Home
› Attraction, recruitment and retention > Recruitment
» Next: Retention
Attraction, recruitment and retention
Recruitment
Agencies reported using a range of innovative recruitment strategies in 2006–07, in particular, innovative communication mediums, including CD-ROMs to package information to prospective employees, tertiary websites, and popular online career websites such as Seek and MyCareer to advertise vacancies. Agencies also used a range of marketing initiatives, including attendance at national and international career fairs and recruitment expos, and holding information briefing sessions ahead of large recruitment campaigns that target school-leavers and graduates.
A number of agencies are partnering with tertiary institutions and representative groups of key professions such as accounting and ICT, to more directly target vacancies at people with specific skills. Some agencies are using these partnerships to develop a pipeline to those people with skills in demand. They have adopted innovative, tailored study to work programmes such as ATO’s ‘Stepping into Law’ programme and Defence’s Finance and Business Skills traineeships.
In response to the MAC report, Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce, 11 some APS- wide initiatives have also been developed to assist agencies’ efforts in attraction and recruitment, for example, the redevelopment of the online Gazette into an APS employment and recruitment website titled ‘APSjobs’. APSjobs.gov.au was launched in August 2007. In addition to a revamped APS-wide vacancies board, other key components of APSjobs are:
- Campaigns—a facility that provides a link to current and upcoming agency-specific and APS-wide recruitment initiatives such as graduate programmes, large bulk recruitment rounds or specialist skills campaigns that are needed in the APS. Early indications show that this link has been very successful with a current recruitment campaign entitled ‘Australian Government Finance Jobs’ receiving over 1,000 applications in just one week.
- Branching Out—a facility enabling APS and external organisations to advertise rotation and mobility opportunities to existing APS employees, and for existing APS employees to express interest in accessing such opportunities.
- Ready Now—an online registration channel for former APS employees interested in accessing APS employment.
A link to the Commission’s short guide to APS selection processes, Cracking the Code,12 is provided on APSjobs. The guide is designed to market the APS as an employer of choice and to provide all applicants with information on applying for APS employment.
Another example of an APS-wide attraction and recruitment initiative is the inter-departmental ICT Professional and Skills Development Taskforce led by Finance through AGIMO. The taskforce developed a number of programmes aimed at improving the recruitment, retention and development of ICT specialists in the APS. These include:
- an APS ICT Apprenticeship programme, that provides young people with the opportunity to obtain a nationally recognised qualification that leads to a diploma in ICT and a career in the APS
- participation in Dell’s Women in IT Executive Mentoring (WITEM) programme which aims to provide professional development guidance for talented female ICT professionals and assist to them in shaping and progressing their ICT careers
- marketing of ICT careers in the APS through ICT Industry and Professional Association websites.
There also has been progress in establishing an APS Community of Statisticians (with ABS taking a leadership role) and an APS Community of Accountants (with Finance and ANAO taking the lead).
MAC has recently endorsed the slogan ‘One APS…Thousands of Opportunities’, for use in all online and newspaper APS job advertisements and selection documentation, in order to emphasise the benefits of a broad career in the APS.
Current APS recruitment processes
Innovative attraction strategies must be underpinned by efficient and fair recruitment processes—‘people talk when their application is handled badly’.13 Not only can this convey a negative message about the agency or the APS, but applicants may also reject job offers or take up other job offers if the process takes too long.
Around a quarter of the comments made by APS employees on how the APS could become more attractive to potential applicants concerned selection processes. The most common themes were the need for quicker processes and better job descriptions and selection criteria.
Have a less convoluted recruitment process.
In general, speed up the recruitment.
The complex bureaucratic application and selection criteria process keeps very skilled and capable potential employees away because of the excessive time and effort that is required to write a public service application!
To explore this issue further, the employee survey asked employees who had applied for a job in the APS during the last 12 months, based on their most recent experience, to indicate approximately how long it had taken from when they submitted their application, to when they were offered the job or were advised that they had been unsuccessful. The results are presented in Figure 4.4.
Figure 4.4: Length of recruitment processes, 2006–07
Figure 4.4 shows that nearly half of employees reported that their most recent recruitment process took more than 2 months from when they submitted their application to when they were offered the job or were advised that they had been unsuccessful. Thirteen percent of employees reported that processes took more than four months.
Source: Employee survey
Just under half of relevant employees indicated that recruitment processes took less than two months. Thirteen per cent of relevant employees reported that processes had taken more than four months. These time frames are consistent with the agency data collected for the Commission’s publication, Better, Faster: Streamlining Recruitment in the APS.14 Agencies reported an average recruitment process involving 53 steps and taking 88 days (virtually three months) to complete.
Better, Faster: Streamlining Recruitment in the APS
Better, Faster is a guide and set of cards, produced by
the Australian Public Service Commission in August 2007, that provides agencies with
the rationale and methodology for streamlining their recruitment processes.
The guide shares tips and better practices from a number of APS agencies, along
with details on other resources and support available to agencies.
