Managing and sustaining the APS workforce

6. Strategies for attracting, retaining, managing and developing graduates and other skilled staff into the future

Workforce planning

The MAC report Organisational Renewal (2003) concluded that it was imperative for all agencies to introduce systematic workforce planning processes to enable them to:

understand their own workforce demographics and characteristics, noting the significant interagency variations in factors such as age
identify their particular current and future capability requirements and implement an integrated human resource management strategy to make sure they are met
implement effective succession management for key roles.³⁴

State of the Service reports have shown that APS agencies have made only patchy efforts to respond to this imperative. A recent ANAO performance audit of agency workforce planning found that 'even the most advanced agencies are only in the early stages of developing their systems' and that 'few, if any, could claim to have embedded workforce planning into their business processes'. That said, the ANAO also acknowledged that the process of establishing effective workforce planning arrangements is likely to take an agency between two and five years to complete, that is, more time than has elapsed since the publication of Organisational Renewal. ³⁵

A key building block of any agency's workforce planning strategy is the ability to access accurate and timely information about the demographic characteristics, skills and career patterns of its own staff, which will inform agency-specific analysis of the type presented at an APS-wide level in the earlier chapters of this report.

Much of the data agencies need in order to undertake this work is available through APSED (now also available through an Internet interface, APSEDII) and the results of the annual State of the Service surveys. However, the quality of this data depends critically on the accuracy and comprehensiveness of each agency's input.

A number of agencies, including some of the larger ones, do not collect consistent and detailed data on the formal skills and qualifications of their employees, including:

the types of degrees, diplomas and certificates held (even for their graduate recruits)
the institutions at which they were obtained or the level of attainment (for example, whether honours or pass)
prior employment experience of new recruits.

Fewer than half the agencies responding to the agency survey reported that they collected data on the tertiary qualifications of new recruits.

Some agencies also do not have access to systematic data on the learning and development activities undertaken by their staff-including tertiary study supported by studies assistance-or on the nature and outcomes of all recruitment activities.

E-recruitment systems, which can systematically collect demographic and skills data from applicants and track the progress of applications throughout selection processes, are becoming increasingly popular in the private sector and in state and territory public services, and are now also being introduced by some APS agencies. These systems may be able to improve the capacity of agencies to collect, store and access critical information about successful new recruits.

Data on skills and career patterns of staff, while crucial, is only part of the overall information base needed for successful workforce planning. Other elements include qualitative information on:

career expectations and preferences of staff
current performance of staff
motivations of staff who choose to leave the agency
line managers' current and expected future skill needs
key staff who need to be retained, or rapidly replaced, if they leave.

Agencies can obtain such information through general staff surveys and/or focus groups comprising groups of employees of the type used in preparing this report.

Examples from APS agencies and other sectors

Some APS agencies are introducing workforce planning processes intended to inform decisions about the scale and timing of major recruitment exercises, and to shape career development programmes for graduates and the leadership feeder group.

The Department of Education, Science and Training requires each business area to engage in an annual process of considering its current and future workforce needs. Performance management, career development and demographic data are used in this process to frame the workforce planning agenda around identified demand and supply issues, and any workforce gaps.
The Department of Defence is developing a workforce planning process for its 18,000 civilian employees that is informed by the personnel planning arrangements used by the Australian Defence Force. When it becomes fully operational, the process will be used to identify and quantify emerging workforce pressures and risks. Development activities associated with this process include:
- upgrading the Department's personnel management system to ensure it includes all relevant data fields needed to inform workforce planning
- developing business rules for common workforce planning reporting metrics
- classifying all Departmental positions against the DEWR Job Outlook classification system
- building and populating a workforce planning data warehouse.

Once this work is completed, Defence expects to be in a position to produce dynamic models-based on known and predicted changes to internal and external demographics and other factors-which can be used to forecast future workforce trends.

Many agencies undertake periodic staff surveys that cover a range of topics, often including questions on future career intentions. However, DAFF recently took this a step further by undertaking a major staff survey focusing specifically on the career preferences and expectations of its staff.

Issues

The ANAO suggests that an agency is more likely to succeed in workforce planning if it has:

developed a clear understanding of its strategic direction and performance expectations, enabling it to identify the workforce capabilities and organisational structure it will need to meet its future commitments
allocated sufficient human, financial and technological resources to the task
gained access to accurate and timely quantitative information about the demographic characteristics, skills and career patterns of its workforce, and qualitative data on the career expectations and preferences of its staff
provided visible support for workforce planning at senior and line management levels
been able to demonstrate the value of workforce planning to decision-making about human resources at all levels.³⁶

A high priority for agencies will be to bring the findings of workforce planning processes into development of new policies and programmes, particularly where the success of a proposed new initiative may depend critically on the availability of employees with particular skills and qualifications. Agencies should also pay special attention to trends in the employment of Indigenous people and people with disabilities and to identifying and, where required, addressing the underlying causes of those trends.

At this relatively early stage of developing workforce planning processes, there will be clear benefits in APS agencies and the Australian Public Service Commission working together through existing networks to promote better practice. There will also be benefits in agencies reporting back periodically to MAC on key issues they identify through their workforce planning processes.

In terms of improving the quality of workforce data to support agency planning processes and enhancing the quality of reporting to APSED, it would be a relatively straightforward matter at this stage for agencies to agree to adopt common standards for data capture, messaging and presentation in the e-recruitment they are rolling out or are contemplating introducing.

Standards such as Human Resources-Extensive Markup Language (HR-XML) are already well developed and could be adopted quickly under the guidance of the Department of Finance and Administration (Finance), through AGIMO.

APSED reporting arrangements provide a starting point for developing consistent data sets for demographic characteristics, educational qualifications and prior work experience. Expert advice would also need to be sought on data security and privacy issues.

Actions: Workforce planning

All APS agencies will continue to work to establish processes for systematic workforce planning.
The Australian Public Service Commission, in consultation with agencies, will develop and promulgate advice on best practice.
Agencies will regularly report to MAC on their progress and key issues emerging from this work.
Agencies will give high priority to taking the results of their workforce planning into account in policy and programme development, particularly in relation to any specific skills requirements needed to implement new government initiatives.
Agencies will pay particular attention to trends in employment of Indigenous people and people with disabilities, and to identifying and, where required, addressing the underlying causes of those trends.
The Department of Finance and Administration, through AGIMO, will lead a working group to report to MAC's Information Management Steering Committee, which will:
- catalogue existing agency e-recruitment systems and projects
- identify best practice approaches
- develop and promote adoption of data and connectivity standards
- address relevant privacy and data security issues
- identify and assess risks in relation to timeframe and cost
- explore the potential business benefits arising from online sharing of recruitment data among APS agencies.

34 Management Advisory Committee 2003, Organisational Renewal, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, pp. 2-3.

35 Australian National Audit Office 2005, Workforce Planning (Audit Report No. 55, 2004-05), ANAO, Canberra.

36 Australian National Audit Office 2005, Workforce Planning (Audit Report No. 55, 2004-05), ANAO, Canberra.

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