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MANAGEMENT

Consistent with last year’s results, responses to the agency survey indicate that most agencies have incorporated a commitment to the APS Values in a variety of corporate documents. Most agencies (91%) include such a commitment in their CA with all medium agencies doing so compared to 86% of large agencies and 87% of small agencies. Eighty-six per cent of agencies also include a commitment to the APS Values in their AWAs, representing a substantial increase on the 74% reported last year.

More than half of all agencies reported that they had expressed such a commitment in their corporate plan (60%) or were in the process of doing so (11%). There was a wide variation in the proportion of small, medium and large agencies that had incorporated this commitment in their corporate plan (46%, 59% and 86% respectively). These results are broadly consistent with last year’s results.

More than two-thirds of all agencies (69%) have developed their own agency-specific values, principles or behaviours. The Commission has no concern about this, so long as these complement and reinforce the APS Values, while giving emphasis to those APS Values of most particular relevance to the agency’s business.

Just over a third of all agencies reflect the APS Values in their service/client charters (36%); this was much more common among large agencies (67%). The number of agencies that reflect the Values in their CEIs has risen significantly in the last year, from 40% to 49%, with results varying from 31% for small agencies to 67% for large agencies. This is encouraging, suggesting the APS Commission’s advocacy of this approach is having some influence.

As Embedding the APS Values notes, one of the critical strategies to support the hardwiring of the APS Values is their incorporation in the agency’s broad performance management arrangements. In considering individual performance, 80% of agencies require that an assessment be made about the extent to which employees demonstrate and consistently apply some or all of the APS Values and/or agency-specific values/behaviours. This represents a significant increase, and very positive development, since last year when the equivalent figure for this indicator was 61%. Large agencies (95%) were more likely than small (74%) or medium (78%) agencies to have adopted this approach.

Table 7.2: Mechanisms used to support assessment against the Values

Source: Agency survey

The most common mechanism adopted to ensure that agency performance management arrangements address the Values was their inclusion in performance assessments, a strategy that seems to have increased substantially in general practice since 2002—03. Seventy-eight per cent of agencies reported having such arrangements, with a further seven per cent of agencies reporting that they were under development. The equivalent figures in 2002—03 were 61% and 15% respectively.

Agencies appear to have adopted a mixture of approaches to integrating Values in performance assessment, and it is particularly pleasing to note that the majority of agencies (60%) reported assessing their staff against all the APS Values. Large agencies (76%) were more likely to report this practice than medium (48%) and small (59%) agencies. Sixty-five per cent of relevant agencies (i.e. those that have developed agency-specific values, principles or behaviours) reported assessing their staff against their agency-specific values, and just under half of all relevant agencies reported that employees are assessed against both the APS Values and their agencyspecific values.

The increase in agency activity in using behavioural indicators and addressing commitment to the Values in performance assessments is mirrored in the results from the employee survey. These results indicate that for almost 80% of relevant employees, performance assessment included discussion of behaviour. Employee responses indicate that, in their most recent performance assessment, a higher proportion of relevant employees were assessed against agency-specific values (43%) than all the APS Values as a set (32%), the APS Values most relevant to the job (22%) or other behavioural indicators (6%).

This year confirmed the trend observed in last year’s report that employees who indicated that their behaviour had been included in their most recent performance assessment also had a higher level of agreement that their agency had a clear set of values about the behaviour expected of employees. A higher proportion of employees who had been assessed against all the APS Values, the most relevant APS Values, or agency-specific values, compared with those who had not, were more familiar with the APS Values, and were more likely to have rated their level of familiarity as high.

The results of this year’s employee survey also confirm last year’s finding that assessment of behaviour as part of performance appraisal is related to higher levels of agreement that colleagues, immediate managers and the most senior managers act in accordance with the Values.