Celebrating 100 years: Jason's Story
“Being able to help people, who could be at their lowest point when they meet you, can be challenging. But it comes with great rewards.”
08 Nov 2022
After receiving the “best birthday present ever” when offered a role at ComSuper in 2006, Jason Mudge’s first day on the job took an unexpected twist. The date was 7 November, and having recently moved to Australia from New Zealand, he was unaware that it was, in fact, Melbourne Cup day.
After being shown around and getting acquainted with his colleagues, he had some time to himself at his desk. While trying to make himself look productive, his manager tapped him on the shoulder. Surprisingly to Jason, it wasn’t a ‘get going with your work’ kind of tap, but rather a tap to tell him he was required to join the rest of his team at the Belconnen Labor Club to watch the race that stops a nation.
“I was a little bit confused about effectively being instructed to down tools for a horse race, but it certainly made for interesting conversation when I got home,” he recalls.
“I did wonder at the time whether this was something that happened every day. So I had to go back on day two to find out.”
The social side of things may have subsided since that first day, but Jason’s passion for his work has not. Having taken on the management of ELMO in recent years, chances are that at some point he has impacted most of us by calculating a bonus or pay rise, actioned results from a survey, or advised with ELMO-related queries. A large part of his role has also involved providing HR metrics and reporting to the Executive and People Team. While his current role is largely colleague-focused, he is still keenly attuned to the customer-centred lens through which the organisation operates.
“While my current role doesn’t have direct customer contact, I still look back fondly to earlier in my career where I worked in customer facing roles,” he says.
“Being able to help people, who could be at their lowest point when they meet you, can be challenging. But it comes with great rewards.
“For me in my current role, I see how that same customer focus permeates our thinking. It is something I saw clearly when we were busy implementing ELMO, and more recently in the strategic workforce planning work that is being undertaken now. Ultimately, everything we do is about our customers.”