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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees

The long-term decline in Indigenous employment, noted in previous years’ reports, appears to have stabilised somewhat during 2006–07, reflecting a concerted effort on the part of APS agencies to support the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The number of Indigenous employees increased from 2,880 at June 2006 to 3,018 at June 2007, an increase of 4.8%. While the number of Indigenous employees has increased, proportional representation of Indigenous employees this year remained steady at 2.1% of the APS as growth for this group has not exceeded the increase in the APS overall. This year’s result is very positive, but will need to be sustained over the coming years.

APSED figures are similar to the proportion of employees reporting in the employee survey that they were Indigenous Australians (2%). The survey results have been constant for the last three years and suggest that despite some concerns about data quality, APSED is not substantially under-representing the proportion of Indigenous employees in the APS.

As noted earlier, the number of Indigenous employees at 30 June 2006 has been revised, as a number of existing employees have now identified as Indigenous Australians on their agencies’ HR systems. This is in itself a very positive result, reflecting efforts by the Commission and some agencies to improve data quality. It also suggests that agencies are having some success at establishing workplace environments where employees feel more comfortable identifying as Indigenous Australians.

Indigenous representation in the APS is now slightly lower than Indigenous representation in the Australian community (2.3%). However, it compares favourably with that of the broader Australian workforce, in which 1.3% of Australian workers identified as Indigenous Australians.⁶ The comparison is even more favourable when analysis is restricted to people employed in APS equivalent occupations in the broader Australian workforce where Indigenous representation is 0.9%.⁷

Representation of Indigenous employees continues to vary considerably between agencies. In those agencies that predominantly deliver services to, or work with, Indigenous communities representation is highest suggesting an ongoing concentration of Indigenous employees in Indigenous-specific roles. As Table 5.2 shows, the agencies with over 10% Indigenous representation all have significant Indigenous functions. None of these agencies is large.

Table 5.2: Agencies with the highest proportion of ongoing Indigenous employees, June 2007

	Indigenous ongoing employees	Total ongoing employees	Indigenous employees (%)
AHL	289	348	83.0
TSRA	30	43	69.8
AIATSIS	11	50	22.0
NNTT	23	211	10.9
Source: APSED

Figure 5.1 shows representation of Indigenous employees in large agencies at June 2007. Large agencies with above average Indigenous representation include FaCSIA (9.5%), DEST (9.0%), DEWR (3.7%), Centrelink (3.6%), DEW (3.3%) and Health (2.7%).

Indigenous employees are still concentrated in a small number of agencies. At June 2007, four agencies employed over half of all ongoing Indigenous employees (55.9%). These agencies were Centrelink (952 or 31.5%), AHL (289 or 9.6%), FaCSIA (257 or 8.5%) and DEST (190 or 6.3%).

Twenty-six agencies reported that none of their ongoing employees had identified as an Indigenous Australian. These agencies were mostly small, except for IP Australia.

The largest increases in Indigenous employment during 2006–07 were in Medicare Australia (46 employees), DHS (32 employees), FaCSIA and AHL (both 19 employees). The largest decrease was in DEWR (43 employees).

Table 5.3 shows that the number of Indigenous employees increased at all classifications except for APS 3–4 and SES during 2006–07. Proportionally, Indigenous representation increased most for APS 1–2, EL and trainee classifications.

The proportion of all Indigenous employees who are in EL classifications rose from 10.4% at June 2006 to 11.2% at June 2007. This result is particularly important given the importance of the EL group as role models for Indigenous employees and as a feeder group for the SES. In addition to the Indigenous Australians employed under the Public Service Act 1999 (the Act), two agency heads are Indigenous Australians.

Indigenous representation in the Graduate APS classification increased from 28 at June 2006 to 34 at June 2007. For other trainees, representation increased from 39 to 43 over the year.

