Workforce profile

Demography of the SES leadership group

The SES constitutes the senior management and leadership group of the APS—the Senior Executive Service. At June 2007, the SES comprised 1.75% of all ongoing employees. The size of the SES has fluctuated over the past 15 years, from a low of 1,575 in 1998 to 2,509 this year. During 2006–07, the SES grew by 11.2%, from 1.67% to 1.75% of all ongoing employees. This compares with the unadjusted APS average growth for ongoing employees of 6.5%.

The increase in SES employment reflects the range of new Government initiatives and enhanced functions that the APS has been required to take on, many of which are of an especially complex nature or difficult to manage. It also reflects some fundamental changes in the quantity and nature of APS work, including:

increasing accountability requirements
the extent of high-level engagement with stakeholders required of senior officers
the ICT revolution which has facilitated an explosion in the pace and extent of communication, and now means that SES employees are expected to be on call for immediate and comprehensive advice 24/7
increasing requirements of Ministers’ offices.

Band 1 SES employees make up the largest proportion, at 74.9%, of all ongoing SES. Band 2 employees comprise 20.4% and Band 3s comprise 4.8%. Proportionally, most of this year’s growth occurred in Band 2 which grew by 13.6%—up from 450 at June 2006 to 511 at June 2007. The number of SES Band 1 employees increased by 185 during the year. The agencies with the largest net increases in SES employees were DHS (an extra 34 SES), Health (19), ATO (16) and DEST (11).

The representation of SES varies widely between agencies, reflecting the nature of agencies’ functions. It ranged from 27.1% in OPC to 0.4% in Centrelink and Defence Housing Australia (DHA).

The proportion of women in the SES continued to rise this year, to 36.1%, up from 34.9% in June 2006 and 15.3% in June 1993. As is the case for the APS overall, women are concentrated at lower levels in the SES, although this is changing: 78.0% of women are at Band 1 compared with 73.1% of men, 18.3% are at Band 2 compared with 21.5% of men, and 3.6% are at Band 3 compared with 5.4% of men. During 2006–07, the strongest proportional growth for women in the SES was at Band 2, where their representation increased from 126 to 166—a rise of 31.7%. Based on the current rate of growth for women in the SES, they will account for half of the SES in around 10 years time.

Table 2.6 indicates that well over one-third of SES Band 1s (39.5%) are aged 50 years or over. Over half of Band 2s are in that age group (55.2%). Band 3s have an even older age profile, with more than two-thirds (69.2%) aged 50 years or over. At June 2007, 113 SES (comprising 4.5% of total SES) were aged 60 years or over. This compares with 73 or 3.2% at June 2006.

Table 2.6: Ongoing SES employees by age group, sex and level, June 2007
	SES 1			SES 2			SES 3			Total		% female
	M	F	Total	M	F	Total	M	F	Total	No.	%
25–29	4	1	5	0	1	1	0	0	0	6	0.2	33.3
30–34	23	26	49	1	2	3	0	0	0	52	2.1	53.8
35–39	113	86	199	18	6	24	0	1	1	224	8.9	41.5
40–44	206	143	349	35	38	73	9	6	15	437	17.4	42.8
45–49	325	210	535	78	50	128	17	4	21	684	27.3	38.6
50–54	309	148	457	106	40	146	28	13	41	644	25.7	31.2
55–59	147	81	228	69	24	93	22	6	28	349	13.9	31.8
60 & over	44	12	56	38	5	43	11	3	14	113	4.5	17.7
Total	1171	707	1878	345	166	511	87	33	120	2509	100.0	36.1
Source: APSED

Over the past 15 years, the median age of the SES cohort has risen slightly, from 46 years in 1993 to 48 years in 2007. However, it has remained steady at 48 years for the past decade.

The proportion of SES aged 45 years and over, who will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years, accounts for a substantial proportion of the SES—71.3% at June 2007. This continues to be a challenge for agencies in terms of succession planning and knowledge management.