Appendix 7 - Methodology

Contents

This appendix presents additional information that supports the content included in this report.

APS Employment Database

The Australian Public Service Employment Database contains employment, diversity and education details for people employed in the Australian Public Service under the authority of the Public Service Act 1999.

Information on staffing, including trends in the size, structure and composition of the APS, contributes to research and evaluation work on the changing nature of the service. This, in turn, assists agencies to formulate their people management policies and practices.

APSED is the definitive source of APS employment data, supporting strong, evidence-based APS workforce policy, people management and advice.

APSED scope and collection methodology

APSED stores the employment data of all current and former APS employees. The database was established in 1999 but contains data on APS employees from 1966. The most recent snapshot, conducted on 30 June 2023, contains records relating to 170,332 employees.

APSED is maintained by the Australian Public Service Commission. Data is supplied to APSED from the human resource systems of APS agencies.

Two types of data files are used to update and maintain APSED – movement files and snapshot files. In general, both file types contain the same data items, but they differ in purpose.

  1. Movement files are provided to the APSC from each agency every month. They are used to document changes in employment history (for example, engagements, promotions and maternity leave) for all people employed under the Public Service Act 1999 on a monthly basis.
    Changes in employment characteristics every month are recorded using movement codes. Movement files contain a record for every movement relevant to updating and maintaining employee records in APSED that has been processed in an agency’s HR system during the month. Therefore, if an employee undertakes multiple movements within a reference period, the corresponding movement files will contain multiple records for that employee. Conversely, if an employee has no movements during the reference period, they will not appear in the movement file.
  2. Snapshot files are provided to the APSC from each agency on a 6-monthly basis. They are used to verify that all the information stored in APSED is correct and current at 31 December and 30 June each year. Snapshot files contain a single record for every APS employee employed by a particular agency on 31 December and 30 June.

APSED items

Agency HR systems supply APSED with unit records containing this personal information:

  • personal particulars – Australian Government staff number, name and date of birth
  • diversity data – gender, Indigenous identification, country of birth, year of arrival, first and main languages spoken, parents’ first languages, disability status
  • employment data – classification, email address, date of engagement, employment status, standard hours, workplace postcode, any movement details and dates, operative status, previous employment, job family, job function, job role, current and previous agencies
  • educational qualifications and main fields of study.

Under section 54(1) of the Australian Public Service Commissioner’s Directions 2022, an agency head must ensure measures are in place to collect information from each employee in the agency and give collected information to the APS Commissioner. While individuals do not explicitly consent to the collection of their movement and employment data, they can choose to supply or withhold all diversity data except gender data. An agency head must allow APS employees to provide a response of ‘choose not to give this information’.

Management and administration

Agency HR systems collect relevant data items and supply these to the APSC through secure or encrypted means. Agencies are responsible for the collection, security, quality, storage, access, use, and disclosure of their HR data. They are also responsible for compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles. While agency HR systems capture detailed information on each APS employee’s pay, leave history and entitlements, these are out of scope for APSED. Only data fields supplied to the APSC are in scope.

Upon receipt, each data file is corrected in an iterative process. Once validated and transferred to the APSC, error checks on the new files are performed by the APSC against the extant data in APSED. The APSC and the agency work together to resolve these differences. Once resolved, cleaned data is incorporated into APSED.

APSED data is stored on a secure information technology system that is password protected and accessible only by a team in the APSC who have been granted access by team supervisors and trained in protecting and using these collections. Standard operating procedures dictate when personal information can be added or changed. All changes to the database are logged in an audit file.

Privacy and confidentiality

APSED complies with the APSC’s privacy policy, which sets out the kinds of information collected and held, how this information is collected and held, its purposes, and authority for its collection. The full APSC privacy policy, which includes specific information related to APSED collection, is available at Privacy | Australian Public Service Commission (apsc.gov.au). The APSC has undertaken a detailed privacy impact assessment in relation to APSED, concluding that it complies with all relevant Australian Privacy Principles.

APS Employee Census

The APS Employee Census is an annual employee perception survey of the Australian Public Service workforce. All eligible personnel employed under the Public Service Act 1999 are invited to participate. The Employee Census has been conducted since 2012 and collects APS employee opinions and perspectives on a range of topics, including employee engagement, wellbeing, leadership and general impressions of the APS.

APS Employee Census collection methodology

In 2023, the APS Employee Census was administered to eligible APS employees during 8 May to 9 June 2023. This timing was consistent with all past Employee Census administrations apart from 2020. The Employee Census was postponed to October in 2020 due to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic.

Although participation is encouraged, the APS Employee Census is voluntary. If a respondent chooses to participate, only a limited number of demographic-type questions must be answered. The remaining questions do not require a response.

