Corporate governance framework

The Commission has an integrated corporate performance planning and management framework that facilitates the effective achievement within budget of the commitments in the Commission’s Corporate Plan and that assists accountability. The planning and management framework links the Commission’s Corporate Plan, Group business plans and individual performance agreements. A schematic representation of the planning and management framework is set out at Figure 7.

At the broadest level, the Commission sets out its performance expectations and planned use of resources through its Portfolio Budget Statements, Corporate Plan and its Scorecard. It accounts for its performance and use of resources through its Annual Report to Parliament.

The Portfolio Budget Statement focuses on the Outcome the Government expects us to address and the Output targets we are to achieve (What the Commission is to do) while the Corporate Plan focuses more on the Commission’s Vision, strategic directions and the means by which it intends to get there (the How and why of the Commission’s business). In reporting performance in the Commission’s Annual Report to Parliament, detailed performance by Output relates primarily to the PBS while performance against the Scorecard, summarised further below, relates primarily to the Corporate Plan.

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FIGURE 7: Commission’s Corporate Performance Planning and Management Framework

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Business plans are developed annually to support the achievement of the Corporate Plan. The business plans provide the basis for agreeing group priorities, allocating internal budgets and accounting for group performance and use of resources through the appraisal of Group Managers’ performance.

The Certified Agreement and AWAs articulate the organisational characteristics we are seeking to develop within the Commission and the workforce characteristics we are seeking to foster. Fostering both sets of characteristics is expected to further contribute to improvement in productivity within the Commission.

We have now established an overall approach to performance management within the Commission which:

• is located within an overall corporate performance planning, management and accountability framework
• relies on an achievements-based performance appraisal scheme
• articulates a desired culture through organisational and workforce characteristics
• links individual development planning with corporate level planning.

This approach has proved to be an appropriate means for linking Group performance to overall corporate outcomes, for better articulating individual responsibilities in relation to business plans and providing the basis for twice-yearly feedback on performance. It has also proved to be an effective mechanism for assessing employees’ performance and managing salary advancement in a broadbanded environment.

Corporate decision making and advisory structure

The Commission Executive, which comprises the Public Service Commissioner, Deputy Public Service Commissioner and Merit Protection Commissioner, supported by the Group Manager Corporate Strategy and Support (CSSG), monitors and guides corporate management, and the agenda for the Commission Management Committee, and determines senior staffing matters. The Executive meets fortnightly throughout the year.

The Commission Management Committee (CMC), which comprises the Executive and Group Managers, is the main decision-making body, responsible to the Commissioner. The Committee is responsible for:

• signing off the Corporate Plan and leading the implementation of strategic priorities
• reviewing and monitoring business plans ensuring they are consistent with overall corporate directions
• allocating resources and monitoring revenues and expenditure
• providing a forum for discussing APS policy issues (seconding other staff and external expertise as appropriate). The CMC meets fortnightly on the alternative week to the Executive meeting.

Other formal internal advisory bodies are the Audit Committee, the Information Technology Advisory Committee, the Workplace Relations Committee, the Occupational Health and Safety Committee and the Security Committee. The work of these bodies is detailed under their specific interest areas in this part of the report.

Corporate Culture

The Commission has continued to foster a teambased environment in which Group Managers, supported by Executive Level 2 staff, as the main formal level of management below the Executive, are directly responsible for the management of financial and human resources and for achieving the outputs and outcomes prescribed in their business plans.

This environment is designed to encourage staff to be closely involved in the development of business plans and Groups meet fortnightly to consider and monitor their progress against these plans. Group meetings also provide an important forum for staff to contribute to the development of corporate management policy and to discuss issues of significance to their work and to the Commission as a whole.

Organisational structure

During 2003—04 the Commission operated with a seven-group structure supplemented by cross-functional projects. A diagram of the Commission’s structure is included at Figure 1 in the Commission Overview in Part One. The Commission’s Output Structure achieves close alignment with the organisational structure. From 1 July 2004, with the transfer of some resources from the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Service, an extra group was established to focus exclusively on Indigenous Employment in the APS.

Corporate Plan and Scorecard

The 2003—04 APS Commission Corporate Plan sets out the Commission’s vision and mission and provides direction to ensure the Commission’s future capability to meet its continuing responsibilities and emerging priorities.

