26 September 2023

Commissioner urges work from home

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Australian Public Service (APS) Commissioner, Peter Woolcott has called on APS Agencies to consider trialling work-from-home arrangements for their staff members before the Coronavirus pandemic “reaches its height”.

Mr Woolcott (pictured) said Agencies could expect to experience changes in their work practice as a result of the health crisis with some work areas facing a significantly reduced workload, while others having to deal with significantly increased workloads.

He said that as part of business continuity planning, Agencies could consider redeploying staff to assist in areas that have an increased workload and establishing a GovTeams platform to share information and unclassified materials.

He said Agencies with a reduced workload could consider undertaking forward planning; reading and research activities; or administrative work, including records management and corporate tasks.

“Traditional working hours may be difficult to sustain during this phase, and work should be arranged to outcomes, not to set work hours,” he said.

He suggested supervisors consider staggering work start and finish times to avoid peak travel times and consider alternative work arrangements if public transport was affected.

“The likely scenario at the height of the pandemic will be significantly increased work-from-home as people are self-isolated and still able to work,” Mr Woolcott said.

“Testing IT capacity and capability to enable this is essential, including by trialling large numbers of staff working from home before the pandemic reaches its height, he said.

“Some areas will not be able to access systems remotely.”

He reminded managers that workstations were to be positioned at least 1.5 metres apart and if that could not be arranged, alternative measures needed to be implemented, including staggering work times and alternative working arrangements, such as working from home.

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