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Last updated: 11 October 2005
Managing and sustaining the APS workforce
6. Strategies for attracting, retaining, managing and developing graduates and other skilled staff into the future
The key challenges identified in earlier chapters were:
- a growing requirement for Australian Public Service (APS) employees to be multiskilled, flexible, intellectually agile and adept with ICT-a skill set most commonly possessed by tertiary graduates
- a projected tightening of the Australian labour market, with potential emerging shortages of younger employees and tertiary graduates, especially those with qualifications in specialist areas such as accountancy
- a trend towards greater career mobility among younger employees
- the concept of a 'career service' being overtaken by a growing diversity of career expectations and patterns among the APS workforce
- increasing agency recruitment from other sectors of experienced workers, who require learning and development in APS processes and values
- declining rates of interagency mobility within the APS, which may lead to career stagnation among staff in small agencies and regions, and a narrowing of focus among potential future leaders
- an ageing APS workforce, with a high rate of turnover at the leadership level likely over the next five to 10 years
- continuing strong use by agencies of traditional models of graduate recruitment and development, which may need to be significantly revamped to overcome future difficulties with attraction, recruitment and retention.
In addressing these challenges, all APS agencies will need to adopt a range of strategic responses, including:
- systematic workforce planning to identify emerging issues and challenges in relation to recruitment, development, advancement and succession of their employees
- effective processes for attracting and recruiting new staff, including both new entrants to the labour force and experienced employees from other sectors
- smarter approaches to graduate recruitment and development, such as using the flexibilities available through agreement-making-particularly AWAs-to attract and retain graduates
- learning and development opportunities to ensure new employees have the required skills and capabilities
- promotion of mobility and exchange opportunities for those employees who need them
- strategies to ensure the increasingly diverse current and longer-term career needs of the APS workforce are met
- investing in identifying and developing the future leaders of the APS, including ensuring they have the breadth and depth of experience to provide leadership in a whole of government context.
Individual APS agencies have the capacity to develop effective responses to most of these challenges, but some will be addressed more effectively if agency strategies can be supported by concerted and coordinated APS-wide action.
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