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Chapter 9: Challenges facing the APS

Overall, this report has highlighted a number of successes for the APS in relation to encouraging and sustaining the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.

Despite declining employment levels in recent years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees are still more likely to be represented in the APS than in the labour force as a whole, and to have a greater representation than their representation in the Australian working-age population.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees are generally very positive about their work in the APS, with high levels of job satisfaction and pride in their roles as well as a belief that they are making a positive difference to the lives of Indigenous Australians. This result is particularly positive given that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the APS have been through a period of major change, with a significant number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees previously employed in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS) now managing Indigenous programmes across several agencies.
The majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees believe that they have the same career development opportunities and learning and development opportunities as other APS employees, and have high satisfaction rates with their supervisor’s support for flexible workplace practices, and with their agency’s support for their cultural and community obligations.

Nevertheless, the clear trend since 1999 of declining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation in the APS is of significant concern.

A strong theme emerging from the survey results is the diversity of views and experience among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees. This is reflected, for example, in the following findings:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in remote localities were more likely than other employees to be employed in identified positions, to enter the APS through Indigenous-specific recruitment processes, to be working specifically on issues that relate to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, and to prefer Indigenous-specific recruitment processes.
Employees at higher classifications and with higher levels of education were less likely to be recruited through identified positions, more likely to leave home to take up APS positions, and more likely to prefer general recruitment processes. These employees were more likely to report confidence in their ability to participate in selection processes. Employees at higher classifications were also more likely to believe that they had the same access to career development opportunities as non-Indigenous employees, although they were more likely to be dissatisfied with their agency’s general level of support for Indigenous employees.
There is some evidence of a generational change, with younger employees less likely to be undertaking work specifically for the Indigenous community, less likely to have worked in Indigenous-specific roles before joining the APS, and more likely to express a willingness to relocate to further their careers. They were also more likely to believe that they have the same opportunities as non-Indigenous Australians compared to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees. Younger employees were more likely to agree that their agency supports the employment, development and promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees. They were, however, less likely than older employees to have been recruited through general recruitment processes, and, while the survey did not ask about the nature of the Indigenous-specific recruitment processes they were recruited through, the fact that younger employees were more likely to enter the APS through trainee and graduate trainee classifications, suggests that this may reflect a greater use of Indigenous trainee and graduate programmes for this group. Of concern to this group was the finding that there have been particular falls in the employment of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the APS. The fact that they were more likely to be unsure than other employees that they would remain in the APS for the next three years is also a matter of concern.

The diverse profiles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees are reflected particularly in their views about Indigenous-specific recruitment processes and learning and development processes. No clear trends emerged here, with support being expressed for both targeted and general processes, and a high ‘neither agree nor disagree’ response for preferences about which types of positions individuals would prefer to apply for.

This diversity of views and experience presents a challenge for the APS as a whole, and for individual agencies, in developing the best mix of strategies to encourage and retain the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the APS. It is likely that for some time in the future there will need to be a mixture of strategies catering for both those employees who need additional support in building up capability levels and for those who prefer not to be singled out as Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the workplace. In particular, strategies may need to recognise the specific needs of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders living in different locations, with disparate levels of education and in different age groups.

Overall, four significant challenges emerge for the APS from this report, namely:

increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander capability
encouraging the employment of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in a more diverse range of roles within the APS
encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees to remain within the APS
improving perceptions of the quality of support in the workplace for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.

These challenges, as well as some additional challenges that may be of greater concern to particular agencies, are discussed in more detail below.

Increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander capability

A significant factor in the decline in representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the APS in recent years is likely to be the increasing focus on the need for tertiary qualifications in combination with the dramatic reduction of lower-skilled positions at the APS 1–2 levels. Figures from Chapter 2 show that only 25.5% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the APS have a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification, compared to 50% of all non-Indigenous employees. While there is a trend generally in the APS towards higher educational qualifications among new entrants, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees engaged to the APS in 2004–05 were less likely to have a bachelor’s degree or higher (23%) than the overall population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander APS employees, and were much less likely to have a bachelor’s degree or higher than new non-Indigenous entrants (67%).

A difference in qualifications and experience between Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians is even more marked in the general population, and hence in potential entrants to the APS.

Only 3.7% of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders aged 18 years and over have a bachelor’s degree, compared to 16.9% of other Australians.
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders are over-represented in low-skilled jobs, with nearly a quarter employed as labourers or in other unskilled occupations (compared to less than 10% of other Australians).
Higher unemployment rates mean that some Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have limited work experience (in 2001, 20.0% of Indigenous Australians were unemployed, compared to 7.2% of other Australians).⁵⁵

The nature of the Indigenous labour force is likely to represent a barrier to the employment of many Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in more skilled positions within the APS, with some not having the required qualifications, experience and/or specialised skills to meet APS agencies’ needs. Given general trends in the labour market, there is also likely to be increasing competition for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders who do have graduate qualifications.

To address the impact of capability issues on the employment of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, the APS may need to look at initiatives to improve skill levels in potential applicants for APS positions (such as school-to-work programmes, traineeships and/or apprenticeships and cadetships) as well as strategies that target improving the skill levels of existing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander APS employees. The need for the latter strategy is reinforced by the fact that not having the necessary qualifications and experience was a barrier to career progression commonly cited by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander APS employees.

Efforts are being made to recruit more tertiary qualified APS employees. On top of this an important part of the mix of responses is likely to be a greater use of the APS 1–2 classifications as entry level positions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees. This strategy will need to be complemented by an investment in training these employees so that they can be competitive with other APS employees, and make a stepped progression to work at higher classifications.

Encouraging a greater diversity of roles for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the APS

A key finding of the survey was a confirmation of the concentration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment in areas that deal directly with providing services to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, and the employment of a substantial proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees (43%) in identified positions.

