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Last updated: 30 November 2006
Chapter 8: Organisational capability
Abbreviations
A list of the abbreviations used in this report is available in the Glossary
The Australian economic and population outlook of sustained economic growth, low unemployment rates and an ageing population present significant workforce planning challenges for APS agencies.
These challenges are not new and have been the subject of a number of reports including the MAC report on Organisational Renewal 1 in 2003 and previous State of the Service reports. The 2004 MAC report, Connecting Government,2 concluded that, for the APS to meet the economic, societal and technological challenges in the 21st century, APS organisational capability must be underpinned by a multiskilled, flexible and intellectually agile workforce.
The MAC report on Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce,3 released in October 2005, reinforces these concerns, canvassing the key workforce trends that have emerged since the 1970s, driven by both internal and external developments, and which present significant challenges for the APS. These trends include:
- a declining role in the APS for unskilled or low-skilled employees
- higher entry levels and streamlined classification structures
- the ageing of the APS workforce
- an increasing proportion of the workforce with graduate qualifications
- an increasingly female workforce.
These trends have emerged in the context of an Australian labour market which has grown significantly on both the supply and demand sides in recent years, but which is projected to tighten over the next two decades.
In response to these trends, Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce calls upon agencies to implement a series of initiatives that will help them respond to the challenges identified, including skill shortages, a more mobile and better educated workforce, evolving career expectations, and demands for more flexible working arrangements. Chapter 6 examines learning and development issues in the context of employee engagement and from the perspective of building organisational capability. In particular, the chapter concludes that a strategic approach to learning and development is an important part of improving organisational capability. Chapter 7 looks more specifically at the issue of leadership development and concludes that agency heads need to manage their SES leadership group carefully to ensure its effectiveness.
This chapter looks at a number of issues that are of direct relevance to the challenges identified in Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce, and to ensuring that the APS builds the organisational capability it needs to deliver outcomes for the Australian community, both now and into the future. It begins by looking at the extent to which agencies have embedded formal approaches to workforce planning into their operations, the specific workforce challenges they have identified and how they are responding to these challenges. It then goes on to look at trends in remuneration that could affect the ability of the APS to support and sustain a high quality workforce. The chapter concludes by looking at an area of particular challenge to the organisational effectiveness in the APS, that is, our level of capability in record keeping.
In this chapter
- Management Advisory Committee 2003, Organisational Renewal, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.
- Management Advisory Committee 2004, Connecting Government: Whole of Government Responses to Australia’s Priority Challenges, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.
- Management Advisory Committee 2005, Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.
