Reform of Australian Government Administration

Overall, keep the APS Values, they would serve us well, if only they were universally applied in the APS, but we are human and everyone has different personal values that don't necessarily align with the APS Values - so there is conflict. We need robust and transparent ways to deal with breaches with proper and just outcomes for all concerned.

The APS values should be linked to Performance Management, particularly for our Managers and Leaders. I have seen an SES officer screaming at staff, there is no respect for anyone but themselves, these people should be forced out of the APS, there is no place for this sort of disrespectful behaviour.

How about adding some good old fashioned Respect for each member of the APS and the people we serve to the APS Values.

Managers have to earn the respect of their staff and peers, but they can only do that by showing genuine respect for their staff and peers. Too often I see there is no respect between manager and their staff, as long as there is no respect there is low productivity where distrust is the order of the day.

At an organisational level this seems particularly noticible around Enterprise Agreement negoitation time - Management versus staff - and it takes a long time to recover the trust, if at all, particularly if it is a protracted adverse negoitation. This is a very good reason to centralise the APS Salary framework and stop the nonsense of individual enterprise agreements. Lets have One Professional APS.

Should the APS Values as contained in the Public Service Act 1999 be streamlined and simplified?
- What values do you consider should be included in a revised set of APS Values?

Questions
Should the APS Values be streamlined and simplified and what values do you consider should be included in a revised set of APS Values.

Response
To bring the APS in line with the increasing global needs and the changing way of how we do our business, streamlining and simplification of the APS values are significantly important, of course. However, the context in which these processes occur is fundamentally significant - measures of efficiency can only be successful if conducted within the context of the need and circumstance of the organisation. Figure 1.3 and Figure 7.5 provide useful insights into the values of the APS. To consider which values should be included in a revised set of APS values, consideration should be given to the statistical references in figure 1.3 and figure 7.5. Briefly discussed below is a snapshot of the analysis of these two graphs.

Briefly, the global financial situation impacted on many large corporations who are currently centralising their business operations to strengthen internal processes and eliminate weakness. Decentralisation for streamlining and simplification during a time when most organisations are consolidating may have negative consequences for the APS.

For example, Demark is a smaller geographical composition than Australia. On the surface Demark appears to have a decentralised system. However, when examining the organisational structures carefully, the organisational structures are centralised. Research indicates that corporations that decentralise through a change management process which focus on business re-engineering (BPR), does not increase long term sustainable outcomes. Therefore, at this point in time, although APS decentralisation may appear to be a suitable alternative, it may mere shift the issues to the regions. Perhaps a more appropriate alternative in the interim future is for the APS to strengthen its internal systems (technological, human resource and communication systems) and should decentralisation be necessary, this should occur when all systems are fully functional and operations, successfully trial to be operationally efficient and effective at a broad corporate level then transferred and transitioned to a local or regional level, to ensure that operations at these levels will be sustainable to manage and cope with the increasing Government and Australian citizen need, growth and circumstances in future.

As expectations in Government is increasing and there is a growing expectation of individuals and communities that they will receive services that are responsive to their particular needs and circumstances, the investment in the human resource system requires consideration. These comments are perhaps at the core of future direction of the APS. However, upon brief analysis of Figure 7.5, the statistical data revealed in this graph illustrates the mis-alignment of skills with APS need and circumstances. This graph clearly indicates that the APS is much too top-heavy (numbers of SES 3, SES 2 and EO1) and administratively focused (numbers of APS 1).

This graph also highlights importantly that where the future directions of the APS requires people to management programs APS 4 – APS 6), the human resources are diminished. To gain better insight into how large corporations are structured and to ascertain the need for human resource efficiency distribution, it may be a timely consideration to examine Figure 7.5 in light of large efficient corporations. Further, administrative process aligned with technological systems can contribute to eliminating the barriers to efficiently managing the programs and projects and better align investment with community need and service delivery outcomes.

Perhaps the research question is the wrong question to ask at the moment. Perhaps the research questions should not be about how can APS leaders fulfil their responsibilities to promote and uphold values, but rather a question before this question should be"
"Whether , as Figure 7.5 reflects the many dispersed values of the leaders in the APS; and whether these dispersed values are too substantial in numbers therefore difficult to align with the changing circumstances, future needs and expectations of the APS and communities.

No need to streamline the APS Code of Conduct and APS Values - both are essential requirements to behaving ethically and professionaly in the APS.
What needs to change is the lack of organisational adherence to these principles - I have found that lip service is given but behaviours in the workplace reflect otherwise; particularly by those who are considred "leaders". It's a joke.
Managers/SES need to have the courage to address these issues quickly and responsibly, and HR needs to be empowered to play a more responsive, supportive and active role in reprimanding those who breach the APS Values and Code of Conduct.
These are the cornestone of public service behaviour, but only if breaches are taken seriously and acted upon.

I'd be happy if these 15 were actually adhered to. I think there is considerable pressure on more senior managers to get a job done to keep their job and promotional opportunities alive which often thwarts this. Nothing should come into conflict with upholding the highest values possible. This has led to a weakend service.

Please consider the active implementation of the values as they currently stand.

Currently, young people are under-represented in the APS.

In addition to this, some agencies have an internal culture that anecdotally favours gender-over-merit based employment.

I would hope gender and age would not place some individuals at a disadvantage in applying for jobs in the APS.

Such discrimination can only impact on the efficency and output of the service.

The value: "provides a fair, flexible, safe and rewarding workplace" should be retained and moved higher in the list reflecting its importance to the health and well-being of APS staff.

It is essential to remind government leaders and agency heads that APS staff have the right to work reasonable hours in line with their workplace agreements and that consistent 16 hour days are not acceptable. This value underpins the whole operation of the APS in terms of recruiting and retaining high performing staff and creating positive and dynamic workplace cultures. It recognises that staff have personal and family commitments, and are entitled to balanced working hours and leave arrangements.

I don't think it is difficult to remember up to 10 key values . Perhaps simplify to four/five relating to people management and five relating to the work we do.

The following four values seem to be covered in the others and could be dropped.

1) focuses on achieving results and managing performance;
2) promotes equity in employment;
3) provides a reasonable opportunity to all eligible members of the community to apply for APS employment;
4) is a career-based service to enhance the effectiveness and cohesion of Australia's democratic system of government;
5) provides a workplace that is free from discrimination and recognises and utilises the diversity of the Australian community it serves;

Thanks for the opportunity to comment.

I actually don't think the APS values should be simplified. I think each one is important and fundamental to the public service and they should be detailed and quite specific.

I also agree with RJL that a value that talks about innovation and continuous improvement should be included.

I think Australia should maintain these ethics and work to have all our neighbours in the Pacific use similar ones and build a real neighborhood of functioning infrastructure, working in the public interest in the first instance. This is far more important than setting up minimum standards and allowing commercial exploiting of natural resources and other activities in countries where the public services and essential public infrastructure is weak.