Proposed approach

Call to action for all APS employees

This Plan is an invitation to all APS employees to reflect on our increasing cultural diversity as a nation, embracing it as part of our national character and incorporating it in our daily work.

We all come from somewhere and we all show up to work with a unique identity, and a sense of self formed from our cultural background, parenting, education, life experience and values. Our individual background influences our perceptions and how we each filter the information we receive in the world, the workplace, and how we view the people in it. This unique lens naturally includes preconceptions and our own particular ways of seeing the world. Self-awareness and reflection are critical to understanding how these preconceptions influence our perceptions of others’ professional contribution. 

Not being aware or not understanding our own worldview can make us blind to the impact that our assumptions and beliefs can have on others. It can also mean we do not reap the benefit personally and professionally from diverse experience and views. 

We are starting from a point of trust and seeking to have constructive conversations. We understand initially these may be uncomfortable conversations, but we need to commit with generosity to engage for further understanding.

The Plan can provide the basis for how we start the conversations that will enable us to harness cultural diversity in our work. Meeting the scale of the challenge over time will require continuing commitment and effort. 

Objectives

The overall objectives of the Plan are that the APS:

• ensures a safe, fair, equitable and inclusive workplace that is free from racism, discrimination, bullying and harassment.
• understands and builds on the diversity of the current workforce.
• enables people to make a full contribution and empowers them to fulfil their potential.
• creates a level playing field and a fair go for all APS employees.
• reflects the population we serve and throughout the APS to represent diversity cohorts fairly.

Strengths-based approach

The Plan builds on the substantial strengths already present in the APS. Through the public consultation, we were struck by the way many respondents consciously connected across the objectives for the Plan, as summarised below.

“By understanding and building on the diversity of the current workforce and transforming the APS as a model employer, we can provide a safe, fair and inclusive workplace for all employees and an APS which represents the community we serve.”

We are looking to strengthen how we work by embedding and reflecting the breadth and depth of our cultural diversity in our work. 

The APS CALD employees connect the APS to broader multicultural Australia. In regional and international domains, cultural knowledge is instrumental in ensuring optimal supply chains, in addressing security threats, and building nuanced economic and diplomatic bridges.

Deeper knowledge of different life experiences, competencies and socio-economic and cultural backgrounds generates a diversity of ideas and improves our understanding of the needs of the community. This greater understanding helps us provide better policy advice and ensure better policy implementation and service delivery. A comprehensive approach to build on our diversity strengths will make our work better.

The APS institutional framework

The Plan sits within the broader institutional framework of and is consistent with the APS Employment Principles in the Public Service Act, 1999 [9]. These Principles support the APS to be a career-based public service which recognises the diversity of the Australian community and fosters diversity in the workplace. More broadly, the Act already commits us to fostering an APS workforce that reflects the diversity of the Australian population [10]. As APS leaders, it is the Secretaries Board’s responsibility to give effect to the Principles within their own portfolio agencies [11].

The SES Performance Leadership Framework sets as a baseline expectation that APS leaders seek views and perspectives that challenge our own, that we extend our cultural learning, reflect on our own cultural perspectives and demonstrate how we contribute to culturally safe workplaces, programs and policies.

The SES Performance Leadership Framework expects APS leaders, at all levels, to embrace diverse viewpoints, expand cultural awareness, and foster inclusive environments. 

This is a Plan for inclusive leadership by all employees as we are all enablers of change. It is part of our commitment to being genuinely multicultural, by building our intercultural understanding, our respect for diversity and embedding genuine curiosity into our day-to-day work practice.