Navigating the complexities of establishing a new government agency is challenging, especially one responsible for driving cultural change across Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces (CPW). We spoke with Parliamentary Workplace Support Service (PWSS) Chief People Officer, Scott Mischke, to learn how the agency was established, psychological safety is maintained, and a culture of integrity was embedded from the start.
How the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service was established
The PWSS was established as an independent statutory agency on 1 October 2023 through its own legislation, the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service Act 2023 and responds to Recommendation 11 of the Set the Standard Report: An Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces. The legislation enables a HR function to support Parliamentarians, in their role as individual employers, and their staff.
By reducing inherent complexity across HR functions, supporting parliamentarians and their teams, the PWSS contributes to building safe and respectful workplaces within Parliament. Mr Mischke is proud of the intent and function of the team, explaining “the old expression of HR trying to get a seat at the table isn’t really applicable to the PWSS, as for all intents and purposes the agency is the table.
“The PWSS is the only public service agency I am aware of whose remit is dedicated to providing end-to-end human resource functions. This puts us in a rather unique position to achieve pragmatic outcomes for our clients by using best-practice methodology. I would say we have been able to attract exceptional HR expertise and capability and with a commitment to providing parliamentarians and their teams with HR service delivery excellence.
“We consider ourselves to be trusted partners whose credibility stems from the depth of our experience, the depth of our understanding of the operating context of CPWs and our ability to provide solutions focused advice.”
The recruitment approach
Providing HR service delivery excellence in a complex and sensitive working environment required attracting the right people capable of building a strong culture of respect, safety and integrity. With this in mind, it was important to firstly establish the following internal PWSS initiatives for its own workforce:
- Fostering psychological safety so staff have the confidence to speak up and raise concerns early. Being a small agency with a flat organisational structure means SES officers are always visible and available by maintaining an open-door policy.
- Developing a PWSS Craft in consultation with existing staff, which outlines mindsets and behaviours needed to be successful in their respective roles within the PWSS. The Craft will be the basis for future recruitment and assist with the development of future internal professional development offerings.
- Maintaining good record keeping, demonstrating accountability in decision making and recommendations.
- Requiring a conflict of interest declaration form to be completed by candidates in strong contention for employment prior to an offer of employment. This ensures any conflicts can be appropriately managed upfront.
- Ensuring the requirement to undertake pre-employment integrity checks for existing APS employees and the process for all staff to maintain a baseline clearance with AGSVA was in place.
The PWSS undertook a range of recruitment approaches including bulk recruitment rounds, individual recruitment processes for specialised skillsets, an affirmative measure round for First Nations employees, secondments from other agencies, and section 26 transfers.
As a new entity it was necessary to run processes in parallel to bring on staff quickly. Unfortunately, due to the timing of the PWSS establishment, it was too late in the process to secure a HR School Leaver, however, there is a HR graduate who commenced in February. Mr Mischke notes, “it is my view that graduates and school leavers, amongst the other valuable entry level programs, are an important talent pipeline and I expect we will take several placements from these programs next year. “
As a new agency, recruitment activity focused on attracting expert level practitioners primarily at the Executive Level 1 classification, to ensure staff have the required judgement, expertise, and practical experience in applying and translating relevant formal qualifications to establish and embed PWSS practices.
Employee Value Proposition and The Strategic Commissioning Framework
Following the development of the PWSS Craft, they will turn their attention to the development of an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) for the agency. The PWSS intends to build on the APS EVP which was launched last year and contexualise it for their unique operating environment.
The Strategic Commissioning Framework aligns with the PWSS approach to build specialist in-house expertise across all HR functions. The PWSS have prioritised the in-sourcing of their learning facilitator and executive coaching roles, which are typically outsourced functions across the APS. The agency has a mix of full-time, part-time, and casual staff which provides them with flexibility to respond quickly to emerging pressures.
Support and mental health programs
While the PWSS attracted expert level practitioners, the agency’s unique function managing sensitive HR issues within a complex workplace environment which attracts significant levels of public interest and media attention means the psychological safety of their practitioners is critical. Mr Mischke is well known for advocating for the team and following the adage “if airline safety demonstrations have taught us one thing it is to ‘put your oxygen mask on first’ and that is something we must keep in the front of our minds as HR practitioners.”
Some of the strategies PWSS staff have found most useful include the suite of internal professional development offerings, group reflective practice, debriefing sessions, coaching, and clinical supervisory sessions associated with, and often a requirement of, those types of professional qualifications. The Louder Than Words: An APS Integrity Action plan includes a useful graphic outlining practical approaches all teams can adopt to build psychological safety at work.
In addition to these strategies, the PWSS provides:
- 24/7 counselling support, staffed by an internal team of qualified social workers, counsellors, and psychologists.
- Local arrangements with psychologists, private practices will accept corporate referrals at short notice. This has been invaluable where a higher level of support is required than is available through the standard EAP service.
- Evidence-based mental health coaching through NewAccess workplaces, a service developed by Beyond Blue in partnership with Comcare.
- Support through the following programs: Mental Health First Aid, Accidental Counsellor, APS Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Unit’s Compassionate Foundation Suite, Ethical Bystander and Conflict Prevention and De-escalation training.
Mr Mischke further explained, “the creation of a statutory agency is no mean feat! We have drawn on the expertise, policies, guidelines, and processes of several APS agencies which has allowed us to leverage off their success and ensure our approaches are well informed. As we are a small agency, we are also bringing in shared services for most of our transactional corporate functions, which will help us to achieve economies of scale and reduce key person risks.”