Mobility across the APS – whether it’s between roles, agencies or sectors – is a powerful enabler of professional growth, innovation, and collaboration. It helps people build broader skill sets, gain diverse perspectives, and become more adaptable, ultimately creating a more agile and responsive public service.
We spoke with Scott Mischke, Chief People Officer at Parliamentary Workplace Support Services about how mobility has shaped his agency and how HR professionals can harness it to support their organisations.
How has mobility benefited your agency?
Mobility has been a critical pillar of talent sourcing for our agency. It enabled us to scale up quickly during our establishment, and again ahead of the federal election, when we needed surge capacity.
Mobility allowed us to effectively manage a 300% increase in call volumes while building high-performing teams that benefitted from diversity of thinking.
What are some barriers to mobility, and how can HR help overcome them?
Career development is sometimes overlooked in performance discussions. But these are ideal moments to ask: Are employees feeling challenged and energised by their work? Are they in roles that play to their strengths? Would they consider a mobility opportunity?
HR practitioners can support managers to have these conversations in a safe and constructive way, and encourage employees to see mobility as a way to broaden their skillset and demonstrate adaptability.
What role does HR play in enabling mobility?
HR plays a key role in promoting the benefits of mobility and ensuring the right frameworks are in place. This includes workforce planning, succession management, and good job design.
The APSC’s APS Mobility Framework offers practical tools to help use mobility as a strategic workforce tool.
Spotlight on the Mobility Bulletin
The Mobility Bulletin, an initiative of the APS HR Professional Stream Strategy, is distributed fortnightly to HR professional stream members and helps agencies tap into a broader pool of HR talent.
We asked Scott about his experience using the Bulletin.
How has it helped your team?
It’s been invaluable for promoting our vacancies. It’s helped us respond to demand surges, reduced time-to-hire, and attracted skilled HR professionals who bring fresh energy and innovation.
It also reaches passive job-seekers – our colleagues who aren’t actively looking but are intrigued by an opportunity in their inbox.
What’s your advice for first-time users of the Mobility Bulletin?
Give it a try, you have nothing to lose and exceptional talent to gain!
And craft your job ad to be engaging. Since the Bulletin is internal, you can be less formal than in external ads. Use marketing principles: clear messaging, compelling storytelling, and a strong value proposition.
Looking ahead
Mobility is evolving. Scott reflects:
Earlier in my career, I had to relocate across 3 capital cities to access mobility opportunities. But with flexible work now normalised, many roles are advertised across multiple locations.
As HR practitioners, we should support managers to make sound decisions about workforce location to retain the skills the APS needs, now and into the future. The APS Location Framework is a great resource.
We should also build systems that support internal movement, make opportunities across agencies more visible, and help employees embrace adaptability, learning agility, and the value of transferable skills.
Scott Mischke, Chief People Officer at Parliamentary Workplace Support Services