The Plan confirmed the four strategic directions identified the previous year, the first three concerning our support for the APS and the fourth concerning the Commission’s own capability:

• evaluation and assurance: strengthening our evaluation role to provide the APS, the Government and the Parliament with assurance that the Service is performing effectively
• Service of the future: supporting the capability of the Service to meet future challenges
• communication: representing the APS, and communicating persuasively with agencies and the APS at large
• organisational alignment: aligning our people and systems to our business objectives and priorities, with a deepening of our skills base.

Specific priority activities were identified under each of these strategic directions to complement the Commission’s ongoing activities and responsibilities.

COMMISSION VISION AND MISSION The Commission’s vision is a Commission recognised by Government, Parliament and the APS for its valuable contribution to a confident, high quality, values-based and sustainable APS. The Commission’s mission is to promote a values-based APS, foster organisational performance, and evaluate the state of the Service.

Scorecard

The Corporate Plan also set out a Scorecard of measures and targets, framed around each of the four strategic directions, covering whether the projects are on track, the quality of products and services and the impact of the measures taken.

The following summarises the Commission’s performance against the Scorecard.

1. Evaluation and Quality Assurance

• The 2003 State of the Service Report has been widely acknowledged as a substantial evaluation document, enhanced in particular by evidence from the new employee survey.
• The documents arising from the evaluation of how values were being promoted and upheld in APS agencies, the new Guide to Official Conduct and the good practice guide on Embedding the APS Values have also been widely appreciated with significant follow-up activity across the APS.
• Evaluations have commenced on the management of breaches of the Code of Conduct and on managing relationships with Ministers and their offices.
• While there has been some delay on one or two tasks, the Commission has certainly made substantial progress on this strategic priority, with considerable impact in terms of its influence across the APS.

2. Service of the Future

• Progress on the Integrated Leadership Strategy (ILS) was slower than planned, but the quality of the research and the application of it to practical challenges facing both the APS as a whole and individual agencies is widely recognised. The draft documents released in December 2003 were well received within and beyond the Service. The impact will depend on subsequent investment both in Commission leadership products and in agency systems and processes to build relevant skills and capabilities.
• Substantial groundwork was done on Indigenous employment initiatives, particularly in building employee networks, commencing some traineeship trials and conducting some training activities. Progress was slower than planned. Nonetheless, expectations have been raised, both amongst Indigenous employees and agencies, that should ensure that higher priority is given to Indigenous employment in the coming period.
• Commission support for workforce planning and recruitment was taken up widely.
• The MAC project on whole of government resulted in a high quality report that is already having an impact, for example in Indigenous service delivery arrangements, and the Commission’s contribution to the report is widely acknowledged.
• The Commission also made considerable progress in supporting Australia’s international responsibilities with the first Pacific Commissioners Conference in Fiji in February, recruitment of senior advisers for placements in Papua New Guinea and meetings both in Indonesia and Australia, with the head of Indonesia’s National Civil Service Agency, Drs Hardijanto.
• Overall, notwithstanding some delays, the Commission’s substantial investment to support building the capability of the APS is starting to show results. There is, however, some distance to go.

3. Communications

• Substantial effort has been made to improve the Commission’s communications, with a new Communication Plan launched in March 2004.
• With a greater emphasis on qualitative analysis and other evidence, Commission publications have been well received.
• Follow-up communications through networks, forums and agency-specific seminars have been particularly effective in such areas as values, workforce planning, leadership and whole of government. The review of our networks however was not completed during the year.
• A process for freshening the Commission’s brand image for 2004—05 commenced and a CD Rom, The APS at Work, was released and distributed to agencies in November 2003 for their own training or induction purposes, with very positive reactions from agencies.
• The Commissioner has also continued to increase its profile within the APS and across the public sector more widely. Increased newspaper coverage (particularly by The Canberra Times) has generally been very positive.

4. Organisational alignment

• As set out in more detail further below, significant progress has been made to implement a more structured approach to learning and development within the Commission. Staff surveys and forums confirm broad support for these efforts, some strengthening of skills in key areas, and clear improvement in terms of a collegiate culture within the Commission.
• Considerable investment has also been made to improve financial management. While there is better integration of our financial planning and reporting arrangements, there remain problems particularly in estimating and managing non-appropriation revenues and related expenses.
• While no new formal client survey was conducted during the year, feedback on specific services and informal feedback from Agency Heads are mostly very positive about the Commission and its products.

Overall, the Scorecard results suggest the Commission is making good progress on each of its strategic priorities and therefore steadily building its capability to meet future ongoing responsibilities, with the primary area for concern being the management of non-appropriation revenues and related expenses.

 

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