we save our colleagues a lot of time by automating data extraction process and creating a dashboard that will help with their decision making. 

What do you enjoy about your job and working at GMHBA?

I really like the culture here – GMHBA is very people focussed and I was so impressed by that when I first joined. 

Before I started here, I had never been to a CEO Town Hall before – these are held each quarter at GMHBA.   I really like the opportunity to hear the CEO speak about the company, it’s history, how we are going, and what are the plans for the future.  Hearing this in person and directly from the CEO is great.

I also like GMHBA’s inclusiveness – there is great gender balance across the organisation and at management levels, and there is a lot of respect for women.  We also have a diverse culture,  a great mix of different people from different countries and religions.  I am the ‘minority’ in Australia, but I feel really comfortable here! 

What is interesting about this industry/PHI – what is keeping you here?

Private Health Insurance and Health Care is a growing industry and it will keep growing – I’ve seen first hand how the health industry is growing and changing constantly and I like that – the constant change keeps things interesting.  I also like that every piece of data that I analyse is from a live human being - I like working with data that will help impact someone’s health journey.

Three pieces of advice for a new graduate?

Never stop exploring because you never know what you might like to do.  If you stop trying and exploring, you’ll never find out!

Be patient – the working world is so big and there are so many things that you don’t know….yet!

Be humble –you are a graduate and have lots of knowledge and skills but you still have a long way to go and a lot to learn.  You’ll never stop learning in a data/tech based role so be ready and open to that! 

 

Saif Matar – PHI Graduate

Bachelor of Pharmacology (University of Melbourne)

Masters in Public Health (University of Melbourne)

6:00am: My day starts around 6am on the days I commute to the office as I reside in Melbourne. The great thing at GMHBA is the hybrid working model - I commute to the office every other Tuesday and Thursday, but even with that, there is always flexibility. Today happens to be a day that I commute to the office due to scheduled meetings in the afternoon. At this time of year, I get to experience sunrise early in the morning and that kick starts my energy for the day!

8:30am: Made it to the office! Here at GMHBA, the flexibility of choosing my office area is something that I really enjoy. Depending on my mood for the day and how I’m feeling, I like to switch around my desk area, given that you get exposed to other team members and their departments. Once I’m set up at my desk, I like to start off by writing down a checklist for the day. This helps keep me on track with my tasks for the day.

9:00am: Commencing my tasks- I tend to find that I am most productive around this time of day. The current rotation I’m allocated to is the Clinical and Health Programs rotation. The role consists of conducting research and evaluation on the effectiveness of GMHBA’s Chronic Disease Management Programs here at GMHBA. Depending on whether there are any scheduled meetings in the morning, I like to allocate 2 hrs dedicated to solo time working on my scheduled tasks which consist of research and planning for upcoming health programs provided by GMHBA to our members. Currently, our department is working on two health initiatives targeting hypertension and cancer. Due to the complexity of such chronic diseases, my work revolves around researching and analysing the burden of such disease and identifying areas of opportunity which would then enable us to determine the scope of intervention the programs have in influencing the burden of disease and its progression.

My task for today is centred around evaluating data pertaining to cancer claims for an upcoming project here at GMHBA. Utilising my skills in clinical evaluation and analysis, I would be evaluating the claims and breaking down the costs associated with cancer. From the analysis, I identified areas of opportunity that would allow us to determine the extent to which our programs are able to manage avoidable episodes associated with cancer amongst our members.

11:00am: I take a short break to get up from my desk and stretch out while enjoying my second cup of coffee. To all coffee lovers- GMHBA has a high-quality coffee machine in the kitchen on each level with different coffee pod flavours!

11:15am: Started with my other task for the day which revolves conducting external calls for a survey that I am collecting to evaluate outcomes on our Care Coordination Service (CCS). CCS is one of GMHBA’s health programs provided to our members post-hospital discharge. As the name of the program suggests, CCS staff coordinate care between the member and ancillary services such as physio and occupational therapists to help members navigate their health journey post hospital discharge. By conducting these calls, an NPS (Net Promoter Score) is generated – this is one of the indicators of success of the program.

12:15pm: GMHBA’s office is located in a great spot with many restaurants and cafes around the area. Also, the Geelong Pier is a 5-minute walk from the office. Usually, I go for walks around the Pier or sit down on the benches while having my lunch.

1:00pm: Scheduled meeting with the other grads to catch-up! We usually schedule these meetings once a week just to reflect on our work and share our experiences in our allocated rotations. I personally enjoy these meetings because it gives me an insight on the other rotations, and it paves the opportunity for us to share our thoughts and feedback on the grad program.

2:00pm: Catching up with my rotational manager. This session allows me to touch-base with my manager to see where I’m headed with my tasks. Most importantly, it is my opportunity to ask questions and obtain feedback on areas of improvement. We tend to hold these one-on-one meetings at least once a week, online or in-person.

