Integrity is fundamental to building and maintaining public trust in Government and the APS.
The APS Employment Principles demonstrate how integrity is fundamental in recruitment. Fair, transparent and accountable decision making gives us people with the best mix of skills, experience and attributes. It shapes how candidates are assessed against the role requirements including the APS values, as well as how emerging technologies such as AI, are used responsibly and transparently.
To help agencies reduce integrity risks, the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has developed several key resources.
Merit in the APS
Merit must underpin every stage of recruitment processes. Merit is not a rigid set of rules, but a principled approach to assessing candidates’ skills and abilities through a competitive process conducted with integrity. The APSC has developed the Guide on merit in the APS to reduce the risk of discrimination, patronage and favouritism, while aiming to ensure the most meritorious person is employed.
The guide unpacks the five requirements of the APS merit principle and outlines the essential elements agencies must be able to demonstrate to ensure selection processes are genuinely merit-based.
Better practice employment questions
The APSC has just released APS-wide better practice employment questions for recruitment. These questions are designed to be added to an agencies recruitment application form and is the first step in an agency’s integrity check process. Agencies are strongly encouraged to adopt the questions into their recruitment application forms.
The better practice employment questions aim to improve consistency in recruitment and minimise integrity risks in APS recruitment processes.
Managing conflicts of interest
Agencies must consider Conflicts of Interest (COIs) throughout the whole employee lifecycle and be prepared to have sustainable mitigation strategies in place. COI risks for onboarding teams included recruitment, on- and offboarding, secondary employment, and personal relationships, among others.
The COI Better Practice Model offers guidance and advice, including Management plans and case studies, to help you understand and manage COIs.
AI in recruitment
The AI in recruitment guidance will assist agencies to manage candidate use of AI, support consistent expectations across the APS regarding candidate use of AI and to communicate the expectations to candidates when applying for a job.
Transparency about AI and automated decision making is critical to maintaining trust in recruitment processes. As AI tools and technologies become more widely used, agencies should clearly communicate expectations, ensure appropriate governance arrangements are in place and apply AI in ways that support merit, fairness and integrity. This includes ensuring that the use of AI aligns with the Public Service Act 1999, the Australian Public Service Commissioner’s Directions 2022 and the Privacy Act 1988.