The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) is leading three priority initiatives under a plan to reform the Australian Public Service (APS).
Outlining the new initiatives, APSC said the Ambitious and Enduring Reform Plan for the APS would include capability reviews, boosting First Nations’ employment and workplace relations.
“We will be the first Agency to pilot a capability review,” the APSC said.
“This will provide us with an opportunity to engage fully in the new process we will then be responsible for administering within other Agencies,” it said.
“Beginning this year, these reviews will be short, sharp and focused on the future.”
The APSC said Agency-level reviews would give the APS the evidence to identify opportunities for service-wide reform.
On boosting First Nations employment, the Commission said it was reviewing the Commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workforce Strategy 2020-2024 to identify opportunities to achieve better outcomes.
“Representation of First Nations people in the APS is 3.5 per cent,” it said.
“This figure has barely moved in 20 years, and Government policy is that the APS meet a target of First Nations people employment of five per cent by 2030.”
The APSC said the Review would be published by the end of the year and the results would inform decisions by Ministers, Secretaries Board and Agencies on making faster progress towards the target.
The Commission said it has also started consultation with Australian Government Agencies and unions to develop an approach to service-wide negotiations for core and common conditions, with Agencies to negotiate specific entitlements.
It said a comprehensive policy would help address fragmentation in pay and conditions across the APS, make it easier for employees to work flexibly, and create an APS that was a model employer.
Further information on the APS Reform Plan can be accessed at this PS News link.
