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Building an Indigenous Employment Strategy kit

Introduction

Increasing Indigenous representation in employment and reducing the overall level of disadvantage among Indigenous Australians is an integral part of the Australian Government's agenda. Its Indigenous Economic Development Strategy (IEDS) aims, among other things, to increase levels of Indigenous employment, and to help Indigenous Australians participate in the broader economy. The IEDS is part of the Government's wider policy objective of closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

As a key employer, and supporting the Government's commitment to closing the gap for Indigenous Australians, the APS has an important role to play, modelling better practice to the broader workforce, and strengthening community capacity.

In 2005, the Commission launched the APS Employment and Capability Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employees (the APS Strategy). Since the APS Strategy's implementation, representation of Indigenous employees in the ongoing APS workforce has stabilised, after declining for a number of years, at 2.1%.¹

The purpose of this part of the Kit is to present background information and context for the development and implementation of agency-specific Indigenous employment strategies. It also offers a rationale for the initiatives included later in the Kit.

Indigenous employment in the APS

Current key facts related to Indigenous employment in the APS include the following:

Indigenous employees are disproportionately represented at relatively junior classifications in the APS. At 30 June 2007, some 12% of Indigenous employees were at the APS 1–2 levels compared with 5% for the APS generally, and 44% of Indigenous employees were at the APS 3–4 levels compared with 34.7% for the APS generally.²
Indigenous employees are more likely to work in service delivery positions—78% compared to 55% in 2005 for all APS employees. Forty per cent of these deliver services solely to Indigenous clients.³
Indigenous employees are more likely to separate from the APS than other ongoing employees. During 2006–07, the rate of ongoing Indigenous employees separating from the APS (i.e. retiring, resigning or dying) was 12.5% compared with an overall rate in the APS of 7.5%.⁴
As at 30 June 2007, more than half of the APS' Indigenous employees worked in just four agencies (Centrelink; Aboriginal Hostels Limited; the then Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs; and the then Department of Education, Science and Training). Twenty-six APS agencies had no Indigenous employees.

These facts suggest that despite progress and the stabilisation of overall Indigenous employment levels, there is still much more to be done.

Indigenous employment is also affected by a range of changes that have occurred over a number of years in the APS:

Between 1997 and 2007, the number of positions at the APS1-2 level fell from 21596 to 7154. Because Indigenous employees have historically been statistically overrepresented at these classifications, this reduction is likely to have had a disproportionate effect on their representation in the APS overall.
There has been an increasing demand for APS staff with tertiary qualifications, but at June 2007, only 28.1% of Indigenous employees had a Bachelor's degree or higher qualification, compared with 53.0% for the APS overall.
There is a trend towards higher education qualifications among new APS recruits, but Indigenous employees joining the APS in 2006–07 were less likely to have a Bachelor's degree than APS recruits overall (25.0% compared with 61.5%).⁵

Recognising these changes and the impact they have on Indigenous employment is important if agencies are to develop and implement appropriate initiatives to improve the way they employ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

What do Indigenous APS employees think?

In November 2005, the Commission conducted the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander APS Employees Census Survey as part of a research programme to inform the development and implementation of strategies for attracting, recruiting and retaining Indigenous employees.

The survey produced some positive findings. Indigenous APS employees made the following observations:

They generally believed they had the same career development opportunities as other APS employees.
They felt that most of their colleagues worked effectively and sensitively with Indigenous Australians.
They had high satisfaction rates with their supervisors' support for flexible workplace practices, as well as their agency's support for their cultural and community obligations.

Other findings included the following:

Only 50% of Indigenous employees believed that their agency actively supports the employment, development and promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.
Eighty per cent of Indigenous employees felt that their agency should be doing more to support the employment, development and promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.
Indigenous employees were more likely to report that they had experienced bullying or harassment in the workplace (23%).
Indigenous employees were more likely to report that they had not received formal individual performance feedback.
Forty-five per cent of Indigenous employees had faced a challenge in the preceding 12 months in balancing family and/or community obligations with being professional and achieving the requirements of the job in accordance with the APS Code of Conduct.

The issues raised in the survey identified some key areas for agencies to focus on in developing initiatives as part of an agency-specific Indigenous employment strategy.

Key elements of the APS Strategy

The APS has a strong statutory commitment to ensuring that it reflects the diversity of the community that it serves. The APS Values in the Public Service Act create an explicit responsibility for APS agencies to be sensitive to, reflect, and utilise the diversity of the Australian public. The integration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees into all levels and areas of the APS is an important element of APS employment policy and is reflected in the APS Strategy.

The APS Strategy consists of five core elements⁶:

supporting whole of government work on Indigenous policies and programmes—building APS capability to do Indigenous business by ensuring that APS employees have the skills and ability to provide effective services to Indigenous Australians and understand the whole of Government approach
pathways to APS employment—removing barriers to using the capacity of Indigenous Australians through graduate programmes, cadetships and traineeships
supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the APS—maximising the contribution of Indigenous employees to the APS and ensuring improved retention and promotion outcomes
helping agencies be good employers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees—aligning Indigenous employment strategies with broader workforce planning
partnerships—establishing collaborative and innovative employment solutions through the development of a range of strategic partnerships between the APS and other Commonwealth agencies, as well as State and Territory governments and other relevant stakeholders to promote Indigenous employment.