3:00pm: At this time of day, I like to refer back to my notes on members who have requested to be called at a later time and commence with the survey.

4:00pm: Towards the end of the day, I reflect on my tasks for the day and identify if there are any follow-up tasks to be done. Usually, I’ll keep a record of such notes in my diary to refer to the following day.

4:30pm: Pack-up and catch the train back to Melbourne. The great advantage of GMHBA’s office being located in a central location of Geelong city is its close distance to the train station-which usually takes around 9 minutes to walk to.

 

 

 

Billy Stajnko

Bachelor of Science (Mathematical Modelling)

Deakin University

7:00am: On my days in the office, I wake up at 7am, then I’m out the door a bit before 8am to get into the Geelong CBD by 8:30 am. The benefit of living and working in Geelong is that the commute is pretty easy going most of the time, meaning most of my day is not taken away by long commutes.

8:20am: I park my car at the eastern beach carpark, from here it’s a nice walk along the waterfront to get to the GMHBA building.

8:30am: I arrive at the office; Then I grab a few things from my locker and head to my desk. For my current rotation I am working in the Payments Integrity Team, this team is responsible for auditing claims coming from hospitals and ancillary providers (dental, physio etc.). After saying hello to everyone I sit down and open up my computer. First tasks for the day include checking my emails and then looking at to do lists from the day before. Once that's been done, I get on with my work.

During this rotation, I’ve been working as a Data Analyst within the Payments Integrity Team on a project to find improved ways of measuring the savings we make from changes in Health Care Provider’s behaviour following an audit. My day-to-day usually involves me looking through lots of healthcare provider data, things like the number of services they provide, the make up of our members that attend and the fees they charge. I do all of this using SQL to extract the data and Python to do the analysis/model building. As a part of this project, we have also been engaging with other health funds, to gather info as well as share some insights on our end.

 

12:00pm: Right on 12 is when I have my lunch, once a week I will buy lunch from one of the many great food options around the office. Today I chose Brown Deli which is only a short 5-minute walk away, the toasties from here are amazing! after I get my food I’ll return to the office and eat in the shared kitchen space on level 2, near where my team works.

12:30pm: Today I have a short gap between lunch and some meetings, so I have gone to grab a coffee with Justin from the Business Intelligence team. He is my grad buddy, someone who I can chat with about anything related to work, he’s great to bounce ideas off on data analytics related stuff.

1:00pm: Every second week, the Payments Integrity Team has a meeting to discuss anything important that has been happening recently, as well as things to do going forward. Although most of what is discussed is not related to my analytics work, it is very fun to sit in on these meetings. You hear so many interesting things from both the hospital and ancillary auditors. One of the coolest things I’ve heard is how our team was responsible for stopping just under 10 million dollars’ worth of claims leakage last financial year. You also hear a few funny anecdotes from some of the ongoing audits.

2:00pm: Following this meeting, I have another bi-weekly meeting with Josh and Liz from the Provider Relations team. This team is responsible for managing GMHBA’s relationships with external healthcare providers. Although their team falls under Benefits Management like us, the work they do is significantly different to Payments Integrity. The goal of our meetings is to discuss progress on the auditing analytics project I mentioned earlier. These meetings are great because they give us a fresh perspective on things, helping us move through any obstacles we encounter. It is also nice to talk data with Josh and Liz, who work in a similar role to mine but in a different team. 

3:00pm: After the meetings I return to my desk, continuing on with the work I was completing earlier.

5:00pm: Home time! I pack up my things, say bye to the rest of the team, head to my locker and then head out. Tonight, as one of the Grad Program perks, I’m going to see the Cats vs Port Adelaide AFL game at GMHBA Stadium with the other grads and our buddies.  We were pretty happy to even get access to the Fan Portal before the match began!

Yasmin Sewart

Bachelor of Forensic Science (Deakin University)

Bachelor of Criminology (Honours) Deakin University

Graduate Certificate Management and Leadership (RMIT)

 

7:00am: If I'm working from home, I take full advantage of sleeping in as late as I possibly can, but today I'm in the office so I have to get up earlier. Luckily, I live in outer Geelong so it's only about a 30-minute drive into the CBD.

8:30am: I'll head into the office, grab a coffee and some breakfast and set up my desk. I'll start by checking any emails, messages, or other updates to make sure I'm ready for the day.

 

9:00am: Tuesdays are one of the busiest days in office, so many of our meetings are scheduled for these days so we can meet in person. I’m currently working within the Program Integration team, which is responsible for managing the many different projects within the organisation. My first meeting of the day is a weekly stand up for one of the projects I'm currently working on – an update of the customer relationship management system (CRM), which is a massive project which will modernise our current systems over the next few years, and create a smoother experience for our members and employees. The core team is about 10 people, made up of Program/Project Managers and Coordinators, Business and Tech Leads, and Change Managers, but involves others from all different parts of the company -  like Technical Architects, Product Designers, and Subject Matter Experts. These weekly stand ups give the team an opportunity to update everyone on what they are doing, ask for advice, or just give a general overview of where they are in the project.

