Ongoing employment – Recruitment and related issues

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the rules about advertising to supplement a Gazette notification?

In order to promote an existing APS employee or to engage a person as:

an ongoing employee,
a non-ongoing employee for a specified term of more than 12 months, or
a non-ongoing employee for a specified task that is estimated to take more than 12 months

the employment opportunity must have been notified in the electronic APS Employment Gazette at www.apsjobs.gov.au.

An agency can supplement this notification through external advertising in order to attract a larger field of appropriate candidates or to target candidates with particular skills, attributes or formal qualifications (for example in the press, on the agency’s website or in professional magazines). Supplementary advertising can occur before, or no later than 4 weeks after, the opportunity is notified in the Gazette.

Good practice would mean this advertising occurs as close as possible to the Gazette notification in order to ensure compliance with the APS Value requiring reasonable community access to APS employment (under section 10(1)(m) of the Public Service Act 1999).

Where an agency has notified an employment opportunity as being only open to APS employees and later decides to provide the opportunity to all eligible members of the community, or where the original Gazette notification does not result in a suitable field of applicants, the agency can place a subsequent press or other form of advertisement, without the need for a further Gazette notice. However, the advertising must be done within 4 weeks after the date of the Gazette notice.

An agency cannot use any other form of advertising after this 4 week period without placing a new notification in the Gazette.

Should an agency find it necessary to advertise outside Australia, such advertising would need to be concurrent with, or within 4 weeks of, a notification in the Gazette to meet the requirements of the APS Value that all employment decisions are based on merit (under section10(1)(b) of the Act). In addition to obligations under the Act, there may be certain requirements to be met under migration legislation. Any agency intending to engage a person from outside Australia should refer to the Commission’s publication Citizenship in the Australian Public Service for further information.

REFERENCES:

Sections 10(1)(b) and 10(1)(m) of the Public Service Act 1999

Clauses 4.2, 4.3 and 4.6A of the Public Service Commissioner’s Directions 1999

Ongoing employment – Recruitment and related issues

Citizenship in the Australian Public Service