Managing and sustaining the APS workforce

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

Investing in identifying and developing future leaders

As indicated in earlier chapters, 70% of current SES officers and 55% of existing EL 2s are now aged 45 or over. They will need to be progressively replaced over the next five to 10 years and beyond by a new generation of APS leaders who will typically have advanced to management levels more quickly and have worked in fewer agencies than did their predecessors.

Chapter 3 showed that executive level officers-the key feeder group for the SES- are now significantly less experienced within the APS than their counterparts of 10 or 20 years ago; a growing proportion are recruited directly from outside the APS (20% of EL 1s in 2003-04).

Many of the potential future leaders currently working within the APS are also quite young. At 30 June 2004, there were 1200 executive level staff aged under 30, threequarters of whom were based in Canberra. Others may be among the growing numbers of mature entrants to the APS who have significant experience in other sectors, but who might need to be better grounded in APS processes before they feel ready to apply for advancement to senior management levels.

Given the likely growth in alternative career options for such highly-skilled staff, and the removal of superannuation and other barriers to their moving in and out of the APS at career points that suit them, these potential leaders may require active mentoring and targeted development to encourage them to remain in the APS and rise to the EL 2 and SES levels.

Examples from APS agencies and other sectors

A number of APS agencies have implemented systematic succession planning and leadership development strategies.

APS: The ATO, for example, operates an accelerated development programme for SES and executive level officers who have been identified as having high potential to develop as leaders. The programme features group and individual development, including workshops, personal coaching from external experts, and job and project placements to ensure participants develop the breadth of experience needed for success at senior levels. The identification and needs assessment phase uses the Career Development Assessment Centre process for executive level officers, and interviews, psychometric tests and 360-degree surveys for the SES. Senior ATO officers provide mentoring and review participants' progress. The programme links into the succession management framework to ensure the ATO has a strong pool of candidates for senior leadership positions to meet current and future challenges.

United Kingdom: The UK Civil Service has a longstanding programme, known as 'Fast Stream', which aims to rapidly develop staff and equip them with the expertise and knowledge they need to undertake the most senior roles in the civil service. After a rigorous selection process, successful candidates are provided with intensive training and development in the range of technical, managerial and policy capabilities and skills deemed necessary for leadership and management roles in the civil service. The aim is for participants to advance over a period of anything between six months and five years to a point just below senior management levels.

The programme is open to graduate recruits participating in programmes similar to those offered in APS agencies, and also to more experienced civil servants. For new entrants to the civil service, the programme operates rather like an extended graduate programme of the type offered by some private sector organisations in Australia. One of the strengths of the programme is that it facilitates streaming of career paths, so that those who believe they have the potential to reach higher levels can self-select to compete for access to the programme and, if successful, can be guided in managing their career path to the top. Staff are also able to move out of the fast stream back into the general civil service workforce. This enables leadership development opportunities to be better targeted at those who will derive the greatest benefit from them. There is also an intensive leadership development programme-the 'High Potential Development Scheme'-that is open to middle managers.

The UK Cabinet Office reports that retention rates within the civil service for participants in the 'Fast Stream' programme are very high, and the programme is supported by agencies as a means of attracting and retaining some of the best and brightest recruits to the civil service.

New Zealand: The leadership programme in New Zealand's public service aims to develop leaders to fill all senior and influential positions, not just at the top levels. Participants are chosen on the basis of their leadership aspirations and capabilities and their personal qualities. The programme features experiential learning, courses, coaching and mentoring, peer learning groups and programmed reading.

Like the UK programme, the nature of the learning process and the time required to complete the programme varies according to the differing requirements of individuals, but has an upper limit of five years. The programme has been recently expanded beyond existing and newly promoted managers to include lower level staff with the potential to advance to leadership levels. This change was made on the basis of findings that fast tracking people with high potential into senior leadership levels would be facilitated by intervention earlier in their career to ensure they had sufficient breadth and depth of experience in a variety of roles.

Canada: The Canadian Government operates an 'Accelerated Executive Development' programme that aims to identify and accelerate the development and career advancement of middle managers who demonstrate the potential to move into the senior levels of government administration. Self-identification is a key element of the process, although applicants must also demonstrate leadership competencies and a record of high quality past performance. The programme was introduced in the late 1990s to overcome a scarcity of mobility and promotional opportunities for public service executives, and low levels of representation of certain population groups at senior leadership levels.

Issues

In a tightening labour market, the APS may need to provide some direct encouragement to its best and brightest younger employees to seek opportunities to assist their development and advancement to leadership levels. Otherwise, it may lose them to alternative employers who are prepared to make a more specific commitment to develop and advance them to higher levels.

However, the APS has traditionally been reluctant to single out and fast-track a cadre of young high-flyers for more intensive development due to concerns about the perceived elitism of such processes, and the risks of targeting the wrong staff or limiting the potential pool. Agencies also consider that many of the goals of specific leadership development schemes can be met more effectively through effective performance management and feedback arrangements for all staff, possibly supplemented by structured career development schemes.

APS-wide approaches to leadership development are currently being revitalised, based upon the Integrated Leadership System. The Australian Public Service Commission is developing new EL and SES development programmes to be offered in an APS-wide collaborative framework.

The Australia and New Zealand School of Government provides further education opportunities to help potential future APS leaders enhance their policy and management skills. The Career Development Assessment Centre will continue to provide an avenue for agencies to assess the leadership capabilities of the staff in their SES feeder group.

Agencies will need to draw upon this emerging menu of leadership development opportunities in constructing pathways for the potential leaders they identify.

Portfolio Secretaries will issue an explicit policy statement emphasising that agencies must give a high priority to this task, or else risk being forced increasingly to draw from a cadre of middle-level staff who are insufficiently qualified and experienced to perform leadership roles.

Actions: Investing in identifying and developing future leaders

All APS agencies will develop systematic approaches to developing potential future leaders, including making use of the emerging APS-wide menu of career development options.
The MAC will issue a statement on expectations of the SES, covering the need for a greater APS-wide focus on leadership capabilities and development to ensure that the 70% of SES and 55% of EL 2s aged over 45 can be adequately replaced over the next five to 10 years.

Start of page

Downloads

Contents

On our website:

Site help

Site menu