Table 5.3: Ongoing representation of Indigenous employees by classification, 1998, 2006 and 2007

	1998			2006			2007
	No.	% of class’n who are Indigenous	% of Indigenous employees	No.	% of class’n who are Indigenous	% of Indigenous employees	No.	% of class’n who are Indigenous	% of Indigenous employees
APS 1–2	819	4.4	27.9	285	4.7	9.9	362	5.1	12.0
APS 3–4	1262	3.3	43.0	1363	2.8	47.3	1335	2.7	44.2
APS 5–6	561	1.9	19.1	847	1.9	29.4	888	1.8	29.4
EL	126	0.7	4.3	300	1.0	10.4	339	1.0	11.2
SES	19	1.2	0.6	18	0.8	0.6	17	0.7	0.6
Trainee	132	21.3	4.5	39	8.5	1.4	43	11.0	1.4
Graduate APS	18	2.3	0.6	28	2.7	1.0	34	2.8	1.1
Other	1	1.0	0.0	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	2938	2.7	100.0	2880	2.1	100.0	3018	2.1	100.0
Source: APSED

Looking at longer-term trends, over the past ten years Indigenous representation has risen at the Graduate APS and APS 1–2 levels and in the EL classifications. Despite the recent increase at the APS 1–2 level, Indigenous employees are increasingly less concentrated in lower classifications—the proportion of Indigenous employees who are employed at the APS 1 to APS 4 levels has fallen from 70.9% of all Indigenous employees at June 1998 to 56.2% at June 2007.

Like the representation of trainees in the APS more broadly, the number of Indigenous trainees has fluctuated over the years. Numbers peaked in the late 1990s. They reached a low in 2006, with Indigenous trainees representing only 8.5% of all trainees compared with around 20% in the late 1990s. Numbers rose slightly this year.

As noted in Chapter 2, the APS is increasingly becoming a graduate workforce. The proportion of Indigenous employees with tertiary qualifications is much lower than the APS average—28.1% at June 2007 compared with an APS average of 53.0%.⁸ This proportion is, however, steadily increasing, up from 27.6% at June 2006 and 20.5% ten years ago. Nevertheless, given differences in educational qualifications, APS agencies may wish to make greater use of traineeships as an entry point to the APS for Indigenous Australians.

Total Indigenous numbers are affected by two components: the number of Indigenous engagements to the APS, and the number of Indigenous employees separating from the APS.

Indigenous engagements have fluctuated over the past ten years, but have generally fallen as a proportion of all engagements. During 2006–07, however, the proportion of Indigenous engagements as a proportion of all engagements increased to 2.7%, up from 2.1% the previous year. The number of Indigenous engagements also rose—from 437 in 2005–06 to 513 in 2006–07—a rise of 17.4%. These trends are shown in Table 5.4.

During 2006–07, Indigenous employees accounted for 4.0% of all engagements to the main APS entry levels (APS 1 to APS 3 and graduate and other trainee classifications), an increase of 17.2% on 2005–06 numbers.

Indigenous separations can be looked at in two ways—either as a proportion of Indigenous employees, or as a proportion of total separations. Using the first method, 12.5% of all ongoing Indigenous employees separated during 2006–07. This was an improvement on the previous two financial years (13.9% in 2005–06 and 15.2% in 2004–05). Continuing this trend will contribute positively to improving Indigenous representation. The separation rate is, however, still substantially higher than for other employees. The comparable separation rate for the APS overall during 2006–07 was 7.5%.

Table 5.4 looks at Indigenous separations using the second method described above. As a proportion of all ongoing separations, Indigenous separations fell this year, from 4.2% to 3.5% of all separations. This is a positive result, but Indigenous employees continued to be overrepresented in separations compared with their overall representation in the APS of 2.1%.

Table 5.4: Indigenous representation in engagements and separations of ongoing employees, 1997–98 to 2006–07

	1997–98	1998–99	1999–00	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07
Engagements	264	269	305	419	415	460	312	310	437	513
% of engagements	4.3	3.4	2.5	3.0	3.4	3.0	3.3	2.7	2.1	2.7
Separations	451	473	422	268	284	307	389	442	399	368
% of separations	2.7	3.3	3.8	3.4	3.4	4.3	5.3	4.2	4.2	3.5
% of ongoing staff at 30 June	2.7	2.7	2.5	2.5	2.6	2.5	2.4	2.3	2.1	2.1
Source: APSED

Indigenous employees continue to be much more likely to have substantially shorter service before leaving the APS. During 2006–07, 52.4% of Indigenous employees who separated had less than five years service, compared with 43.2% of non-Indigenous employees.