APS Employee Census design

Questions from previous years were used as the basis for the 2023 APS Employee Census questionnaire to maintain a reliable longitudinal dataset. Questionnaire content was evaluated, reviewed and updated. New questions were included to address topical issues or to improve the quality of data collected. The underlying framework initially applied in 2021 was maintained. This model from the field of organisational psychology continued to define core question sets and direct the interpretation and reporting of results. While a standardised questionnaire was employed, agencies could ask their employees a limited number of additional questions.

APS Employee Census development

The 2023 APS Employee Census questionnaire included 143 individual questions. These questions were grouped into sections addressing key aspects of working for an APS agency.

Each year the content of the APS Employee Census is reviewed to ensure each question has value and meets a specific purpose. The Australian Public Service Commission researches and consults broadly to develop and select questions for inclusion. In 2023, the APSC:

  • considered strategic-level priorities coming from the Secretaries Board and other senior-level committees to ensure the Employee Census would capture appropriate information to inform these priorities
  • consulted with subject matter experts from within the APSC and other APS agencies to seek their input to question design and information requirements for supporting APS-level policies and programs
  • researched contemporary understanding of issues and options for questionnaire content
  • provided participating agencies with an opportunity to give feedback and input to questionnaire design.

The resulting questionnaire covered numerous themes and measures.

APS Employee Census delivery

In 2023 the APS Employee Census, employees were offered a number of collection methods:

  • online, through a unique link provided to each employee by email
  • telephone surveys with employees who did not have available supportive information technology to provide reasonable adjustment for their disability
  • paper-based surveys for employees who did not have access to an individual email account or did not have suitable access to the internet.

Sampling and coverage

The population for the APS Employee Census is provided by participating agencies. It is up to individual agencies to set their eligibility criteria. For example, some agencies remove employees on long-term leave, while others contact employees on long-term leave to ask if they would like to participate.

The 2023 APS Employee Census covered eligible ongoing and non-ongoing employees from 103 APS agencies. Two APS agencies elected not to participate. Invitations to participate in the 2023 APS Employee Census were sent to employees from 8 May 2023. The number of invitations was adjusted as new employees were added, separations processed, and incorrect email addresses corrected. The deadline for survey completion was 9 June 2023.

The final sample size for the 2023 APS Employee Census was 159,539. A total of 127,436 APS employees responded, giving a response rate of 80%.

Management and administration

The APS Employee Census is managed and coordinated by the APSC’s People Insights Branch. The APSC contracts an external service provider to support survey administration and reporting activities. Ipsos (formerly Big Village) was this service provider in 2023.

Public release

The public release of agency Employee Census data is aggregated and de-identified to protect individual’s privacy. The release complies with the Privacy Act 1988, and the principles and codes under the Act.

Participating APS agencies are required to publicly release their Employee Census results and an action plan on their respective websites after this report is tabled. These results can also be centrally accessed on the APSC website.

Privacy

The APSC employs specific rules around how results are reported. Such rules protect the privacy of respondents and individual agency results.

De-identification of data is undertaken in accordance with guidance provided by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

More information about how privacy is maintained can be found within the APSC Privacy Policy: Privacy | Australian Public Service Commission (apsc.gov.au).

Communication Index

The 2023 APS Employee Census addressed communication through a set of dedicated questions that contribute to an index score. The Communication Index assesses communication at individual, group and agency levels.

Employee Engagement Index

The APS Employee Census uses a model of employee engagement developed by the external service provider. This model addresses 3 attributes associated with employee engagement and measures the emotional connection and commitment employees have to working for their organisation. In this model, an engaged employee will:

  • Say – the employee is a positive advocate of the organisation.
  • Stay – the employee is committed to the organisation and wants to stay as an employee.
  • Strive – the employee is willing to put in discretionary effort to excel in their job and help their organisation succeed.

First introduced in 2017, the Say, Stay, Strive employee engagement model is flexible and the APSC has tailored questions for the APS context.

Enabling Innovation Index

The 2023 APS Employee Census addressed innovation through a set of dedicated questions that contribute to an index score. This Enabling Innovation Index score assesses whether employees feel willing and able to be innovative, and whether their agency has a culture that enables them to be so.

Leadership Senior Executive Service Manager Index

In 2022, the APS Employee Census introduced the Leadership SES Manager Index. This index assesses how employees view the leadership behaviours of their immediate SES manager in line with the APS Leadership Capability Framework.

Leadership Immediate Supervisor Index

In 2022, the APS Employee Census introduced the Leadership Immediate Supervisor Index. Similar to the Leadership SES Manager Index, this index assesses employee views of the leadership behaviours of their immediate supervisor as described in the APS Leadership Capability Framework.

Wellbeing Policies and Support Index

The Wellbeing Policies and Support Index in the APS Employee Census measures both the practical and cultural elements that allow for a sustainable and healthy working environment. The APS has long been focused on the wellbeing of its employees. As employers, APS agencies have obligations under work health and safety legislation. Together with these obligations is an acknowledgement that high performance of employees and organisations cannot be sustained without adequate levels of employee wellbeing.

