The APS HR Data and Analytics Project is a strategic initiative of the APS HR Professional Steam, one of 3 key priorities for 2025. This project is being led by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), in collaboration with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR). Its goal is to enhance how workforce data is collected, managed, and used across the APS.
This project is seeking to address 3 key challenges: identifying whether the APS collects and uses the right HR data, assessing the capability to use that data effectively, and improving how data is leveraged to generate workforce insights. It seeks to answer fundamental questions such as: Are we collecting the right data? Do we have shared definitions and metrics? Are we equipped to turn data into actionable intelligence?
To answer these questions, the initiative is structured into 3 workstreams: HR Data; HR Data Capability; and Workforce Insights.
The HR Data workstream is being led by DAFF, and focuses on helping the APS to better understand and improve the data we currently collect and examine whether we have the HR data we need to meet the current and anticipated future needs of the APS. Deliverables of this stream of work include an inventory of currently collected HR data across the APS, development of an APS-wide HR data dictionary of common workforce metrics, and development of a benchmarking framework proof-of-concept to enable broad comparisons of our data across the APS and externally.
The HR Data Capability workstream is being led by ABS and is examining whether we have the required capabilities to collect, manage and use HR data in the APS. Deliverables of this stream of work will include the development of a HR Data Capability Framework and HR Data Capability Assessment Tool, assessment of HR data capability across the APS, and the development of a plan to uplift HR data capability across the APS.
The Workforce Insights workstream is being led by DISR and aims to strengthen the way APS uses HR data to generate meaningful workforce insights to enable evidence-based workforce decisions and more effective workforce planning, recruitment, retention and management. Deliverables of this stream of work will include a review of existing reporting resources and approaches for generating workforce insights and decision making, ways to help the APS generate predictive future-focussed analytics, a suite of templates and dashboards to support workforce data insight generation for evidence-based decision making, and case studies and best practice examples for building data insight capability.
Progress is well underway. The HR Data stream has finalised a review of 64 common metrics and is conducting a gap analysis before expanding the HR Data Dictionary to prepare for benchmarking. The capability stream is utilising the APS Data Profession’s Data Capability Framework to identify HR data capabilities for inclusion in the Assessment Tool. The Insights stream is engaging agencies to identify best practices to build on the data stocktake and data dictionary deliverables.
All deliverables are expected by the end of 2025, with endorsement from the APSC and the HR Profession. This project represents a significant step toward a more data-driven, future-ready APS workforce.