An independent evaluation of the APS Strategy was conducted in 2008. The findings of the evaluation were very positive, confirming that the APS Strategy has been a significant factor in arresting the decline in the representation of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the APS, and has succeeded in boosting the profile of the APS as an employer of choice for Indigenous Australians.

In order to maintain the momentum and build on recent gains, APS agencies need to continue their efforts in developing innovative approaches to achieve further improvements.

Support from the Commission

The Commission has developed, and continues to develop, a range of products and services to support Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders gain APS employment, and help agencies to employ and retain Indigenous employees.

Key initiatives to support Indigenous recruits and employees under the Pathways to Employment element of the APS Strategy include the following:

Indigenous graduate and cadetship programmes are targeted to attract Indigenous university students and graduates to a variety of APS agencies, across a range of disciplines.
The Indigenous Entry Level Recruitment Programme is a programme over 12 months designed to prepare participants for a career with the APS.
The publications Cracking the Code and Getting a job provide advice on how to apply for jobs, address selection criteria, and what to expect during the interview process.
Career Trek is a series of professional development and career training workshops.

The following initiatives are designed to support agencies and managers:

Get it Right is a recruitment kit designed specifically to assist APS managers achieve quality recruitment and selection outcomes.
An APS Indigenous Liaison Officer has been appointed within the Commission to provide advice to agencies and Indigenous people on a range of Indigenous employment issues.
The Indigenous Scholarships Programme offers a range of Indigenous development and scholarship opportunities, and forms part of the Commission's contribution to the fourth element of the APS Strategy.
This Kit was developed as a tool to help agencies develop their own Indigenous employment strategy.

Further information about current initiatives is available on the Commission's website at http://www.apsc.gov.au/publiccalling/.

The business case for employing Indigenous Australians

Skills gaps, skills shortages, an ageing workforce and labour shortages are issues of concern for all employers. APS agencies have to compete with the private sector in the labour market, and it is in each agency's best interest to market itself as an employer of choice by adopting innovative recruitment and retention strategies. This can include strategies to explore relatively untapped labour pools, and invest in the recruitment and development of workers from non-traditional areas, including Indigenous people.

The Indigenous population in Australia is growing at a faster rate than the non-Indigenous population and has a very different age profile compared with the non-Indigenous community. About 56 % of Indigenous Australians are under 25 years of age, compared with about 33% of the rest of the population. ⁷ The growing number of young working-age Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is a valuable source of labour for Australia's workforce today, and an essential one for the future.

Employing more Indigenous Australians makes good business sense for a range of reasons, including the following:

Attracting, retaining and developing the capacity of Indigenous staff now will assist an organisation to be seen as an employer of choice for Indigenous Australians in the future, particularly when the demand for skilled and talented staff is forecast to increase.
Indigenous employees' varying perspectives, experience and knowledge can add substantial value to business outcomes, and make significant contributions to the development of government policies and delivery of government services to the Australian community.
Increasing the diversity of agencies employees promotes cross-cultural interaction, enhancing knowledge and awareness of, and competence in, working with people from a range of backgrounds.

Identifying, attracting and engaging with eligible Indigenous candidates will play an important role in improving outcomes for agencies as well as Indigenous Australians. It will also contribute substantially to the Australian Government's priority of closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, an ambitious aim that requires 'sustained action across all levels of government, all sectors'… and … 'better engaging Indigenous people in developing solutions….'⁸

Why a formal Indigenous employment strategy?

Many agency human resource management areas already have strategies for addressing workforce diversity, but a strategy to concentrate specifically on Indigenous employment issues will drive more focussed action.

Developing an Indigenous employment strategy is also an opportunity for agencies to address workforce planning and development issues in the context of an ageing workforce and tightening labour market to make sure that they are well placed for the future. An Indigenous employment strategy can be one pillar in an agency's workforce strategy to attract the best people to meet its business needs.

A formal IES can also help agencies to build up the skills of all of their employees so that they are more confident and capable in developing and delivering services to the entire Australian community.

Indigenous employment strategies and links to other corporate documents

There is no 'one size fits all' approach to developing a strategy. The diversity of business needs and environments within agencies, and the needs of individual employees, will require agencies to develop and implement ideas and strategies in a way that works best for them.

An Indigenous employment strategy can be a stand alone document or, depending on an agency's business needs, it may be more appropriate to incorporate Indigenous employment initiatives into other documents such as the agency's workplace diversity plan.

It is a good idea to link Indigenous employment strategies to other relevant corporate documents such as the corporate plan, strategic business plan, and reconciliation action plan. This will help ensure that strategies to support the employment of Indigenous Australians are embedded as part of an agency's corporate priorities, and becomes part of the everyday 'way we do business'.

