Chapter 3: Embedding the APS Values and Code of Conduct
Management
The Values in Agencies project concluded that ‘hardwiring’ the Values into management policies, instructions and guidance was necessary for the integration of the APS Values into an agency. The agencies that took part in the project took differing approaches to articulating, raising awareness of and committing to the Values and Code in their corporate documents. These approaches included references to the Values and Code in corporate plans and strategic direction statements, Certified Agreements (CAs) and Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), as well as in management guidelines, particularly people management guidelines.
The views of non-SES employees consulted during the project about the effectiveness of these strategies were mixed. While some employees were satisfied that their agency followed through on commitments in corporate documents, others believed that the words stayed on paper and were not always translated into action. Employees in general recognised that articulation of the Values in key corporate documents needed to be supported by other actions to embed the Values in an agency.
Responses to the agency survey indicate that a number of agencies have incorporated a commitment to the APS Values in a variety of corporate documents. Most agencies (89%) include such a commitment in their CA with a higher percentage of medium and small agencies (100% and 88% respectively) doing so than large agencies (77%). Many include it also in AWAs (74%).
More than half of all agencies express a commitment in their corporate plan (58%), although there is a wide variation in results for small, medium and large agencies (41%, 65% and 82% respectively). Nearly twothirds of all agencies (63%) have developed their own agency-specific values, principles or behaviours, and just over half of all agencies (52%) express a commitment to the APS Values in the agency’s own values/behaviours statement. The Values in Agencies project recognised the benefits of agencies identifying values and behaviours of particular relevance to their business priorities, but encouraged a clearer mapping between those statements and the statutory APS Values, particularly drawing on the four groupings of the APS Values suggested by the APS Commission. This clearly remains an important area for improvement, and for clarification amongst employees.
Less than a third of all agencies reflect the Values in their service/client charters (28%). The number of agencies that reflect the Values in their Chief Executive Instructions (CEIs) has risen only slightly in the last year, from 39% to 40%, with results varying from 32% for small agencies, to 59% for large agencies. This again is an area where the Values in Agencies project’s identification of good practice could be far more widely taken up. A number of agencies reflect the Values in various human resource policy documents.
It is particularly important that performance management policies take account of the APS Values and the Code. The 2001 MAC report, Performance management in the Australian Public Service: A strategic framework, identified an increasing emphasis on the need for a balanced performance management system that takes account of both the outputs delivered and the leadership behaviours and organisational values displayed. Both the MAC report and the Values in Agencies project considered that, in the APS, values expressed in performance management systems should continue to be based on and complement the APS Values.
In assessing individual performance, 61% of agencies require that an assessment is made about the extent to which employees demonstrate and consistently apply some or all of the APS Values and/or agencyspecific values/behaviours. The spread of results by agency size is not great. The most common measure adopted to ensure employees are assessed on how they demonstrate and consistently apply values/behaviours is the inclusion of an assessment of values/behaviours in performance assessments. This method has been adopted by 81% of agencies and is being developed by a further 18% of agencies.4
A higher proportion of medium agencies already use this method (94%) than small and large agencies (77% and 74% respectively). Other methods used by agencies include regular multi-source feedback (30%) and training of all staff on how values/behaviours relate to effective performance (36%).
Agencies reported that employees are most frequently assessed against all the APS Values, as a set (34%). Small agencies indicated greater use of assessment against all the Values (43%) than medium and large agencies (22% and 32% respectively). Assessment against agency-specific values is the next most common (25%), with medium agencies indicating greater use of this type of assessment (44%) than large and small agencies (21% and 17% respectively). Around one-fifth (21%) of agencies assess employees against the APS Values that are most relevant to the duties being performed, with greater use of this type of assessment in small agencies (33%) than in medium and large agencies (11% for both). Seven agencies reported that employees are assessed against the APS Values as well as agency-specific values.
Employee responses indicate that, in their most recent performance assessment, a higher percentage of employees were assessed against agency-specific values (44%) as opposed to all the APS Values as a set (24%), the APS Values most relevant to the job (20%) or behavioural indicators (five per cent). These results indicate that for two-thirds of all employees, performance assessment included discussion of behaviour. Some clearer mapping of agency-specific values to the (four groupings of) APS Values would provide employees with more clarity about their obligations.
Interestingly, the results for the 21 large agencies show no apparent correlation between employees’ awareness of the inclusion of an assessment of behaviour as part of performance assessment and whether agencies require such an assessment. For example, for those agencies that reported that they require such an assessment, employee agreement that such an assessment was required ranged from 50% to 85%. These results may indicate that agencies need to communicate more clearly to employees the requirements for assessing behaviour as part of performance assessment.
Employees who indicated that their behaviour had been included in the most recent performance assessment also had a higher level of agreement that their agency had a clear set of values about the behaviour expected of employees. Ahigher proportion of employees who had been assessed against all the APS Values, the most relevant Values, or agency-specific values, compared with those who had not, were also familiar with the APS Values, and rated their level of familiarity as high. The results of the employee survey show that assessment of behaviour as part of performance appraisal is correlated with higher levels of agreement that colleagues, immediate managers and the most senior managers act in accordance with the Values.
4 It should be noted that last year’s report advised that 74% of agencies assessed values and behaviours in the context of individual performance assessments. This result is not directly comparable with data obtained from this year’s survey since the question was asked in a different way.