Attraction, recruitment and retention

The attraction, recruitment, and retention of employees from diversity groups plays a key role in building a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

Affirmative recruitment measures

Inclusive processes allow candidates to best demonstrate their capability, removing barriers so all applicants can be assessed and compared fairly on merit.  Affirmative measures is one method designed to remove barriers for First Nations people or people with disability (or a specific form of disability) thereby increasing their representation in the APS. Affirmative measures are set out in the Australian Public Service Commissioner’s Directions 2022 and monitored through the positions advertised on APSJobs. It has become common in recent years for these to be used with graduate, entry level programs and large intakes of staff. This has resulted in strengthened diversity numbers at the graduate and entry levels. Affirmative measures can be used with all advertised positions. The use of Affirmative measure – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment increased from 1.2% to 3% between 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years The use of Affirmative measure – Disability employment increased from 0.2% to 0.8% between 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years The RecruitAbility scheme is also an Affirmative measure and can be applied to any position. It is designed to give people with disability, who are found suitable at the first stage of recruitment, a chance to progress to the second phase, whether that be an interview or other form of recruitment activity. RecruitAbility is the most commonly used affirmative measure.	Change in use of recruitment measures as proportion of total advertised positions

Pathways into the APS need to be clear, simple and able to target specific diversity groups. Affirmative measures enable agencies to increase the diversity of their workforce. While the use of these affirmative recruitment measures is on the rise, there is still room to grow.

Improvements

Ongoing work regarding Affirmative measures has found areas that could be improved. A recent APSC survey looked at the issues around Affirmative measures from both a candidate’s, HR manager and selection panel’s perspective. To gain a wide range of views, multiple distribution methods were used to attract participants (articles in the Diversity & Inclusion newsletter, internal agency distribution by steering committee members, etc.). The survey targeted people with experience in Affirmative Measure recruitment processes, as HR practitioners, candidates, hiring managers, panel members or any related role.

39% of the 107 candidate respondents reported having a negative experience in a previous Affirmative measure – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recruitment process.

Improvements suggested by applicants:

• more assistance and information on the evidence required
• more information upfront for candidates to understand what is required of them
• remove the hiring basis of “has done this task before” to allow for upskilling on-the-job
• greater transparency, i.e. how many roles will be available.

Improvements suggested by panel members:

• remove the need for evidence
• place targets on departments to use Affirmative measure recruitment
• increase uptake of affirmative recruitment measures by improving employee familiarity and confidence with using these recruitment programs
• in-agency support after the recruitment process.

Increase uptake of affirmative recruitment measures by improving employee familiarity and confidence with using these recruitment programs.

Intention to leave

One in ten employees indicated they wanted to leave their current positions as soon as possible. Employees from some diversity groups are more likely to report an intention to leave.

Employees with disability report wanting to leave their agency as soon as possible at a higher rate than any other diversity group. This trend is also reflected in workforce separations recorded in the APS Employee Database, with employees with disability separating from their agency at a much higher rate than employees without disability.

The reasons employees from diversity groups report higher intention to leave their agency or increase rates of separation are not well understood. Improving retention of employees from diversity groups will require developing a better understanding of why they are choosing to leave. 

In the financial year 2020-2021, 5.5% of the workforce separated from their role. Both First Nations employees (7.3%) and employees with disability (7.8%) had separated at higher rates than other employees.

	The reasons employees from diversity groups report higher intention to leave their agency or increase rates of separation are not well understood. Improving retention of employees from diversity groups will require developing a better understanding of why they are choosing to leave.
	Exit interviews are an easy way to ask staff why they have chosen to leave the agency. This will provide potential information on avenues for change that, once made, may increase the likelihood of retention. However, in order to be useful the data needs to be consistently collected and analysed.

Employee representation

2021 Performance against existing targets

+ 2021 APS Employee Census
* June 2021 APS Employee Database

Factors that influence employee representation statistics

Barriers reported by agencies^

Diversity and inclusion strategies, policies, and action plans are used to drive increase in employee representation. 

98% of agencies reported that they would action at least one strategy deliverable for the APS-wide diversity and inclusion strategies^.

^ 2021 Agency Survey

Case Study – Indigenous Employee Value Proposition

When considering the development of a public sector Indigenous Employee Value Proposition (IEVP) the Inclusion Group APSC, decided that a one-size-fits-all approach was not feasible due to the complexity of the Commonwealth and the diversity of First Nations peoples. The concept of a customisable IEVP tool seemed a more useful idea; assisting recruitment specialists and hiring managers to create compelling campaigns relevant to their agency, targeted for Affirmative measures (AM) - Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander employment.

Human Centred Design principles were applied to the development of the tool concept and the initial consultation phase, which involved detailed conversations with seventeen Commonwealth agencies. We heard that the tool would only be as useful as the content sitting behind it and that the content would need to be robust and tested. Other outcomes of the conversations gave us a wealth of data about the barriers and enablers of AM recruitment activities.

Peak Corporate Solutions was engaged to work with us to develop the content which is to sit ‘behind’ the tool. Considerations of role location, classification and work type were explored to shape the content. A small project team was established including an advisor from the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA), who is our partner agency in the implementation of the Commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workforce Strategy 2020-24.

Content has been developed after 44 individual and small-group interviews were conducted across 20 Commonwealth agencies, academics, scholars and non-Government organisations. Also informing this development phase was extensive research involving talent competitors, State Governments, academic publications, non-government organisations and the recruitment documentation of several Commonwealth agencies.

As a result, an Indigenous Employee Value Proposition Tool for Hiring Managers has been developed which contains content templates, themes and suggested wording for use by recruitment teams, along with hints and checklists. 

The IEVP Tool has been incorporated as one of the core resources within the APSC’s AM Indigenous recruitment project. For access to the Affirmative measures recruitment hub on GovTeams, please email diversity@apsc.gov.au

Ultimately we would like to develop the tool into an interactive digital resource to assist in the creation of agency and role-specific EVPs to attract First Nations people to the Commonwealth.