The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has released a new workforce strategy for the APS, setting out its operation as a single enterprise with a high performing workforce that delivers outcomes effectively and efficiently for all who use its services.
Launched by APS Commissioner Peter Woolcott, (pictured) the whole-of-service APS Workforce Strategy, Delivering for Tomorrow was developed under the Government’s APS Reform Agenda and is hailed as the first of its kind.
“The Strategy outlines a one-APS approach to managing our workforce with a focus on mobilising capability and developing the capabilities we need more of, for example data and digital skills,” Mr Woolcott said.
“To be positioned to respond to complex challenges in the future, we need the APS workforce to be agile and collaborative,” he said.
“We must work as one enterprise, across traditional boundaries and jurisdictions – taking an outcomes-based approach to delivery.”
He said the 2019 Independent Review of the Public Service highlighted the need for such a strategy to build and sustain the way the APS attracts, develops and utilises its people.
Mr Woolcott said the Strategy was informed by extensive research and benchmarking with the APSC consulting Agencies with focus groups and hackathons and refining it in light of management achievements made during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“The focus of the Strategy is on building capability through workforce planning,” Mr Woolcott said.
“The Workforce Planning Centre for Excellence in the Australian Public Service Commission has been established to enable Strategy objectives and actions,” he said.
“Agencies will be supported to have modern, data-driven workforce management practices integrated as a key component of business planning and delivering workforce transformation aligned to business needs.”
The Commissioner said the Strategy was supported by a number of practical actions, many of which are already underway, including Professional Streams; the APS Academy; the Australian Government Graduate Program; APS Reskilling Guide; APS Mobility Framework; and Diversity and Inclusion.
“The outcomes of the Strategy will be monitored systematically through to 2025 to ensure the expected benefits are realised,” Mr Woolcott said.
“The annual State of the Service Report will be used to report publically on implementation progress each year.”
A video of Mr Woolcott introducing the APS Workforce Strategy can be accessed (with sound) at this PS News link and a copy of the Strategy found at this link.
