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CONCLUSIONS

While it is not possible to make a detailed overall assessment of the current capability of the APS, there are a number of capability issues that stand out as critical to its performance in the medium term. The APS is now a very different place than it was 30 years ago, and its skill and capability requirements have changed dramatically. The evidence shows that the capability of the APS has indeed increased over the years. Its workforce is more highly educated, includes people with broader experience and it continues to attract and retain high quality graduates.

Many of the capability issues facing the APS centre around the demographic challenge of the ageing of the APS workforce, including the need to encourage the retention of older workers, the need to ensure that younger workers have the appropriate capabilities to step into leadership and other key roles, and the need to ensure appropriate entry points into the APS for young people.

There is evidence that APS agencies are increasingly focussing on the need to meet these challenges both through formal workforce planning, and through the introduction of more informal measures. Nevertheless, there is considerable potential for agencies to improve their efforts in this area, and particularly to build on the preliminary work that has already begun in the area of workforce planning.

There has been some improvement in the area of performance management. The use of formal feedback has increased, and agencies appear to have made considerable progress in relation to two of the three critical factors identified by MAC as necessary for successful performance management, that is: alignment with agency goals and objectives and integration of performance management into corporate management structures. However, performance management continues to be a difficult issue for the APS. In particular, key credibility issues in the areas of rewarding performance and handling underperformance remain.

The ANAO’s audit report on performance management in the APS made two recommendations specifically directed at the APS Commission, namely that the Commission:

• consider developing examples of key indicators for APS agencies to measure organisational performance, with clearly visible links between corporate and employee performance
• take a lead role in developing a comprehensive better practice guide for agencies on performance.

The APS Commission agreed in part with these recommendations, stressing the need for agencies to develop their own approaches in a more devolved environment, and to avoid adoption of ‘off the shelf’ systems. It undertook to further explore the issues with the ANAO to ascertain how best to address the issues raised in the report and assist agencies in better aligning individual performance with overall organisational performance. These considerations will be informed by work the APS Commission is looking to undertake over the next 12 months related to identifying effective drivers of performance. The summary of the international evidence on the most important ways of improving organisational and team performance and motivating employees, which is set out in this chapter, gives a flavour of the work the Commission intends to undertake.

In 2003—04 agencies continued to develop a strategic focus on learning and development, particularly through performance management systems. Almost all agencies reported that learning and development needs are identified by the manager and individual as part of the performance management system. However, with only half of agencies aggregating data collected through performance management systems to a whole of agency perspective, some agencies may be missing a major opportunity to gain potential capability improvement.

In the area of evaluating learning and development strategies, there was still a substantial focus by agencies on evaluating the content of programs and the effectiveness of their delivery, with the amount of evaluation activity in this area increasing. With only few agencies evaluating the benefits of learning and development to individuals and/or the agency, the future challenge for agencies is to focus on this difficult issue of evaluating the benefits of learning and development to individual and agency performance. Assessing the organisational value of learning and development, along with life-long learning itself, are important in building APS-wide capability that is flexible, accountable, and responsive to the Government of the day.

In 2003—04 there remained a strong focus by agencies and the APS Commission on providing innovative leadership development activities. This continued focus on leadership development is showing measurable improvement in the APS leadership–with increases in the proportions of employees in 2003—04 rating their immediate supervisor as ‘high’ in the area of ‘achieves results’ and in the area of ‘cultivates productive working relationships’. Another pleasing result this year was the substantial increase in the ratio of participants attending the Orientation to the SES program compared to the number of SES engagements and promotions (65% in 2003—04 compared to 50% in 2002—03).

To assist in further enhancing leadership capability, the launch of the ILS represents an exciting advance in leadership development in the APS, and the State of the Service report will assess the success of this initiative over the coming years. With an ageing APS workforce and the impending ‘changing of the guard’, it is imperative that leadership development remains a priority for agencies and the APS Commission.

The task of building whole of government capabilities is essential to the effective functioning of government and relates to all of the other issues discussed in this chapter. It is essential that agencies continue to focus on and respond to whole of government issues in their workforce planning, their performance management systems, their learning and development framework and in developing effective leadership capability.

Particularly important in this context is for the Service to be able to engage with external players, including communities and those delivering services on the ground. Greater interaction, including mobility in employment, with these stakeholders is likely to increase in importance.