The Strategic Centre for Leadership, Learning and Development

What is the Strategic Centre for Leadership, Learning and Development?

The Strategic Centre for Leadership, Learning and Development was established in July 2010 in response to recommendations in Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for the Reform of Australian Government Administration, which identified a requirement to improve talent management, and strengthen learning and development to ensure a sustainable APS (see Why was the Strategic Centre established for further information). The Strategic Centre is a group within the Australian Public Service Commission.

The Strategic Centre is initially focused on leadership and talent management, including strategy development, system design, intervention design and thought leadership for the Australian Public Service. In future, the Strategic Centre will evaluate and quality assure leadership and learning programs, procure and manage select programs for the APS, and will expand its focus to include core skills development.

The Strategic Centre is a Group within the Australian Public Service Commission. The Group Manager is Dr Jane Gunn. The Strategic Centre works to an Advisory Board , which provides guidance and direction.

Current priorities (September 2011)

  • Pilot Band 2 Talent Development Program:
    • Nominations open September 19th and close October 21st
    • Development Planning workshop 28 – 29 November
    • Program commences February 2012
    • Evaluation mid 2012 and end program
  • SES orientation program
    • Initial consultation complete
    • Prototype designed
    • Further consultation & detailed design complete for launch in second quarter calendar year 2012
  • Benefits realisation measurement, MOU reporting and program evaluation plans
  • Commence design and planning for 2012 annual leadership & core skills strategy

What does the Strategic Centre do?

objectives

The Strategic Centre has been established by the APSC to ensure that the Australian Public Service has a contemporary, systematic approach to learning & development, leadership development, and talent management, built around APS needs. The Strategic Centre’s work will help provide confidence that there is:

  • Consistent, quality and cost effective development of the core skills of Australian Public Servants.
  • Contemporary leadership development practice leading to highly capable leaders.
  • The ability to fill critical roles on a sustainable basis.

The Strategic Centre will begin transitioning from design to operations from July 2010. In operation, the Strategic Centre will deliver:

  • Leadership Development Strategy (2011) and Core Skills Strategy (2012)
  • Aligned, contemporary programs
  • Intensive development for high potential leaders
  • Quality assured providers
  • Central procurement of select programs / interventions (where agreed by the Secretaries Board)
  • Rigorous evaluation of the leadership development strategy and leadership development programs / interventions
  • Thought leadership, support and advice for Agencies.

Why was the Strategic Centre established?

The Strategic Centre has been established in response to external pressures on the APS workforce, changes in contemporary practices in leadership, learning & development and in response to stakeholder feedback and current APS activity in these areas.

It is evident that a capable and skilled workforce will be critical in meeting the future challenges presented by changing demographics, citizen expectations and policy complexity. Further, the APS will be faced with demographic challenges, including an aging workforce and skills shortages, both of which will be exacerbated by more intense competition for ‘knowledge workers’ as the Australian economy evolves. For example, 70% of the leadership group of the APS is due to retire over the next ten years.

Addressing these challenges is not new; the APS has been investing in improving its workforce management for decades. However, evidence shows that there is the opportunity to improve leadership development and talent management, through targeted and sustained interventions, which leverage economies of scale across the Service.

Further, there have been substantial advances in recent years in leadership development theory and practice. Increasingly leadership and management and development activity is being directly linked to business outcomes and efforts to understand the impact of these activities is being investigated. For example, a Corporate Leadership Council Human Resources study (2008)1 identified that leaders with top leadership skills are 50% more likely to substantially outperform revenue expectations than those with poor leadership skills and 80% more likely to outperform profit expectations. Through effective learning and development planning, we can anticipate in advance the required skills and develop programs to build and enhance the capabilities required of our workforce.

Over recent times, stakeholder feedback suggests that, while the public sector was once considered a leader, in recent years, the Australian Public Service has ‘lost its edge’ in leadership development. Additionally, the APSC thought leadership and quality assurance role is perceived by some stakeholders, to have been compromised by its learning and development fee for service activity. The Strategic Centre has been established to focus on strategy and thought leadership. It will seek to partner with academic institutions to develop public sector thought leadership in these areas, and will operate as a separate entity from the APSC’s service provision arm.

Talent management is a systematic approach to ensuring a sustainable pool of talented people for critical roles, including the identification of roles that are critical to the business and the identification and management of high potential people from which these roles can be filled. Talent management strategies recognise that some capabilities (skills, knowledge, behaviours) are unique and that some jobs in organisations require more of these unique skills than other jobs. Having targeted development processes in place to build these unique skills sets has the capacity to create competitive advantage for an organisation. Many private sector organisations, and the public sectors in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Victoria have all engaged in the development of talent management systems. Research has shown that successful high potential programs lead to better organisational performance than that of peers not engaging in these programs. Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) research conducted in private sector firms indicated that successful execution of talent development programs directly contributes to increased organizational effectiveness and productivity, leading to up to as much as a 15.4% advantage in total shareholder return2.

While talent management practices have been in place in the private sector for almost a decade, talent management is not currently done systematically in the APS. The State of the Service Report (2009-10) reveals that only 10% of agencies reported having an active talent management strategy this year, similar to last year’s result of 8%. A further 31% reported developing talent management strategies this year. The Strategic Centre will work to develop an approach to talent management that can be used by Agencies, and, over time will manage an APS wide talent management program.

Strategic Centre Advisory Board

The Strategic Centre works to an Advisory Board, which is responsible for providing strategic advice, oversight and governance. The Board members are:

  • Mr Stephen Sedgwick, Commissioner, APSC (Chair)
  • Mr Andrew Metcalfe AO, Secretary, Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
  • Ms Kathryn Campbell CSC, Secretary, Department of Human Services.
  • Mr Finn Pratt PSM, Secretary, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
  • Ms Lisa Paul PSM AO, Secretary, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
  • Mr Michael D’Ascenzo AO, Commissioner of Taxation
  • Ms Robyn Kruck AM, Australian Mental Health Commissioner
  • Mr Chris Blake, Executive General Manager, People and Community, Australia Post
  • Ms Ann Sherry AO, CEO, Carnival Australia
  • Dr Jeff Harmer, AO, Former Secretary, Department of Families, Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

Footnotes

1. CLC Human Resources, Improving Business Leader Effectiveness Survey, Corporate Executive Board, 2008

2. Corporate Leadership Council (2005) Realizing the Full Potential of Rising Talent

News

APS Learning and Development Community of Practice

Pilot SES Band 2 Talent Development Program

SES Orientation Program refresh

Leadership Development Strategy

Summary of findings from current state and research phases

Contacting the Strategic Centre

Strategic Centre for Leadership Learning and Development Collaboration site - strategiccentre.govspace.gov.au

To register as a member of this site, please email us.

email: strategiccentre@apsc.gov.au

Strategic Centre Events

Learning and Development Community of Practice Forum

Forum: Evaluation of learning and development interventions
Date: Wednesday 7 March 2012
Time: 9.15am to 12.00pm

Agenda and registration details can be download from our APS Learning and Development Community of Practice page: Community of Practice page/Agenda.