Public Release of 2020 APS Employee Census Reports

The Australian Public Service Commissioner, Mr Peter Woolcott AO today announced the public release of 2020 agency-level and APS overall Australian Public Service (APS) Employee Census reports.

The APS Employee Census seeks the views of APS staff on a range of workforce aspects such as job satisfaction, leadership, employee engagement, and wellbeing.

“This is the second year agencies have had the option to publicly release their APS Employee Census results, with the first public release occurring in 2019”, Mr Woolcott said.

“By sharing insights from the Census we continue to demonstrate our commitment to transparency and accountability across the service”.

In 2020, the Census was shaped to better reflect the unique environment the APS faced due to COVID-19. “It was like no Census we have seen before, so it was encouraging to see nearly 80 per cent of agencies have elected to share their results publicly”, Mr Woolcott said.

The 2020 Census showed notable increases in positive perceptions amongst staff of effective communication, senior leadership, change management, and employee engagement.

Key findings from the 2020 Census results included:

• The Wellbeing index score increased since 2019 (from 67% to 70%) with employees increasingly feeling that their agencies were supporting their health and wellbeing.
• The Employee Engagement index score also increased (from 72% to 73%), with a greater proportion of respondents satisfied and committed to their work and to their agency’s goals and objectives.
• In 2020, a larger proportion of respondents (85%) indicated they believed strongly in the purpose and objectives of the APS than in 2019 (82%).
• Almost half (49%) of all respondents indicated their productivity had improved since COVID-19, while only 9% indicated that it had reduced. Most employees said they were currently working at capacity (32%) or above (59%).
• Most respondents (89%) agreed their workgroup successfully adapted to new ways of working when required. Similarly, 80% of employees agreed their workgroup had used the COVID-19 crisis to improve the way they had worked.

Agency-level Census reports will be released on relevant agency websites on 31 March 2021, with links to each available on the APS employee census 2020 page. APS overall results will also be published on this page. As with previous years, a deidentified Census dataset will also be placed on data.gov.au. 

For further information, contact media@apsc.gov.au.