9:30am: Today we get to do something a bit different and do some volunteering! GMHBA has a great volunteering program where we get to spend some time helping at local charities and organisations. I'm heading off with my fellow graduates to assist Our Village (formerly Geelong Mums), which is an amazing organisation that supports babies and children by providing donated essential goods such as prams, clothing, and nappies. I'm helping by cleaning shoes and packing clothing bundles, which vary from itty bitty baby clothes right up to a size 16. 

 

1:00pm Back to work! I'll stop and grab some lunch from the dumpling shop next to our building because while I try to bring my own lunches, I am unfortunately not as good at planning it out as I would like to be (and the dumplings are delicious).

2:00pm: Next up is my graduate cohort catch up session. These are scheduled each month, so we can all learn more about the business and what the other grad’s are working on, and provide support to each other.  These are super important as it can be a bit overwhelming as a graduate in a new business, so having a support network is great to help manage some of the nerves and worries.   Different rotation managers also attend these each month to give an overview of their area and the type of work available in their team – which is helpful for planning out our next rotations.

3:00pm: I usually use my afternoons to catch up on any work I need to do. Today some of my tasks include scheduling meetings and workshops for our project, so our system designers and implementors can get a better sense of what exactly they need to include in the new system; updating minutes from our Steering Committee, where our project team meets with the company executive to update them on the project and get support; and creating a financial resourcing model spreadsheet to track project expenses against our original budget. These are all important tasks for a project manager, as there are many different moving parts that need to be organised, documented, and tracked. There needs to be this level of detail so anyone would be able to look at the project and understand exactly what decisions were made, where the budget is being spent, and why things occurred the way they did.

As part of my development within the graduate program I am completing a Project Management Certification, so I also use this time to work on that. I have already been able to use things I have learnt in the course, such as a RAIDD log (used to track risks, assumptions, issues, decisions and dependencies – the log helps to note anything that might be an issue later) and a RACI chart (which helps the project manager to know which stakeholders are either responsible, accountable, consulted or included).  These have both been useful to help manage big projects like this one and identify who needs to be involved and how.

5:00pm: Home time! I’ll finish up anything I’m working on and then head on home. If the weather’s nice I’ll take my dog Kevin for a walk around the neighbourhood. Then it's back to the house to have some dinner and a relaxing night.

Simarjot Singh

Graduate Application Support Engineer
Technology and Data team

 

My role is focused on providing technical application support to the business to ensure they have a smooth experience when using our applications suite. That includes providing Level 3 application support across Core Systems portfolio (HAMBS, Dynamics CRM, Integration, Member Communication Systems) in different environments.

6:30 AM

I would get out of bed around this time and get ready for the day. GMHBA provides flexible working arrangements to work from office or home. Our team typically does Tuesdays and Thursdays in the office. I leave for work around half past seven on office days and go for a short walk or a run when I am working from home. 

8:00 AM: Time to log on! I’ll grab some breakfast and a coffee and prepare for the day. That includes checking any new emails, upcoming tasks, and brush-up for meetings. A rough to-do list always helps to plan out the day based on what tasks I am working on, however, there is always room if something urgent comes up.

9:00 AM: Daily stand-up meeting kicks our day off where we update the team on what tasks are being worked on, any new developments which team needs to know and finally if someone needs any help with their blockers.

10:00 AM: This is when the fun part starts?! However, each day is different for an Application Support Engineer, typically I will start off by looking at any urgent incidents that need my attention, follow-up from client or vendor. This will also shape the way I prioritise my tasks in the morning. This can include undertaking a root cause analysis, debugging the logic/code, short catchups with people in and out of the business and much more.

On a quiet day, I will dedicate this time to work through the backlog and development tasks and assisting other members of the team if they need any technical assistance.  

12:30 PM: By this time, the conversations start getting more centred towards “where are we heading for lunch?”. Thursdays turn into a team lunch with most of us being in the office. With our head office being right in the centre of the Geelong city, we have a large variety of options to choose from (sometimes too many that it gets tricky to reach a consensus!). From adorable cafés at the waterfront to fast food joints in Westfield, we have it all covered in a five-minute walk.

1:30 PM: Having done being rejuvenated from lunch, it’s time to jump back into problem solving mode. Time spent after lunch is dictated by any scheduled meetings such as sprint planning, client updates, retro meetings etc. On meeting free Wednesdays and other quiet days, this time is to focus on developing code fixes, undertake routine application maintenance activities and ensuring application support knowledge is appropriately maintained and documented.

5:00 PM: By this time, I will start closing off my tasks for the day, review the to-do list and finally check any new emails. If the weather’s nice, I will head off to the nearest oval for a quick run.