Indigenous employment strategies and reconciliation action plans

An Indigenous employment strategy focuses on the agency and asks what it is doing to improve the way it employs and retains Indigenous people. Its emphasis is internal: what workplace environment, recruitment and retention issues are affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in this agency?

A Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), on the other hand, is a tool to help organisations build positive relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. A RAP represents a framework for identifying specific actions and realistic targets to contribute to the improvement of the lives of Indigenous Australians in a wider sense, not solely focussed on agency business. ⁹ Many agencies have developed, or are in the process of establishing, a RAP to formalise their contribution to reconciliation.

While there are distinct differences between Indigenous employment strategies and RAPs, there are also some common objectives. The more extensive each framework is, the more similarities are likely to be found.

Commitment from individual agencies to the implementation of their own RAP in concert with an Indigenous employment strategy is likely to result in substantial improvements in Indigenous employment outcomes.

Workplace environment, recruitment and retention

Employment strategies generally include the three key themes of workplace environment, recruitment and retention, with the relative emphasis varying according to the challenges each agency faces.

Workplace environment

One of the factors driving high separation rates among Indigenous APS employees is the extent to which workplaces are able to adapt to and support the cultural needs and expectations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.¹⁰ This is, in fact, one of the greatest challenges the APS faces in supporting its own Indigenous employees.

Agency-specific actions will be fundamental to achieving change, and will involve developing approaches for ensuring workplaces are able to welcome and support Indigenous employees, ultimately attaining higher retention rates.

For example, showing respect and sensitivity for cultural differences, needs and expectations will help to enhance an agency's reputation as an employer of choice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Agencies can also encourage staff to engage with the Indigenous APS Employees Network, which provides considerable professional support to Indigenous employees through networking and mentoring opportunities, as well as avenues for cross-agency collaboration.

Recruitment

Centralised, targeted recruitment efforts, coordinated by the Commission under the APS Strategy, have resulted in attracting and recruiting an increased number of Indigenous employees, particularly through the Indigenous Graduate Programme, Indigenous Cadetships and the Indigenous Entry Level Recruitment Programme. However, the APS needs to increase its efforts to recruit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders at levels above base, especially at the APS 5-6 and Executive levels.

Agencies can complement the Commission's work by reviewing their recruitment processes to ensure that they are culturally appropriate and effective. For example, in addition to advertising in the Gazette, agencies could consider employing non-traditional advertising methods for reaching Indigenous people, sparking their interest, and encouraging them to apply for the advertised positions. Similarly, APS selection processes are often daunting for people who are not used to them, and agencies need to consider ways of supporting applicants through those processes.

The development of initiatives to attract and recruit Indigenous Australians from regional areas to the APS will be particularly important for any agency strategy.

Retention

While recent years have shown that, overall, the APS has been a strong recruiter, progress has been eroded by the high separation rates of Indigenous employees. Improving on this outcome will need concerted efforts in developing and implementing effective retention measures within agencies.

Like all APS employees, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees benefit from a range of practical and innovative retention strategies. For example:

Appropriate induction processes and general support for introducing them to the workplace will ensure that new starters feel welcome and part of the new team.
Opportunities to participate in professional development and capacity building programmes, as well as for promotion, will contribute to employees' sense of being valued by their agency.
Mentoring is a valuable method for guiding new employees in their learning about the APS, and their agency's business and culture, as well as helping them achieve their professional goals.

One more thing

The goals set for any Indigenous employment strategy—improving workplace environments and, through that, raising recruitment and retention rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees—are difficult to achieve. They require considerable investment of commitment, goodwill, and financial and human resources.

The benefits of investing in improved Indigenous employment include raising the profile of the APS, promoting it as an employer of choice, and building its capacity to deliver services more effectively to Indigenous people and the wider Australian community. The APS is also contributing to the Australian Government's Indigenous economic development policy objectives of 'closing the gap'.

Formulating an agency-specific Indigenous employment strategy is a significant step for agencies towards making that commitment, and the initiatives provided in the kit will offer some ideas on how to achieve it.

1 State of the Service Report 2006–07, p 82.

2 State of the Service Report 2006–07, p 85.

3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander APS Employee Census Report. This survey was conducted in 2005-06 and is expected to be repeated in 2009-10.

4 State of the Service Report 2006–07, p 86.

5 State of the Service Report 2006-07 and APSED

6 APS Indigenous Employment and Capability Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employees, available at http://www.apsc.gov.au/indigenousemployment/

7 ABS, 2006 Census data

8 Budget – Closing the Gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians; Statement by The Honourable Jenny Macklin MP, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, 13 May 2008.

9 For further information about RAPs, see Reconciliation Australia at http://www.reconciliation.org.au/i-cms.isp

10 See, for example, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander APS Employees Census Survey 2005, the State of the Service Report 2006–07, and An Evaluation of the APS Employment and Capability Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employees (2008).

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