APS Employment and Capability Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employees

The APS Employment and Capability Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employees (the Strategy) was established in response to the Indigenous employment challenge facing agencies. The Strategy, which has been in operation for two years, has made an important contribution to stabilising Indigenous representation in the APS. Initiatives under the Strategy this year included:

• the recruitment of 26 Indigenous graduates in 2007 through an APS-wide recruitment campaign coordinated by the Commission, bringing the total number of graduates recruited under this programme since the beginning of 2006 to 51 (the 2008 campaign has already commenced and anticipates recruiting a similar number again next year)
• the recruitment of 33 Indigenous cadets in 2007 through the administration of a bulk recruitment initiative coordinated by the Commission, bringing the total number of cadets recruited under this programme to 65 since it first began in 2006 (a similar number is anticipated in the 2008 calendar year)
• the coordination of a cross-agency entry level recruitment programme that brought 65 Indigenous employees into the APS in the first half of 2007 (this programme will be run again in 2008)
• the establishment of ‘Horizons’, an Indigenous mobility scheme providing secondment opportunities between APS agencies, assisted by the Commission, for six high-performing Indigenous APS employees in 2007
• management of an Indigenous Capability Fund to assist small and medium agencies in providing career development and training opportunities for Indigenous employees
• support of Indigenous APS Employee Networks around the country
• assistance to agencies to develop Indigenous Employment Strategies, negotiate partnerships and provide cross-cultural advice
• the roll-out of the ‘Public Calling: APS Indigenous Career Ambassadors’ campaign— featuring 11 Indigenous APS employees as Ambassadors in a radio, print and electronic media campaign focused on attracting Indigenous people with professional work experience into the APS

• sponsorship of a national art competition, ‘Drawing Together’, exploring reconciliation and promoting the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the APS

• work has also commenced on a Cultural Competence Training Package—including a training programme and e-learning managers’ guide—to help increase the capacity of APS managers and supervisors to better recruit and manage Indigenous employees
• the production of an Indigenous Employment Strategy Kit, to assist APS agencies to develop and implement Indigenous employment strategies within their own agencies.

Indigenous employment strategies

Formal Indigenous Employment Strategies (IES) are one way agencies can promote their commitment to the employment of Indigenous Australians. This year just under one-third of agencies (28 agencies) reported that they had a formal IES in place. There has been a steady increase in this number but there is potential for more agencies to consider developing a strategy.

Of agencies with an IES, 61% (17 agencies) had a formal framework in place to evaluate its effectiveness, and of these 53% (eight agencies) had performed an evaluation of their strategy in the last two years—a positive result considering that many agencies have only recently adopted a formal strategy.

Many APS agencies have also recently developed a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Aboriginal referendum. This initiative was driven by PM&C and is another avenue agencies can use to show their commitment to Indigenous employment, along with the broader goal of reconciliation. RAPs are intended to be aligned with agencies’ strategic, corporate and divisional business plans, and to reflect a whole of government approach to reconciliation.

Recruitment and retention measures used in agencies

Although just under one-third of agencies used formal IESs, the use of more specific recruitment and retention measures targeted at Indigenous Australians is much more widespread.

In 2006–07, the majority of agencies (72%) made use of one or more measures to recruit and/or retain Indigenous Australians (see Table 5.5). This was a slight increase on last year (67%). Just over one-quarter of agencies (28%) reported that they did not use any measures. Of the agencies using measures, the average number of measures was five, similar to last year’s result.

Agencies were most likely to provide study options, reported by more than one-half of agencies, mentoring and coaching, and advertising employment opportunities in Indigenous media. Nevertheless, there is significant opportunity to increase the use of such advertising, with only two out of five agencies advertising employment opportunities in Indigenous media. Agencies would also benefit from a greater focus on collecting information on the number of Indigenous Australians applying for positions in their agency, a mechanism used by only a little over one-third of agencies (35%). All other mechanisms were used by less than one-third of agencies.