This finding is not necessarily a negative one for the APS. Identified positions appear to have played a part in providing opportunities for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the APS. In many cases it is likely that Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders will have particular skills and experience which they can bring to roles that target the Indigenous community. It is also clear that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees gain particular satisfaction from assisting the Indigenous community, with half of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the APS citing a chance to make a useful contribution to the lives of Indigenous Australians as one of their top five job satisfaction factors, and a significant minority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees would prefer to apply for identified positions. It is likely that identified positions will continue to be important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment in the APS in the future, particularly as entry level positions in which employees can gain confidence and develop their skills.

Nevertheless, the APS is likely to benefit significantly from using the skills and perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in a much greater range of mainstream areas, and this is also likely to put the employment of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the APS on a more sustainable footing. Broadening the skills and improving the confidence of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, including those currently in identified positions, is likely to make them feel more comfortable about applying for a wider range of positions, and make them more competitive for these positions. This is supported by the fact that Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders with tertiary qualifications are more likely than other Indigenous employees to work in positions outside direct service delivery roles.

Encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees to remain within the APS

If the APS is to reverse the trend towards declining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment, it will need strategies aimed at encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees to become more interested in, and competitive for, a broad range of APS positions, and strategies designed to retain and develop existing employees. There appears to be a high level of potential for APS agencies to influence the intentions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees to remain within the APS, with the biggest difference in intentions to leave between this group and APS employees overall being a relatively high ‘unsure’ result for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.

In this context, the strong link between job satisfaction and intention to leave the APS is of particular relevance. While overall job satisfaction rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees were high, employees with low job satisfaction levels were more likely to intend to leave the APS, and the reasons cited for employees intending to leave the APS, or for having previously left the APS, related largely to job satisfaction, workplace support and the quality of management.

Improving the quality of workplace support

Despite generally positive views about their roles within the APS, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees had some concerns about the level of workplace support they were receiving. Some of these concerns appear to relate more to a desire for a more visible commitment from agencies to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in APS workplaces than to individual experience. For example, while the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees believed that they had the same career development and learning and development opportunities as other employees, only just under half believed that their agency actively supports the employment, development and promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees, a lower result than for the APS overall. In addition, 80% of respondents to the census survey felt that their agency should be doing more to support the employment, development and promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees. Where respondents believed that their agency had a formal Indigenous Employment Strategy in place, only 30% believed that it had been effective in improving employment outcomes for Indigenous employees.

Nonetheless, some respondents do have perceptions that they have personally received inappropriate treatment in the workplace. While less than a quarter of employees reported having experienced bullying and harassment, these results are higher than for non-Indigenous employees. Even more marked were perceptions of discrimination where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees were three times more likely than non-Indigenous employees to believe that they had been discriminated against in the workplace (18% compared to 6%). It is possible that these perceptions relate more to subtle unsupportive behaviours from a minority of colleagues and clients than to direct instances of discrimination.

In this context, while the fact that almost 69% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees indicated that most of their colleagues in their immediate work area work effectively and sensitively with Indigenous Australians is a very positive result, it is of concern that 10% did not agree that this was the case, and that 15% did not believe that most employees generally in their agency worked effectively and sensitively with Indigenous Australians. Agencies may need to put more effort into identifying and providing cultural awareness training to employees who lack this ability.

Particular challenges

As well as these critical challenges, some more specific challenges for the APS in supporting the employment of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders were identified within the report. The issues, that may need to be addressed at the APS and/or agency level, were generally related to three broad areas—people management, values and workplace support.

People management

While more positive than APS employees generally on this subject, a substantial proportion of respondents to the survey had concerns about the fairness of recruitment and promotion decisions. This was particularly so where recruitment providers and assessment centres had been used. Respondents also reported a lower level of performance feedback, particularly at the APS 1–2 levels, than APS employees generally. As well, there were concerns among some respondents about their access to learning and development within their agency.

Values

While generally agreeing that their colleagues behaved in accordance with the APS Values (the Values), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees were less likely to agree with this statement than APS employees overall. In addition, almost half of respondents had faced a recent challenge in balancing family and/or community obligations and the requirements of their job, and a quarter of this group had not been able to satisfactorily resolve the challenge. Such challenges were particularly common among employees in identified positions and in roles working with the Indigenous community. These employees may require additional support.

Workplace support

Among respondents who had reported incidents of bullying and harassment or discrimination in the workplace, there was a high level of dissatisfaction with the way the reported issues had been dealt with by agencies.

There also appears to be potential to increase the use of cultural awareness training in agencies, with only a third of Indigenous respondents reporting that they were aware of any Indigenous cultural awareness training being offered by their agency to employees in general in the last 12 months.

Finally, there appears to be considerable potential for the Indigenous APS Employees’ Network (IAPSEN) to be better promoted among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.

The employment of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the APS makes a significant contribution to the development of government policies and the delivery of government services to the Australian community. The information detailed in this report provides the APS with a valuable insight into the effectiveness of existing recruitment and retention strategies, and highlights areas where our individual and combined efforts need to be reviewed and improved.

The report’s findings demonstrate that isolated measures, while they may be worthwhile, will not be enough to arrest the decline in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment in the APS. What is needed is a suite of measures within each portfolio which combines strategies aimed at improving recruitment, retention, workplace support and managerial skills. This holistic approach is reflected in the APS Employment and Capability Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employees. The information in this report will contribute to the effective implementation of the strategy and to ensuring improved employment outcomes around these important issues.

⁵⁵ ABS 2002, Census of Population and Housing 2001, ABS, Canberra and ABS 2004, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey 2002, cat. no. 4714.0, ABS, Canberra.