Message from the Commissioner

Recruitment, be it engagement, promotion or movement of existing APS employees, underpins the integrity and performance of the Australian Public Service (APS). Processes that support recruiting the right employees represent a key step in ensuring the APS is representative of the people we serve and effective in administering our responsibilities.

I welcome the publication of the APS Recruitment Guidelines which provides recruiters at all levels with a best practice guide to support the good work already taking place across agencies.

The overarching goal of the guidelines is to provide a resource that is easy to use, practical and one that explains the highly involved recruitment process.

This guide is designed for ease of use whilst still being a comprehensive guide for recruiters. It provides guidance on tailoring recruitment processes to achieve greater efficiency while maintaining transparency and agency autonomy.

The guideline’s key aims are to:

• ensure the principle of merit is upheld
• dispel some widespread myths about the recruitment process
• build capacity
• encourage agencies to consider alternative recruitment processes.

I thank the agencies that have contributed to the development of these guidelines and trust you will find them valuable and informative, enabling your agency to continuously improve its recruitment processes and to find the right people for the right job.

(signed)

Stephen Sedgwick AO

Australian Public Service Commissioner

Introduction

The APS Recruitment Guidelines (the guidelines) provide APS agencies with information to tailor recruitment processes to achieve greater efficiency, preserve transparency and open competition while upholding the principle of merit.

The guidelines encourage agencies to continue to be autonomous and flexible when managing their recruitment processes within the boundaries of legislation while providing consolidated information and guidance modelled on best practice. They provide human resource practitioners and APS managers with:

• links to relevant legislation
• agency case studies
• facts to dispel recruitment myths
• a Manager’s Toolkit (toolkit).

The guidelines are to be used in conjunction with the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) publication Recruitment and selection in the APS which details the legislative and policy framework applying to recruitment. The guidelines are structured around the five stages of a recruitment process:

• planning
• sourcing
• assessing
• selecting
• on-boarding.

The guidelines also include performance measures that can be applied to recruitment which can drive greater accountability for recruitment, encourage staff to plan and implement efficient recruitment processes and provide agencies with data to inform continuous improvement.

Scope of the guidelines

The guidelines apply to APS Level and Executive Level recruitment processes for:

• ongoing employment opportunities
• non-ongoing opportunities for a specified term of more than 12 months
• non-ongoing opportunities for a specified task reasonably estimated to take more than 12 months.

The following topics are not covered by the guidelines because they are covered by other APSC policy and guidelines:

• Senior Executive Service recruitment
• agency head and statutory office holder selection
• non-ongoing employment for 12 months or less
• workforce planning

APSC website

• The Senior Executive Service: Selection, mobility and separation
• Merit and transparency: Merit-based selection of APS agency heads and APS statutory office holders
• Recruitment and selection in the APS
• Workforce planning guide