Assurance
Embedding the APS Values4 noted that agency-specific accountability and assurance mechanisms can be used to help sustain compliance with the Values and the Code.
The Code itself is an important control mechanism that operates to support the Values in each agency. To be effective the Code requires a workplace culture in which employees understand the Code, its implications and their responsibilities in relation to it. The results of the employee survey that explore this more fully are discussed in Chapter 6, which deals with ‘Personal Behaviour’. Similar to findings last year, the chapter reveals that:
- The vast majority of APS employees are familiar with the Code and believe that it is relevant to their workplace.
- Most employees had also been told that they could report suspected misconduct to authorised people.
- There continues to be a degree of circumspection amongst employees about whether they would report a suspected breach of the Code. Of the 11% of employees who reported that they had witnessed a suspected serious breach of the Code in the last year, only half reported the suspected breach.
Staff Surveys
Staff surveys that ask questions directly or indirectly about the Values provide another useful quality assurance mechanism to monitor adherence to the Values throughout the agency and to improve agency practice.
The agency survey indicated that 34% of agencies conducted an agency-wide staff survey in 2004–05, the same proportion as in 2003–04. Fifty-six per cent of agencies were proposing to conduct staff surveys in 2005–06, with 20% of agencies conducting a survey in 2004–05 and also planning to do so in 2005–06. Large agencies continued to indicate the greatest use of staff surveys (52% in 2004–05 compared to 38% in 2003–04). Small agencies continued to report the least use of staff surveys with the result remaining stable at 31%. The proportion of medium agencies that surveyed their staff during the year declined to 23% in 2004–05 following a significant increase from 12% in 2002–03 to 37% in 2003–04.
Eighteen agencies (22%) had not conducted a survey in 2004–05, and reported no firm intention of doing so in the next two years. One agency indicated an intention after absorption into another organisation.5
4 Australian Public Service Commission, Embedding the APS Values, August 2003, <http://www.apsc.gov.au/values/values.htm>
5 Machinery of Government changes and other structural changes will have some effect on changes from year to year.