According to the MAC report, Reducing Red Tape in the Australian Public Service, 15 the cause of protracted recruitment processes is most likely to be poor planning and preparation by managers, or unnecessary internal processes. This issue is discussed further in Chapter 6 in the context of the application of the merit principle in employment decisions.
Some aspects of APS recruitment can add further delays and challenges. Security clearance arrangements, for example, can add substantially to the length of recruitment processes (as much as six months or more). It is important that agencies critically assess the need for security clearances, and the most appropriate levels, given the responsibilities of each position. Agencies can also consider ways of commencing employment sooner while attending to necessary security checks, such as temporarily tailoring the tasks of a position to require a lower level of security clearance. There is also potential to look at a more coordinated approach to security clearances across the APS. AGIMO has recently recommended greater transportability of security clearances across the APS for easier employee exchanges and movements (transfers) between agencies.16
Large-scale recruitment drives also tend to take longer than selection exercises aimed at filling one or a few positions. While bulk recruitment rounds can have advantages in terms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, they are best approached as a discrete project and resourced appropriately in order to provide a greater focus and commitment to managing the volume of applications, assessment tasks, and post-selection activities.
Timeliness is only one indicator of the effectiveness of a selection process. Table 4.2 provides results on the views of employees who had applied for a job in the APS in the last 12 months, about their most recent experience in applying for a job.
The results in Table 4.2 suggest that agencies are reasonably effective at developing selection criteria and job descriptions that accurately reflect the job, and a majority of employees agreed that processes are conducted fairly. However, views about other aspects of the recruitment process were less positive.
| Agree (% of relevant employees) |
Disagree (% of relevant employees) |
|
|---|---|---|
| The selection criteria and job description accurately reflected the job | 64 | 16 |
| I found the process overly demanding | 32 | 42 |
| I believe that the process was conducted fairly | 52 | 22 |
| I believe that the process was conducted as efficiently as possible | 39 | 33 |
| I believe that the process was conducted in a timely manner | 41 | 40 |
| I was provided with the opportunity to seek feedback | 45 | 27 |
| I was left with a positive impression of the agency | 36 | 31 |
| Source: Employee survey | ||
Results of particular concern include that one-third of relevant employees disagreed that the process was as efficient as possible and that around one-third of relevant employees found the process overly demanding. On the face of it, it is also worrying that nearly one-third of relevant employees were not left with a positive impression of the agency following the selection process. Such impressions seem to be strongly influenced by whether employees got the job or not. The proportion not left with a positive impression was only 12% of those offered the job, compared to 52% of those not offered the job. Nevertheless, the views of unsuccessful applicants are important as they may be potential applicants in future selection processes and may spread negative messages to others about their experience.
A key aspect of effective recruitment processes is effective advertising. In 2005, MAC committed all APS agencies to identifying and adopting strategies to make their recruitment processes more accessible and attractive to potential recruits.17 A perusal of agencies’ job advertisements indicates that agencies’ progress in revamping the content and design of their advertisements has been patchy. There are significant opportunities for agencies to adopt more innovative attraction and recruitment strategies, including the promotion of the specific aspects of their agencies and the APS that are found to be attractive to potential applicants.
Agencies would also benefit from recognising and making use of the potential referral source residing in their existing employees as proactive advocates of their organisation. Research suggests that existing employees represent a trusted and widely-used source of information on prospective employers by candidates active in the labour market, and also a rich pathway to talented passive candidates.18
This year, the employee survey, for the first time, asked employees if they agreed that they would recommend their agency as a good place to work—a majority of employees (65%) agreed that they would. In the one point of international comparison available, in the USA, almost exactly the same proportion of federal employees, 64%, agreed that they would recommend their organisation as a good place to work.19 There was, nevertheless, significant variability among APS agencies with individual agency-specific results, with agreement levels ranging from 41% to 85%.
11 Management Advisory Committee 2005, Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, <http://www.apsc.gov.au/mac>
12 Australian Public Service Commission 2007, Cracking the Code: How to Apply for Jobs in the Australian Public Service, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, <http://www.apsc.gov.au>
13 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) 2007, Annual Survey Report 2007: Recruitment, Retention and Turnover, CIPD, London.
14 Australian Public Service Commission 2007, Better, Faster: Streamlining Recruitment in the APS, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, <http://www.apsc.gov.au>
15 Management Advisory Committee 2007, Reducing Red Tape in the Australian Public Service, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, <http://www.apsc.gov.au/mac>
16 AGIMO 2007, Meeting the Demand for ICT Skills in the Australian Public Service—Today and for the Future, (Report of the ICT Professional and Skills Development Taskforce), <http://www.agimo.gov.au>
17 Management Advisory Committee 2005, Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, <http://www.apsc.gov.au/mac>
18 Corporate Leadership Council 2006, Attracting and Retaining Critical Talent Segments: Building a Competitive Employment Value Proposition, CLC, Washington, D.C.,<http://www.clc.executiveboard.com>
19 Office of Personnel Management (USA), Federal Human Capital Survey 2006, <http://www.fhcs2006.opm.gov>
