Output 1: APS policy, legislation and information

Evaluation and review

Evaluating agency performance

One of the Commission’s strategic priorities in the Corporate Plan was to strengthen the focus on evaluation through the State of the Service Report and to undertake more specific issues-based projects. The aim is to conduct one or two of these projects each year.

Values in Agencies Project

The Commission’s ‘Values in Agencies Project’ was the first of these ‘specific issues-based’ projects. This priority project examined how the APS Values and the Code of Conduct are being integrated into systems and procedures in six APS agencies, and the effectiveness of these arrangements in ensuring APS employees’ understanding and application of the Values and Code of Conduct.

The six agencies that participated in the project are the Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Transport and Regional Services, Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia, Centrelink, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Defence.

The broad conclusions of the project were:

• A strategic and integrated approach, is required to promote and maintain a values-based culture within an organisation. Such an approach requires:
  • effective leadership which establishes a fair and robust values-based culture with complementary learning and development strategies
  • hardwiring of the Values into instructions and guidance
  • effective control and assurance systems.
• Leadership is critical to inspiring and motivating employees not only to achieve organisational outcomes but also to engage with the expected values and behaviours.
• To foster and sustain a values-based culture, agencies need to guide and work with their people so that employees are aware of the APS Values and Code of Conduct and develop good judgement in their application to their everyday duties.

A good practice publication aimed at Agency Heads and managers, Embedding the APS Values, will be launched jointly with APS Values and Code of Conduct in Practice: A guide to official conduct for APS employees and Agency Heads early in 2003-04.

State of the Service Report including Workplace Diversity report

In previous years, State of the Service Reports were compiled by a temporary team drawn from within the Commission and with the assistance of an employee seconded from another agency. The 2001—02 Report was the first report compiled by a permanent team within the Commission. This revised working arrangement reflects the importance and profile of the Report as part of the Commission’s strengthened evaluation role.

While the PS Act 1999 requires the Public Service Commissioner to report annually on the state of the APS, the legislation does not prescribe the issues that such a report should cover. The approach taken in recent State of the Service Reports is to focus on particular themes and issues that have been topical or for which new evaluative material has become available. A consistent focus of the report, however, is to evaluate the extent to which agencies incorporate and uphold the APS Values (in line with s41(1)(c) of the PS Act 1999).

The information sources for the State of the Service Reports include the Commission’s own research and databases, published and unpublished material from other agencies (particularly central agencies) and reports from Parliamentary committees. Another major source of information is an agency-based questionnaire that elicits information unavailable from other sources. In 2001—02, a total of 93 questionnaires were sent out and 92 agencies provided a response to the questionnaire. The one agency that did not respond employed fewer than five staff under the PS Act 1999. The quality of the responses varied.

The report found that agencies are making efforts to embed the Values including in individual performance assessment procedures. There have also been improvements in service provision to the public. It also noted the robustness of the merit principle in relation to agencies’ use of ‘orders of merit’ and in community access to vacancies, and more positive experiences in the previous year with outsourcing (although some challenges remain). Performance management issues have been an increased focus for agencies and some are adopting innovative approaches to learning and development activities including in the area of leadership development.

Less positive findings included shortcomings in agencies’ recordkeeping practices and inadequate training on Parliamentary accountability responsibilities for some SES. The Report also urged agencies to more actively embed the Values into their workplace cultures. In particular, it cited the need for public servants to have a clear understanding of good practice in their relations with Ministers and ministerial advisers and of their respective roles and responsibilities, as well as good practice issues for non-APS employees delivering services to or on behalf of agencies.

The report also commented that agencies should consider adopting more strategic approaches to workforce planning, particularly given the ageing of the workforce, and to increasing the employment of Indigenous people. Managing underperformance was found to be a continuing concern, along with the need for more strategic use of AWAs and more active consultation with staff.

In previous years, agencies were asked to provide written responses to a paper survey. In 2002—03, the Commission introduced an on-line Agency Survey to gather agency information. This method, which involved considerable planning and development, is expected to result in more data and higher quality.

In 2002—03, the Commission also introduced an on-line survey of APS employees from agencies with more than 100 employees. To be conducted annually, the employee survey will provide data for the State of the Service Report on attitudes to, and understanding of, a range of issues including values, conduct, services to the public, remuneration, merit, work/life balance, leadership, and relations with ministers and the Parliament. The employee survey will complement the agency survey, providing a "reality check" and allowing more detailed comparative analysis.

Workplace Diversity report

The Workplace Diversity Report 2001—02 was tabled in Parliament in October 2002 with the State of the Service Report. The report is based on statistical data from the APS Employment Database and qualitative material provided by an APS agency survey.

The significant findings were that at the 30 June 2002:

• There were slightly more women (51.9%) than men working in the APS.
• The proportion of women at middle and senior management levels continues to increase. Women constituted 36.8% of executive (middle management) and 28.4% of senior positions.
• While the proportion of Indigenous people employed in the APS (2.4%) was higher than the Australian labour market (1.4%), it had not improved in recent years.
• The proportion of staff who identified themselves as being from non-English speaking backgrounds employed in the APS had declined from 10.7% in June 2002 to 9.6%.
• The proportion of people with a disability employed in the APS had declined in the APS from 5.7% in June 2002 to 3.6%.

The decline in the proportion of people with a disability employed in the APS can be partly explained by the structural changes in the sector. However, the decline is reflected across all classification levels.

APS Statistical Bulletin

The APS Statistical Bulletin 2001—02 presented an outline of APS-wide staffing at June 2002 and during the 2001—02 financial year, as well as summary data for the past ten years. Its format generally followed that of the previous year, with the addition of new tables for length of service in the APS by agency; separations by age group and gender; and separations by age group and separation type. Additional data was also provided in a number of tables. The Bulletin included a report on graduate recruitment in the APS. This was a summary of Graduate Trends, a research paper based on data from the APS Employment Database and published following the release of the Bulletin.

The Statistical Bulletin 2001—02 was distributed to all APS Agency Heads, members of the Corporate Management Network (COMNET), State, Territory and New Zealand Public Service Commissioners and major public libraries. It is available both in hard copy and electronically on the Commission’s internet site. The electronic version has become a convenient vehicle for users to download tables in the Statistical Bulletin, without the need for manually entering data.

Agencies use the data published in the Statistical Bulletin for workforce planning as well as for benchmarking themselves against APS-wide trends. Agencies also take advantage of other Commission publications including the State of the Service and Workplace Diversity Reports, and the Management Advisory Committee report Organisational Renewal, as well as cross-tabulations of unpublished data.

 

Figure 5: Price for Evaluation activities including the State of the Service series of reports