Managing and sustaining the APS workforce

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

Attracting and recruiting employees to the APS

With any tightening of the Australian labour market over the next few years, agencies will need to become more pro-active in their approach to attracting and recruiting employees from outside the APS.

As has been discussed in previous chapters, it is likely that many younger people newly entering the labour force will be looking to pursue portfolio careers that provide a wide diversity of employment and learning experiences. APS agencies will need to find ways of tailoring their messages to potential recruits to emphasise how a career in a particular agency and/or the APS more generally can help them achieve these goals.

The focus groups the MAC project team conducted found that young APS employees view the range of employment and learning opportunities available to them as a major factor that will encourage them to stay in the APS, but a factor of which they were generally unaware before they joined. This suggests that recruitment outcomes for all agencies might be improved if this message could be better communicated outside the APS.

There is much the APS can learn from how online marketplaces such as eBay and the various real estate sites market a particular form of product to younger, Internet savvy consumers by linking a wide variety of separate business sites to provide comprehensive, consistent information in a one-stop-shop.

All ongoing APS vacancies are currently advertised in the online Public Service Gazette and many agencies also advertise ongoing and non-ongoing vacancies on their own web sites, as well as in national and local newspapers. However, these arrangements are not well coordinated. The current online Gazette provides no opportunity for user interaction, for example, allowing users to request emailed advice about new vacancies requiring a particular qualification or skill set or which are in a particular location, or automatically notifying applicants when an advertised vacancy is finally filled.

Furthermore, much of the language used in agencies' online and newspaper job advertisements is very APS-specific and can sometimes be impenetrable and off-putting for outsiders.

The prospect of staff shortages may also prompt APS agencies to look beyond the talent pools of recent graduates and experienced workers they currently favour, towards other sources of new recruits, such as school leavers.

Examples from APS agencies and other sectors

APS agencies currently adopt a range of strategies around recruitment, including:

participation in annual career fairs at universities
participation in information sessions for students at universities
using recruitment agencies to search for and screen suitable applicants from outside the APS.

Some APS agencies are also beginning to make use of e-recruitment systems:

The new online recruitment system of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs went live on 27 May 2004. Since then, over 300 jobs-from bulk rounds to SES positions-have been advertised on the system. The latter has received 12,882 completed applications online, and a further 9000 registrations. The department reports that the system:
- has substantially reduced manual processing work
- provides a standardised process that ensures delegates are involved in the recruitment process from the outset
- enables automated processes for warning applicants of closing dates and for acknowledging receipt of applications
- provides an online assessment tool that streamlines the shortlisting process.
The ATO has used an e-recruitment system for graduate recruitment for a number of years, and has recently piloted e-recruitment to fill general vacancies. The pilot was undertaken to fill 160 positions across APS 3 to EL 1 classifications in Hobart, Adelaide and Melbourne. Candidates were asked to submit their applications electronically via the Internet from the careers link on the ATO's web site: 1862 applications were received. The online system was used to:
- undertake initial eligibility screening (for citizenship and in checking whether applicants had taken a voluntary redundancy from the APS in the last 12 months)
- upload applications
- provide applicant tracking and reporting
- administer online testing.

All 160 vacancies were filled and the ATO reports that the timeframe for the process was impressive, with 18 days elapsing from the closing date for applications to the selection report being presented to the delegate. The exercise cost approximately $20,000, which equates to a relatively low $125 per hire. The ATO is now looking to use the online system more widely.

Issues

As was noted in Chapter 5, the APS is particularly well suited to younger recruits seeking to pursue a portfolio career, as it offers an extremely broad range of career and learning opportunities encompassing policy issues of major significance, service delivery in all parts of the country, many areas of professional expertise, and even the opportunity to travel and work overseas.

In order to promote these benefits, the APS could embark on a more active campaign to market the range of employment and learning experiences available within a broad APS career. As a first step, all APS agencies' newspaper and online job advertisements could include wording that communicates the clear message that successful candidates will not only be joining the agency that has advertised the position, but will have access to the range of opportunities available within the broader APS. Emphasising these factors will help the APS compete as an employer of choice in the context of a tightening labour market with growing remuneration and other pressures (survey work undertaken for DEWR indicates that, for staff above the APS 3-4 levels, the median total remuneration is significantly below the private sector median for equivalent work).³⁷

The APS could also improve its online strategies for attracting potential recruits by developing the existing online Public Service Gazette into an APS-wide employment portal which would provide comprehensive interactive links to all APS vacancies advertised on individual agency sites.

