Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) is committed to growing diversity within the Australian Public Service (APS) workforce and cultivating an inclusive, positive employee experience. Reflecting and understanding the communities we serve enables us to provide the highest quality policy advice and support to Government.
As part the Inclusion and Diversity Strategy, PM&C committed to delivering a range of actions including ensuring the recruitment experience is culturally appropriate and accessible to all candidates, through improved panel guidance and training.
To empower hiring managers and panels, PM&C developed a tailored online ‘Navigating Merit-Based Recruitment’ eModule, covering essential legislation and policy, strategies to mitigate bias, and best practice recruitment techniques such as assessment methodology and reasonable adjustments.
The eModule provides a comprehensive walk-through of PM&C’s end-to-end merit-based recruitment process (bringing the policy to life), which aims to build the confidence of those involved and give everyone the best chance to shine, while honouring the merit principle.
The module builds on some of the great work which has been undertaken over the last 18 months to optimise how the Department recruits, including:
- Re-imagining the service delivery model with a focus on providing an end-to-end recruitment service through business partnering.
- Improving candidate assessment templates and guidance documents including integrating numeric ratings for more objective and robust candidate assessment.
- Enhancing recruitment marketing materials including identifying the Departments unique employer brand to ensure jobs attract a large high quality and diverse candidate pool.
- Exploring strategies for more successful affirmative measures rounds to allow us to increase representation of people living with disability and First Nations employees in PM&C.
When developing the eModule one of the biggest challenges faced was how to create online learning which could be reasonably completed by panel members while balancing their day-to-day job. It was particularly challenging to design something dynamic when merit-based recruitment processes can be a complex undertaking, with numerous technical aspects that needed to be covered in training.
The team decided to break the content into bite-sized modules ranging from 5 to 20 minutes in length. This modular approach provides learners with the flexibility to complete the entire training in a single sitting, which takes approximately one hour, or to tackle the separate modules "just-in-time" as they align with their specific role or stage in the recruitment process. The aim of providing this flexibility was to encourage greater uptake of the training, ultimately resulting in increased recruitment capability across the department.
To further enhance the learning experience, the training incorporates a range of engaging elements, including audio narration, videos, quizzes, and interactive activities. Additionally, to address the inherent complexity of the recruitment process, a supplementary checklist was developed that learners can use as a prompt during the training and as a reference tool in real-world recruitment scenarios.
Prioritising inclusive recruitment responds to the competitive talent landscape and lays the groundwork for a future-ready and diverse workforce within PM&C and the broader APS. Diversity fosters a multitude of perspectives and drives innovation, ultimately enhancing the performance of APS agencies.
While the training is tailored specifically for PM&C's recruitment processes, the PM&C Recruitment Team extends an invitation to other agencies interested in exploring how this eModule is shaping the future of recruitment. Whether seeking insights into its development and lessons learned, or eager to leverage the content within, the team is happy to share. Reach out to recruitment@pmc.gov.au to find out more.