Calculating and interpreting index scores

The questions comprising all APS Employee Census indices were asked on a 5-point agreement scale (Figure A7.1). To calculate the index score, each respondent’s answers to the set of questions were recoded to fall on a scale of between 0% and 100%. Recoded responses were then averaged across the 5 or more index questions to provide the index score for that respondent. An individual only receives an index score if they have responded to all questions comprising that index.

Figure A7.1: Example table used to calculate index scores (for one APS employee)

  Strongly agree Agree Neither agree or disagree Disagree Strongly disagree Score (%)
Weight 100% 75% 50% 25% 0%  
Example question 1  
Tick
      75
Example question 2  
Tick
      75
Example question 3    
Tick
    50
Example question 4      
Tick
  25
Example question 5
Tick
        100
Sum of question weights for this employee 325
Index score for this example respondent (325/5) 65

Index scores for groups of respondents are calculated by averaging the respondent scores comprising that group.

An index score on its own can provide information about the group to which it relates. Index scores, however, have the most use when compared with scores over time or between work units, organisations and demographic groups.

Treatment of responses of ‘don’t know’ and ‘not applicable’

Specific questions included within the 2023 APS Employee Census enabled respondents to provide responses of ‘don’t know’, ‘not applicable’ or similar. Responses of this nature were typically excluded from the calculation of results for inclusion within this report. This was so that results reflected respondents who expressed an informed opinion to the relevant question.

Depending on intent, other products generated from the 2023 APS Employee Census may not apply these same rules. The method in analysis and reporting will be made clear within these products.

APS Agency Survey

The Australian Public Service Agency Survey is conducted annually and collects information on a range of workforce initiatives, strategies and compliance matters, including the number and type of APS Code of Conduct breaches. APS agencies with at least 20 APS employees complete the survey. The information collected through the APS Agency Survey is used to inform workforce strategies and for other research and evaluation purposes.

Since 2002, the APS Agency Survey has been administered to APS agencies with employees employed under the Public Service Act 1999. The survey assists the APS Commissioner to fulfil a range of duties as specified in the Act. These include, but are not limited to:

  • informing the annual State of the Service Report
  • strengthening the professionalism of the APS and facilitating continuous improvement in its workforce management
  • monitoring, reviewing and reporting on APS strategies, initiatives and policies.

APS Agency Survey collection methodology

In 2023, the APS Agency Survey was administered to 99 agencies from 19 June to 28 July 2023. The response rate for 2023 was 100%, which is typical for this survey.

Each year the APS Agency Survey is sent to the contact officers nominated for each agency. These contact officers are responsible for coordinating the input from relevant areas and uploading responses to the survey. The survey requires each agency head to verify their agency’s submission for completeness and accuracy of responses.

APS Agency Survey management and administration

The People Insights Branch of the Australian Public Service Commission manages and coordinates the APS Agency Survey. The APSC contracts an external service provider to support survey administration. Ipsos (formerly Big Village) was the service provider in 2023.

Privacy

All APS Agency Survey data are stored in a secure password-protected environment. Where results are included in reporting, agency results are de-identified or aggregated.

Collection of diversity data

Concise demographic information enables the APS to produce accurate workforce descriptions to support the management of its workforce. The APSC collects personal data including diversity information concerning employees employed under the Public Service Act 1999. On engagement to the APS, employees provide personal information to their employing agencies. This information is provided to the APSC to enable the execution of the APS Commissioner’s functions.

With the exception of gender, the provision of diversity data is voluntary for APS employees. As a result, diversity rates represent the proportion of employees who identify as belonging to that diversity group, and actual diversity rates may be underestimated. The APS Employee Census, in which responses are de-identified, records higher rates for some diversity groups.

This difference is historically largest for the proportion of employees with ongoing disability. The Employee Census likely attracts higher disclosure rates as responses are not readily identifiable to individual employees, unlike the more formal human resource system. Many people are likely to regard their diversity information as sensitive information and it has long been established that people avoid reporting details they regard as sensitive. Employees may decide to withhold information when they believe it does not affect their ability to carry out their role. Some may have concerns about possible impacts to their future employment or how it will affect them socially within the workplace. The APS takes pride in its ability to foster inclusive workplaces but also respects employees’ rights to privacy regarding personal information.

Collecting gender information

Individuals may identify and be recognised within the community as a gender other than the sex they were assigned at birth or during infancy, or as a gender which is not exclusively male or female. Therefore, where gender information is collected and recorded in a personal record, individuals should be given the option to select M (Male), F (Female) or X (Indeterminate/Intersex/Unspecified).

From 2014 to 2020, respondents to the APS Employee Census could identify their gender as X (Indeterminate/Intersex/Unspecified). From 2021, this question was aligned with the updated ABS standard. This standard better provides all employees the opportunity to more accurately describe their gender as man or male, woman or female, non-binary or that they use a different term.

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