Operating context
Environment
We see challenges as opportunities – we seek to learn and grow in response to the rapid changes in our environment, and we seek to actively shape the future of our nation.
Our APS people remain committed and resilient as our world continues to change. Amid local and international crises, Australia’s workforce participation is at a high rate not seen since World War II, combined with significant labour and skill shortages across key areas of the economy.
The APS is not immune to this challenge, particularly in areas of specialist and emerging skills. The APS Workforce Strategy, Delivering for Tomorrow, provides a strong foundation for the APS to establish itself as an employer of choice, attracting talent and diversity, building capability and mobilising the right people to our highest priority work.
Over the course of this plan, the Commission – working closely with the Secretaries Future of Work Sub-committee – will be focussed on building the APS employee value proposition, ensuring that the APS is a place where people choose to work, taking up unique opportunities to shape the policies and programs that deliver positive outcomes for Australians.
The Government’s audit of employment will provide an important foundation for understanding our workforce and planning for the future. How the APS engages capability will be critical – that is, how we understand the capabilities that are core to a high performing APS, how we attract, retain and develop those capabilities, and when and how we engage additional external support. An increasing sophistication in our workforce planning efforts, supported by the Centre of Excellence in Workforce Planning, will ensure agencies can make deliberate and structured decisions about how they meet their workforce needs.
The APS Academy will embed its role to lift core skills in areas unique to the APS Craft, while the APS Professions will continue to lift skills and expertise in other areas of critical capability, including strategic HR, digital and data.
Our entry levels programs create meaningful pathways for Australians into the APS, along with the tools and support participants need to thrive. In 2022-23 we aim to attract more students and recent graduates into the APS from a diversity of backgrounds and locations. We are establishing new data and digital APS Academy Campuses in regional Australia, allowing cadets, apprentices, graduates and interns to pursue a public service career without leaving their communities. This initiative complements the work of the Future of Work Sub-committee to develop an APS location strategy that will encourage the APS to embrace the broader, nationwide talent pool.
We will also start to understand the extent to which the progress on actions outlined in Highly Capable, Future Ready: the APS Learning and Development Strategy and Action Plan , are shifting the APS approach to learning and development and growing a stronger continuous learning culture.
We will continue to work with agencies to realise an APS that reflects a modern Australia – recognising, respecting and valuing differences based on ethnicity, gender and culture. More work needs to be done to increase opportunities for First Nations people to contribute their skills, experience and perspectives in the APS. The Government’s plan for the APS includes a very clear expectation for increasing the proportion of First Nations people in the service and we will work with agencies as part of our role to build a fairer and more inclusive Australia.
The Government has committed to work with APS employees and their representatives to establish pay and condition settings that set the APS apart as a model employer, enhancing our value proposition, and further reduce the gender pay gap in the APS. In 2022-23 we will consult with employees, their representatives and employers in support of these aims.
We know that reinforcing institutional integrity is important for building public trust in the APS. Our work to strengthen the integrity culture of the APS continues and we will engage closely with the Attorney General’s Department on establishing the National Anti-Corruption Commission, including APS-specific capability components.