Workforce profile

Mobility within the APS

Mobility between agencies has varied considerably over the past 10 years, with a period of declining mobility followed by a stable period and then growth in the past three years (see Figure 2.10). Overall, the transfer rate has been higher than the promotion rate, and variation in the transfer rate accounts for most of the variation in total mobility over the 10 year period.¹¹ The increase in mobility since 2003–04 has been particularly strong for transfers. During 2006–07, the promotion rate between agencies was 0.9% and the transfer rate was 1.9%. The recent growth in mobility is pleasing, and is consistent with the recommendations in the MAC report on Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce, released in 2005.¹²

Figure 2.10: Ongoing employees—promotion and transfer rates between agencies, 1997–98 to 2006–07

Chart: description available below

Figure 2.10 shows the promotion and transfer rates between agencies, from 1997–98 to 2006–07, as well as a combined total mobility over the period. Mobility has fluctuated, with some growth in the past three years.

Source: APSED

Mobility between agencies is higher for women than for men. During 2006–07, the overall mobility rate (including both promotions and transfers) was 3.1% for women and 2.6% for men. Mobility in the SES is particularly high for women. The proportion of women in the SES who have worked in three or more agencies is significantly higher than that for men— 36.1% compared with 30.2%.

Over the past 10 years, mobility rates have been highest for SES employees, followed by EL employees. During 2006–07, this pattern changed somewhat. Mobility between agencies fell for SES employees but rose for ELs, and the mobility rate for ELs was slightly higher than that for SES employees.

A trend now seems to be emerging of increasing mobility between agencies. It needs to be sustained, however, before it has an impact on the overall levels of cross-APS agency experience among APS employees, which is still lower for SES and EL employees than it was 10 years ago.

11 Transfer and promotion rates are calculated as the number of movements during a financial year, divided by the average of the number of employees at the beginning and end of the period. The terminology of ‘transfer’ has been used in this chapter because it is commonly understood by most APS employees. The terminology adopted under the PS Act is ‘movement at level’ for transfers between agencies. Promotion is defined as ‘the assignment to the employee of duties at a higher classification than the employee’s current classification (whether or not the employee moves to another agency)’. Movements due to machinery of government changes are not included in this analysis.

12 Management Advisory Committee 2005, Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, <http://www.apsc.gov.au/mac>