Employee engagement and job satisfaction

APS identity and pride

Another indicator of the health of the APS is the levels of pride and the identity of its employees. Levels of pride in the APS remain high, with 79% of employees reporting that they are proud to work in the APS (similar to last year’s result). Groups with higher levels of pride in the APS were the same as those with high levels of satisfaction with employee engagement factors, namely, young employees, the SES, women, and Indigenous employees.

Employee views about their current agency, although positive, were not as positive as for the APS as a whole. Just over two-thirds (69%) of employees were proud to work in their current agency. Young employees, women, employees in the ACT, the SES and employees from non-English speaking backgrounds were all more likely to have high levels of pride in working in their current agency. In the 45 agencies with individual agency-specific results, the proportion of employees who were proud to work in their current agency ranged from a low of 57% to a high of 93%.

Despite employees generally being more likely to be proud to work in the APS than in their agency, a higher proportion of employees continue to report that they consider themselves to be primarily employees of their agency (60%, compared to 40% who considered themselves to be primarily APS employees). Men, employees not in the ACT and EL employees were more likely to see themselves as employees of their agency than the APS average. Employees who were more likely to see themselves as APS employees were the SES, Indigenous employees, and employees from non-English speaking backgrounds.

The results for EL employees were particularly marked. ELs were less likely to consider that they were primarily APS employees, and more likely to consider themselves employees of their agency, than both APS level and SES employees.

The high levels of pride in working both in the APS and individual agencies are particularly important in positioning the APS as a good place to work—an important factor in attracting new employees. These issues are discussed further in Chapter 4.