Agencies would present their vacancy information in a consistent online fashion, based on agreed standards and formats for presentation of information about pay and conditions, job descriptions, selection processes and so forth. The APS employment portal would provide direct links to all these vacancies. It would also provide access to the Australian Public Service Commission guide on APS employment and selection processes discussed above, as well as to other relevant information on roles and responsibilities, superannuation arrangements, the APS Values, and moving to Canberra.

Users could elect to receive regular online alerts about newly listed vacancies of a nominated type, for example, jobs in a particular geographic location or those requiring staff with specific qualifications, such as economists, accountants and lawyers.

The new site would continue to serve stipulated Gazette functions, including publication of appointments, promotions, transfers, retirements and dismissals.

As will be discussed later, the portal could provide an avenue for advertising mobility and exchange opportunities for existing APS employees and for allowing staff who have retired or resigned from the APS to register their availability for employment opportunities.

Agencies will derive maximum benefit from APS-wide efforts to attract more quality potential recruits if they take steps to ensure the characteristics of their own recruitment processes do not in themselves discourage outsiders from applying. Agencies will need to:

avoid using impenetrable public service jargon in their job advertisements and selection documentation
use selection criteria consistently and sparingly, to avoid potential quality applicants being discouraged by lists of 10 or more selection criteria
clearly specify the quantity and nature of the written information required in applications, placing an emphasis on brevity and precision
make effective use of e-recruitment and interactive online processes to attract younger recruits, to guide them in structuring the written information they provide in applications, and to manage more effectively the process by which they are assessed for selection.

The Australian Public Service Commission will prepare a short guide to APS application processes that can be provided to all applicants, helping them 'break the code' around APS selection processes and employment and classification arrangements which outsiders (and, at times, insiders) can find impenetrable and confusing. A frequently cited example is that of the differing levels of responsibility across the three levels of the SES that, although articulated in the Integrated Leadership System, are not widely understood outside the APS.

As part of their response to a tightening labour market, APS agencies may also need to consider providing more entry pathways and drawing more heavily on school leavers and other less skilled recruits. This could be combined with systematic skills development approaches such as studies assistance and traineeships. It may also result in more entry opportunities for groups such as Indigenous people and people with disabilities. Adopting an active approach to diversity is important both in maximising the potential recruitment pools and in strengthening workforce capability.

In order to open up these new employment entry pathways, APS agencies may find it necessary to change the ways they use the APS classification structure and to revisit the remuneration relativities they offer within that structure. Agencies may need to think more creatively about the capabilities they need in different business areas and how they use the classification structure more flexibly and effectively in recruiting and developing staff to fulfil those capability requirements. This will require them to move away from position- and vacancy-driven approaches to recruitment to more strategic approaches based on workforce planning and broader capacity building.

Actions: Attracting and recruiting employees to the APS

All APS agencies will identify and adopt strategies for making their recruitment processes more accessible and attractive to potential recruits.
The Australian Public Service Commission will develop a short guide to APS selection processes that can be distributed to all applicants.
A working group of agencies-guided by advice from the Australian Public Service Commission on legislative requirements and better practice-will be formed to develop guidelines for streamlined recruitment processes.
The Australian Public Service Commission will redevelop the online Public Service Gazette into an employment and recruitment portal. APS agencies will cooperate in this process by linking all advertising of vacancies on their web sites and linking these to the portal in a consistent format that will provide complete and coherent information to applicants, and will facilitate provision of interactive services, such as email alerts.
The APS will become more active in marketing the range of employment and learning opportunities available within an APS career. As a first step, all APS online or newspaper job advertisements, and all selection documentation, will feature a message emphasising the benefits of a broad career in the APS.
All APS agencies will explore base level recruitment pathways such as apprenticeships, traineeships and/or other recruitment strategies targeted at potential employees without post-school qualifications, including examining how these may help build greater workforce diversity through employment of more Indigenous people and people with disabilities.

37 Department of Employment and Workplace Relations 2005, Australian Public Service Remuneration Survey 2004, DEWR, Canberra.

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