The APS Integrity Taskforce (the Taskforce) was established by Secretaries Board to take a ‘bird’s-eye’ view of the APS integrity landscape, identify gaps, look for opportunities to learn from, and build upon the important work already underway across the service.
Shyam Raghupathi, acting Assistant Commissioner, Australian Public Service Commission, was seconded to the Taskforce after joining the APS Reform Office last year. He has worked across reform initiatives from an organisational level in the APS and in the NSW government, experiencing front-line service delivery which enabled him to provide a fresh perspective to the Taskforce. Participating in the Taskforce also provided Shyam with a once-in-a-career opportunity to contribute at a whole-of-APS level and leave an impact.
With a background in HR, Shyam’s approach to the Taskforce recommendations is practical, informative, and inclusive for all APS levels. His advice can be used as a helpful guide for HR professionals implementing the recommendations.
“I’ve benefited from the compliance operations and service delivery lenses when I stepped out of the HR roles to have firsthand experience of the front-line service design and delivery. This gave me great insights and helped me become a strong enabler to see integrity from a whole of service lens. I was then able to bring this into conversations within the Taskforce which created a different perspective.” – Shyam Raghupathi.
According to the APSC, integrity is the craft of bringing ethics and values to life through our work and our behaviour and earning the trust of the public in our ability to deliver the best outcomes for Australia.
From Shyam’s perspective, compliance is the base, not the ceiling. In other words, while compliance is a non-negotiable it’s important to work towards a pro-integrity culture to ensure our work aligns with ethics and delivering with integrity.
Introducing and showcasing agencies’ integrity culture from the pre-recruitment phase can set the standard from the start. It is also important to utilise surveys as part of the new recruitment experience and be mindful to implement feedback.
Shyam also suggests embedding integrity into agency culture can be achieved through graduate and leadership programs, reward and recognition initiatives, and as part of all on-going training activities as it needs to flow through all levels in business models.
Acknowledging a pro-integrity culture delivers more than a service the public can trust; Shyam explains the importance of ethical delivery and leadership as strategies to create psychologically safe workplaces. He encourages HR professionals to promote ethical decision making with pro-integrity culture in mind and make a conscious effort towards integrity in everything we do.
Ethical leadership at all levels is important and creates trust. Shyam refers to the concept of ‘leaders talk last’ by Simon Sinek as an example of ethical leadership. He explains, “I see this as ethical leadership uplift and signifies a psychologically safe workplace, its understanding what the room has to say and gives the team a chance to be open and communicate their views.
Extending this concept to the executive cohort is important. Ethical leadership is the direction we need to go in, leaders need to enable a safe workplace and listen to the ideas of all individuals. This concept can take time to execute confidently, but over time this fosters great relationships built on integrity.”
Linking performance to rewards and recognition is a good way to not only focus on what is being delivered but how it is delivered. Shyam also encourages HR professionals to explore what inclusive leadership looks like and how we can manage and lead staff in challenging times. HR professionals can support this by seeing how their agency’s value propositions complement the drive to deliver the outcomes of integrity.
Integrity matters at all levels, not just SES and looking through the lens of value-based leadership is important. The SES Leadership Framework sets our expectations, but we can all leverage from it. As the APS we want to be known for our values and believe they are forward leaning. HR professionals can use these values as more than just a compliance tool, as people relate more to values. Covid-19 is a great example of how the APS showcased its values and behaviours in leadership and what a positive impact this had on Australians.
As a HR professional there are synergies between the Louder than Words report, the APS reform agenda and the recommendations from the government response to the Robodebt scheme. By looking at these, you will be able to shape a broader picture of actions being implemented across service agencies to strengthen integrity and uplift the capability across the APS.
It’s helpful to take stock of the recommendations to get a baseline view of the required set of actions, noting some actions will take longer to implement than others. Shyam recommends finding out who your SES integrity champion is in your organisation and seeking out opportunities that help you drive and support the recommendations from Louder than Words. He also recommends:
- looking at the integrity good practice guide
- joining existing forums or networks to share best practice resources and learn from each other
- reviewing resources about integrity on the APSC website
- upskilling through the materials available on the APS Academy to get a deeper understanding of integrity in practice
- viewing the APS HR Professional Stream webinar recording Lessons from the APS Integrity Taskforce - how we build the ethical leadership muscle, with Sue Robertson, Head of the APS Integrity Taskforce
- providing staff with potential opportunities to learn more about integrity across the APS
APSC Commissioner de Brouwer recently spoke at The Mandarin‘s - Rebuilding Trust and Integrity in the Australian Public Service, read his speech here.