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Managing and sustaining the APS workforce

The Commissioner

Lynelle Briggs
Lynelle Briggs is the Public Service Commissioner. She has held this position since November 2004.

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Speaking notes for the launch of the Management Advisory Committee report
Tuesday 11 October 2005

Welcome. On behalf of the Management Advisory Committee, I would like to thank you all for being here this morning.

Critical challenges for the APS

Building trust in the APS

Building the right capability for the future

Attracting and retaining Indigenous employees and people with a disability

Ensuring whole of government capability

This report on Managing and Sustaining the Australian Public Service Workforce responds to the workforce challenges that every Australian Public Service agency is confronting or will confront in the years to come – whether it’s shortages of specialist skills, retention issues or some other feature of the workforce environment we are operating in.

It’s a public service labour market environment that is very different to that which has existed in the past.

And so too is this report different. Whereas previous MAC reports have provided more in the way of guidance on issues that are critical to the Australian Public Service, this report is action oriented – and requires considerable activity from all agencies. This is one of its great strengths.

This morning I will take you through the key findings of the report, and the actions that arise from them. Following my presentation Dr Peter Shergold will discuss the ‘big picture’ of what Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce means for us, and what it demands of you as the APS leadership.

This latest MAC report follows on from where Organisational Renewal left off in 2003. Connecting Government is also reflected in the whole of government approach taken, not just the collaboration and consultation that went into the research and development of the report, but also in the actions that arise from the report. The research involves substantial survey, focus group and detailed questionnaire work that’s given us a wealth of new knowledge.

The report takes us through the ways in which the Australian Public Service has changed. It also examines the implications of those changes for how we respond to the workforce challenges that are now before us.

In the past many recruits to the APS entered at the base level with the expectation of a ‘career for life’

They expected to progress to a higher level unimpeded by outside competition

Pay and conditions were centrally negotiated and determined, as were job classifications

Graduate employees like myself were a rarer breed, and were mostly recruited through formal graduate programmes

Computer-age technology was much less evident.

In the mid-1980s about 70 per cent of all APS staff were baby boomers.

Most jobs were at lower classifications. Almost 50% of jobs in 1984 were at the APS 1-2 level equivalent - and included more diverse job roles, including the tea lady, the postie, cleaners, the infamous typing pool and many others

The ageing of the APS workforce is one of the stark changes that is highlighted in the report. This slide shows the age profile of the APS at five yearly intervals from 1984 to 2004. During that time the average age of APS employees rose from 32 to 41, and about 40 per cent of all ongoing staff are now aged 45 and over.

As well as the ageing of the baby boomers, the factors contributing to the ageing of the APS workforce include:

firstly, a substantial decline in employment opportunities for younger people without qualifications in the APS – nearly 30% of new recruits in 1983-84 were aged under 20, compared to only 3% in 2003-04
secondly, the increased recruitment of experienced, mature workers from other sectors – more than 40% of new recruits to the APS today are aged 35 or over, compared to only 20% 20 years ago.

A number of trends are shaping the future APS workforce.

The nature of our work is evolving in response to factors such as technological change, corporatisation, outsourcing and the transfer of some functions to other jurisdictions.
There has been a major reduction in opportunities for low-skilled employment which has seen APS 1-2 equivalent positions – once the mainstay of our workforce – dwindle to only 5% or thereabouts.
The related streamlining and contracting of classification structures in the APS, and the opening-up of APS employment to external competition, has seen new recruits to the public service, many with skills and experience in the private sector, state government and community work, who typically commence at the APS 3–4 levels or higher and advance fairly rapidly to higher levels.
We are now a ‘graduate’ workforce, with APS staff at all levels being increasingly likely to hold tertiary qualifications, regardless of whether they are recruited through graduate entry programmes or general recruitment processes – 50% of our workforce has graduate qualifications, and more than 60% of new recruits are qualified.

So, what are the challenges that arise from the changed workforce environment that we are operating within?

The challenge – in its simplest terms - is to recruit, retain and develop the people we need.

And this is where the simplicity ends.

I think most people here will know that the Australian labour market is strong but that we face a supply shortage, as new entrants to the market contract over the next 10-15 years and as the baby boomer generation retires.

This will create particular problems for the APS – given the specialist skills we need; the concentration of a sizeable proportion of our labour force in Canberra; the generally lower level of remuneration of APS staff compared with the private sector; and the continuing tight controls over our finances by governments.

We need to position ourselves cleverly to compete under these different labour market conditions. For the first time, we will need to make a concerted effort to market ourselves as an exciting employment opportunity – with interesting and important work, across a diverse range of organisations and work types; work in the national or the public interest; flexible working conditions; and as good managers of people who not only are loyal and decent to our staff, but who inspire loyalty in return. It is the nature of our work, our values and our fundamental decency that will potentially give us a leading edge.

