Chapter 3: Embedding the APS Values and Code of Conduct
Commitment
The Values in Agencies project concluded that promoting and upholding the Values requires commitment from the top reflected throughout the organisation. Employees from the six agencies which took part in the project gave consistent messages about the importance of leadership in ensuring that the Values and the Code are taken seriously. These included that leaders must have the highest standards of integrity, that the SES and senior managers must set the right example, that leaders perceived to be modelling the Values are strongly supported, and that unethical behaviour by leaders and managers would cause employees to consider the Values and Code as mere rhetoric and to lose confidence in them. Research also pointed to a correlation between the perception that senior managers adhere to agency values and job satisfaction levels among employees.
The employee survey conducted for the State of the Service report contained two questions asked of SES level employees only. The first of these asked SES employees whether, in 2002–03, their agency head had communicated to them the importance of acting in accordance with the APS Values. The second asked whether their agency head had, in 2002–03, communicated to them the importance of developing in other staff an understanding of the APS Values. A high proportion of the SES respondents to the employee survey (80%) indicated that, in 2002–03, their agency head had communicated to them the importance of acting in accordance with the APS Values. A slightly smaller proportion of SES employees (72%) indicated that, during the year, their agency head had communicated to them the importance of developing in other staff an understanding of the APS Values.
These are encouraging results overall, which reflect a good level of appreciation of the importance of leadership in fostering a values-based culture, though there is clearly room for improvement.
Commitment to the APS Values is also expressed through the integration of the Values into induction activities, leadership and development programs aimed at leaders and managers, and by making available to all employees learning and development programs that address their responsibilities under the Values and the Code. In broad terms, the evidence suggests increased effort by agencies to promote the Values and Code amongst their employees in the last year, but there is still some way to go to ensure all employees are familiar with their responsibilities under the PS Act.
Nearly all agencies (96%) are continuing to take steps to inform new employees about the Values and the Code as part of induction orientation. There continues, however, to be less effort devoted to supporting a consciousness and understanding of the Values and the Code among employees who are not new. Just over half of all agencies (55%) reported that they held sessions on how the Values and Code should operate in practice. The majority of these agencies indicated that this training was targeted at all employees. Twelve agencies reported that 50% or more of the total number of agency employees participated in such training in 2002–03. Large agencies indicated greater use of sessions on how the Values and Code should operate in practice (86%) than medium and small agencies (46% and 44% respectively). Online training on the APS Values and the Code was provided by a small number of agencies (15%). Most of this training was directed at all employees, but in some cases new employees were the target group.
Responses to the employee survey indicate that 53% of employees had participated at some time in their APS career in training that included an emphasis on the APS Values. There was a wide spread of results for employees in the 21 large agencies for which valid agency-specific results were available, varying between 30% and 78%. Those with the highest participation rates were DIMIA (78%), the Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTARS) (68%) and DVA (67%). Of all APS employees who had participated in such training, just under half (47%) participated during 2002–03. The three large agencies with the highest participation rates in the last year were DVA (89%), Defence (75%) and DOTARS (68%). Agencies with high participation rates (either overall or more recently) required employees to participate rather than left participation to self-nomination.
A large proportion of agencies (81%) used some other approach to learning about the APS Values and the Code. Responses to an open-ended question that asked agencies to specify what the other approaches were indicated that the distribution of relevant material, particularly APS Commission’s Values and Code bookmarks, and the display of posters and pamphlets were the most common. Six agencies also indicated that they make information available on their intranet. As agencies were not specifically asked whether they make information about the Values and the Code available on their intranet, it is likely that the actual number of agencies that provide this information is much higher.
Indicators of the success that an agency has had in creating commitment to the APS Values include:
- the views of employees on whether the agency has a clear set of values about the behaviour expected of employees
- the level of familiarity of employees with the Values and the Code
- the views of employees on the relevance of the Values and the Code
- employees’ confidence that others in the organisation act in accordance with the Values.
Most employees (89%) felt that their agency had a clear set of values about the behaviour expected of employees. The difference between the views of employees in the 21 large agencies was not great, varying from 80% to 97%.
Most employees who responded to the employee survey were either familiar with the APS Values and the Code of Conduct or had heard of them but were not fully familiar with their detail. Only very small percentages of employees who responded to the survey had not heard of the APS Values or Code (two per cent and one per cent respectively). Of those reporting familiarity with the Values and Code, the majority rated their levels of familiarity as high (47% and 46% respectively) or moderate (46% and 44% respectively), and only small percentages rated their levels of familiarity as low (7% and 10% respectively).
The proportions of employees in the 21 large agencies who responded that they were familiar with the Values and the Code of Conduct varied quite widely, between approximately 61% and 91%. The three large agencies with the highest percentages of employees who responded that they were familiar with the Values and the Code were DFAT, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS3) and DVA.
The results of the employee survey show that familiarity with the Values and the Code of Conduct varies according to age, length of service, and classification level, with older employees, those with more service, and those at higher classification levels reporting the highest levels of familiarity. Not surprisingly, employees who are familiar with the APS Values have a higher level of agreement that their agency has a clear set of values about the behaviour expected of employees than those employees who are not familiar with the Values.
The Code of Conduct requires that APS employees must at all times behave in a way that upholds the APS Values and the integrity and good reputation of the Service. APS employees need to have not only a broad understanding of what the Values are, but also how to apply them in the performance of their duties. In an environment where there are fewer rules and there is greater scope for discretion in decision making, the Values can guide employees to make the most appropriate decisions in all circumstances. In response to the employee survey, most employees rated the Values as highly relevant to their organisation’s business, and only three per cent of employees rated their relevance as low. Relevance of both the Values and the Code to the employee’s own daily work was also rated highly by large percentages of employees, with the variation in responses from employees in the 21 large agencies ranging from 64% to 88% in relation to the Values, and from 71% to 92% in relation to the Code. The large agencies in which the highest percentages of employees rated relevance in relation to daily work as high were DFAT, Centrelink and CSA for the Values, and DFAT, ATSIS and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) for the Code.
Views on relevance of the Values and the Code to daily work vary according to gender, location, and level, with a higher percentage of women, employees who are not in the ACT, and employees at SES classification levels rating relevance as high. Views also vary according to familiarity with the Values and the Code, as higher percentages of employees who rate their levels of familiarity as high, compared with those who rate their levels of familiarity as moderate or low, also rate the relevance of both the Values and the Code to daily work as high.
The level of agreement by employees that other employees act in accordance with the APS Values is generally quite high. Levels of agreement that colleagues and immediate managers act in accordance with the Values are very similar (around 80%). Responses indicate lower levels of confidence that the most senior managers act in accordance with the Values (63%). This may largely be an issue of distance from the activities of the most senior managers. It does, however, highlight the importance of senior leaders demonstrating visible and strong commitment to the APS Values.
Employees who rate their level of familiarity with the APS Values as high are more likely to agree that colleagues in their immediate work area, immediate managers and the most senior managers act in accordance with the Values. Amongst the 21 large agencies the variation was greatest in relation to agreement with the statement that the most senior managers act in accordance with the Values. Responses from two large agencies showed the rate of agreement was less than 50%, including one of 40%; the highest rate of agreement for a large agency was 79%, from employees in CRS Australia (CRS).
The results generally support the effectiveness of strong action by the leadership cadre in agencies to promote the Values, but the variations in survey results also suggest the challenge varies with the business responsibilities of the agency. Those with more sensitive relationships with clients and stakeholders need to promote the Values more firmly, and communicate more clearly and consistently with employees how ethical dilemmas should be and are being managed.
3 Previously part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).