Table 5.5: Agency measures used to recruit and/or retain Indigenous Australians, 2006–07

Measures to recruit/retain Indigenous employees	Yes (%)	Being developed (%)	No (%)	Not applicable (no Indigenous employees) (%)
Special employment measures	31	3	66	-
Identified positions	31	1	68	-
Providing other opportunities for Indigenous employees to gain skills and experience under an agency-based Indigenous employment scheme	22	3	75	-
Advertising employment opportunities in Indigenous media	40	3	57	-
Operate an internal agency-based Indigenous employees’ network	24	7	53	16
Provide study options	56	0	26	18
Provide culturally specific training programmes for Indigenous employees	22	6	53	19
Provide Indigenous cultural awareness training for all employees	28	11	48	13
Provide targeted leadership development opportunities	27	2	52	18
Provide mentoring and/or coaching to Indigenous employees	43	5	34	18
Provide mobility and/or secondment opportunities to mainstream positions	28	5	45	22
Other recruitment and/or retention strategies	35	15	35	15
Source: Agency survey

Agencies were also asked if, as part of their workforce planning, they conduct exit interviews with Indigenous employees leaving the agency. Just over one-third (34%) of agencies conducted interviews during 2006–07, 30% of agencies did not conduct interviews, and 36% of agencies reported that conducting exit interviews was not applicable to them. The higher levels of separation experienced by Indigenous employees suggests that agencies would benefit from a greater use of targeted exit interviews.

One issue that could be explored in exit interviews is the types of employment or job sectors departing Indigenous employees are moving to. The APS may be playing a positive role in the capability development of the Indigenous workforce more broadly, to the extent that Indigenous employees are taking up new opportunities in other sectors, for example, with community groups or State Governments.

Employee perceptions of agency support

Consistent with the relatively high level of agency activity, 60% of employees agreed that their agency actively encourages the recruitment and employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is slightly lower than the proportion of people agreeing last year (64%). It was also substantially lower than the proportion agreeing that their agency encourages the recruitment and retention of people from all cultural backgrounds (77%) and close to the proportion agreeing that their agency encourages the recruitment and employment of people with disability (58%).

Women and the SES were more likely to agree that agencies actively encourage the recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as were, encouragingly, Indigenous employees (69% compared to 60% of non-Indigenous employees). Employees in large agencies were also more likely to agree. In the 45 agencies with individual agency- specific results the proportion of employees agreeing ranged from a low of 23% to a high of 95%, indicating substantial room for improvement in some agencies.

Employee engagement and job satisfaction

Indigenous employees have generally high levels of job satisfaction. This year, 75% of Indigenous employees were on average satisfied with their most important job satisfaction attributes. This was substantially lower than last year, 86%, and lower than for the APS overall (81%). These figures should be treated with some caution, however, as Indigenous job satisfaction results have been very volatile over the life of the employee survey and are likely to reflect the relatively small number of Indigenous employees in the sample.

The satisfaction of Indigenous employees with the 12 employee engagement factors reported in Chapter 3 is more consistent with that of non-Indigenous employees. Indigenous employees were more satisfied with the factors, Senior Leaders and Agency Culture and less satisfied with Learning and Development (see Figure 5.2). For all other factors they were equally or slightly more satisfied than non-Indigenous employees.

Four of the top five most important workplace attributes that influence how satisfied Indigenous employees were with their jobs were the same as those selected for non-Indigenous employees, although their ranking varies (see Table 5.6). Indigenous employees, however, put greater emphasis on opportunities to develop their skills and non-Indigenous employees on opportunities to utilise their skills.

 

Table 5.6: Job satisfaction—most important workplace attributes by Indigenous status, 2006–07

	Indigenous employees			Non-Indigenous employees
Rank	Workplace attribute	Nominated factor (%)	Satisfied (%)	Workplace attribute	Nominated factor (%)	Satisfied (%)
1	Good working relationships	59	91	Good working relationships	56	89
2	Opportunities to develop my skills	49	63	Flexible working arrangements	50	91
3	Salary	43	72	Salary	45	68
4	Flexible working arrangements	40	92	Opportunities to utilise my skills	39	75
5	Good manager	39	67	Good manager	38	76
Source: Employee survey

Satisfaction rates are similar for the attributes that are in common, with the exception of good manager. Indigenous employees are less satisfied with this attribute than are non-Indigenous employees. Indigenous employees are least satisfied, with opportunities to develop their skills. This result, coupled with the lower satisfaction levels for the Learning and Development factor in Figure 5.2, suggests that this is a priority area for future attention.

 

6 ABS, Census of Population and Housing 2006, ABS, Canberra.

7 A sub-set of occupations from the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) that is similar to the type of work undertaken in the APS.

8 The method used to calculate the proportion of employees with graduate or tertiary qualifications includes those with qualifications at bachelor’s degree level and above. It excludes from the denominator those for whom no data was provided by agencies, and those who chose not to provide details of their highest qualification.