It is also apparent that our work has changed – computers have relieved us of some of the mundane work, and other less challenging work has been outsourced, corporatised or transferred to other jurisdictions.

What we do now is overwhelmingly the “knowledge work”. We need to continue to recruit an intellectually agile workforce to manage this kind of work. We need a workforce that is multi-skilled, can turn its hand to anything - is flexible – and is able to respond to changing circumstances and demands.

We also have to respond to the expectations of both our new recruits – especially Generations X and Y – and of the older workers we are looking to retain. We will need to provide flexible working options, challenging and interesting work, and development opportunities. We will have to invest more in new technologies to streamline processes and to save labour.

We need also to anticipate that many valued employees won’t be with us ‘for life’ – they may move in and out of the public service a number of times. And while there are risks (which should be manageable with more effective training and development); we need to recognise and make the most of the opportunities – for diversity of experience and expertise that this will deliver.

We also need to ensure that we are developing the next generation of leaders to replace the large number of baby boomers who are leaving the public service and will continue to do so over the next decade or so. People are getting to senior positions much sooner than they once did, and so they haven’t necessarily had the experience and development opportunities that their predecessors did.

An aspect of this that the report highlights is our declining rates of interagency mobility.

This slide illustrates mobility between agencies in the 20 years to 2004.

APS-wide workforce data shows that the new generation of employees at the executive level contains more and more people who have either come straight into the APS from somewhere else, or who have spent 5-10 years working in only one agency.

It’s possible that these people may not have achieved the depth and breadth of understanding of the APS values and the Cabinet, judicial, legislative, finance, parliamentary, people management and other processes, agency-specific cultures and styles of working as others and that this may affect their collaboration across government and their effectiveness as public servants. This won’t always be an issue, but is one that many staff in the APS are concerned about, and one that is a challenge for us as younger staff seek to move around more in line with “career portfolios”.

The challenges I have outlined are not altogether new. What this report does, though, is draw the strands together and suggest ways forward. The report is action oriented, concluding with 36 actions across a range of areas, amounting to a targeted and strategic response.

As this slide shows, responsibility for implementing the actions in the report are dispersed throughout the public service – that is, we are all responsible – individually and collectively - for how well the challenges we face are managed – especially those of us in senior leadership positions. The capacity of the Australian Public Service to deliver the high quality policy, programmes and services that the Government and community expect of us is at stake.

I want to now briefly take you through the actions.

We know from a range of sources – and in particular from the agency survey for the State of the Service Report – that agency progress toward systematic and long-term workforce planning has been patchy.

This report calls for agencies to continue the work they have been doing to establish processes for systematic workforce planning – including identifying new skill requirements for policy and programme development – and to pay attention to how the agency is going with the employment of Indigenous people and people with a disability, and to take action where necessary.

To help agencies, the Public Service Commission will develop best practice workforce planning advice. MAC will monitor agencies implementation progress.

The Department of Finance and Administration, through the Australian Government Information Management Office, will lead a working group to:

catalogue existing agency e-recruitment systems and projects, and
identify best practice approaches to making e-recruitment work for agencies and for the public service more widely. This means:

developing and promoting the adoption of data and connectivity standards
addressing relevant privacy and data security issues
identifying and assessing risks in relation to timeframes and cost
exploring the potential business benefits arising from online sharing of recruitment data among APS agencies.

The actions to improve recruitment outcomes will also demand ongoing work by agencies:

to identify and adopt strategies to make their recruitment processes more accessible and attractive to potential recruits, and
to explore base level recruitment pathways - such as apprenticeships, traineeships and/or other recruitment strategies targeted at increasing the recruitment of younger people without post-school qualifications, including looking at how we can improve the diversity of our workforce – especially Indigenous people and people with disabilities.

The Commission will assist agencies by developing a short guide to APS selection processes that can be distributed to applicants.

A working group of agencies will be formed to develop guidelines for streamlined recruitment processes.

The Commission will also redevelop the online Gazette into a whole-of-APS employment and recruitment portal, so that, with cooperation from agencies, vacancies can be presented in a consistent format that will provide complete and coherent information to applicants across the APS, and facilitate provision of interactive services, such as email alerts.

It is also intended that the APS will become more active in marketing the range of employment and learning opportunities available within an APS career. In the first instance, all APS online or newspaper job advertisements, and all selection documentation, will feature a message emphasising the benefits of a career in the APS.

The report contains actions for improving the recruitment and retention of employees with specialist skills and skills that are in high demand.

The Department of Finance and Administration, working with the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) and relevant professional associations, will take a leadership role in establishing an APS Community of Accountants. It will also work, through AGIMO, with existing interdepartmental processes and relevant professional associations, to take a leadership role in establishing an ICT Professional and Skills Development Group.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will take a leadership role in establishing an APS Community of Statisticians.

After these specialist communities have been established we will evaluate their progress and consider whether to establish communities for other professions such as economists and scientists.

Interested agencies have also been invited to collaborate with the Commission to develop an Accountancy Recruitment Initiative to be implemented in 2006 and, if successful, annually thereafter.

The not-so-elegant subtitle of this report is ‘paying particular attention to graduate recruitment and career development’.

Graduate recruitment and retention was one of the major issues arising from Organisational Renewal, and for this latest report. We need much smarter approaches.

All APS agencies will now:

review the effectiveness of their current graduate programmes in terms of their remuneration and advancement arrangements, structure and other key characteristics, including the extent to which other suitably qualified new graduate recruits have access to learning and development opportunities and other programme features.
they will consider how more strategic use of agreement making, and in particular AWAs, may help them recruit and retain graduates.
they will review their current graduate programme intake levels, making use of best practice approaches to workforce planning.
they will maintain contact with better quality unsuccessful applicants for graduate programmes and encourage them to apply for suitable future vacancies at the APS 3–4 levels.

The Australian Public Service Commission, agencies and the leaders of professional communities will collaborate in engaging with tertiary institutions about public policy programmes and other disciplines relevant to the APS with the aim of lifting their quality, profile and status.

Because new entrants to the APS are coming in at higher levels – mostly at the APS 3-4 level, but often higher - we need to make sure that these people are getting the necessary skills and knowledge to work effectively in the APS environment. To that end:

APS agencies will act to ensure all new starters are given the induction and orientation in the Australian Government and APS processes which they will need in order to perform effectively in their positions.
The Commission, working with key central agencies, will lead development of APS-wide online and other learning materials which agencies can draw upon to build their own induction and orientation programmes.
The Commission will also offer short APS-wide induction courses in capital cities and other locations as required, which I hope will become “a must” for all new starters.

To improve the mobility between agencies:

Portfolio secretaries and agency heads, in consultation with the Australian Public Service Commissioner, will undertake systematic career planning discussions with SES Bands 2 and 3 employees and arrange mobility opportunities where these are deemed appropriate
Agencies will include consideration of their employees’ need for, and opportunities to pursue, mobility as part of their regular performance management processes
The new whole of government employment portal will include a facility for APS and external organisations to advertise rotation and mobility opportunities, and for employees to express interest in accessing such opportunities.

Organisational Renewal made it clear that to attract and retain the people it needs into the future, the APS would need to respond to the employment needs and career aspirations of its mature-aged employees and of younger employees. The key to this is flexibility.

My current review of the Public Service Act is canvassing options for agency heads to be given greater flexibility to engage non-ongoing staff.

APS agencies will develop mature age workforce strategies.

The new whole of government employment portal, which was launched earlier this year, will feature an online registration channel for former APS and other mature employees interested in accessing APS employment.

Agencies will ensure their performance management and feedback processes address employees’ longer-term career development needs.

The Government has developed a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment and Capability Strategy which will be implemented over the next three years.

We will also be developing initiatives to improve the employment outcomes for people with disabilities in the APS.

I can’t say often enough that we are all part of a really important national institution that is the Australian Public Service.

For that national institution to perform at its peak, its leaders need to be of a high calibre.

The MAC report finds that we need to take action to identify and develop the future leadership of our agencies, and that it is important that they understand their role as APS leaders – who contribute to its culture, and foster collaborative approaches, and model its values.

The report calls for all agencies to devise systematic approaches to developing potential future leaders, including making use of the emerging APS-wide menu of career development options.

Following on from me, Dr Shergold will implement one of the actions in the report – for the MAC to issue a statement on the need for a greater APS-wide focus on leadership capabilities and development for the Senior Executive Service.

As Public Service Commissioner and Executive Officer of MAC, I look forward to working with my colleagues on MAC and with agencies to make sure that the positive start we have made on confronting the workforce challenges that this latest MAC report engages with move forward constructively.

Before that though, I’d like to put in a word of thanks to Lynne Tacy, Robert Wooding (from Health) and Damian West (from Centrelink), who did the bulk of the work on the report, who worked really effectively with agencies, and to whom we all owe a great deal of gratitude. They have done a wonderful job. As well as that, Lynne chaired a Deputy Secretaries Group, which included Stephen Hunter, Phillip Davies, Carolyn Hogg, Faye Holthuyzen and Jenny Goddard.

I would like to acknowledge my MAC colleagues and the good spirit and keen interest they have brought to the task.

I would like now to introduce Dr Peter Shergold, the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the chair of the Management Advisory Committee.

Start of page

Managing and sustaining the APS workforce

Speaking notes for the launch of the Management Advisory Committee report Tuesday 11 October 2005

Speaking notes for the launch of the Management Advisory Committee report
Tuesday 11 October 2005