Defence Magazine

The upcoming review of the Public Service Act is all about streamlining and improving the current legislation, rather than instituting full-scale change - or at least that's how Lynelle Briggs, Public Service Commissioner, is approaching the task at hand.

"We don't see the need for a massive rewrite of the Act - indeed we think the Act is pretty good," says Ms Briggs.

A small review team has just been formed to conduct the review, headed by Roger Tarlington, who has recently arrived from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

"The team will be working over the course of the next year to identify and draft changes that will be made to the legislation and on getting the legislation through," says Ms Briggs.

While the review won't call for public submissions, Departmental Secretaries and Agency Heads are coordinating responses on behalf of their agencies, and the Commissioner intends to take any proposed changes to Secretaries and Agency Heads prior to engaging Ministers in the process.

"I would look to have the legislation ready by the second half of next year - if all goes well. I'm always an optimist," says Ms Briggs.

The Public Service Act 1999 is the principle Act governing the establishment and operation of, and employment in, the Australian Public Service (APS). But why do we need to review the Public Service Act now? Is it because large-scale changes to the legislation are anticipated to update it for the twenty-first century workforce?

"Do I expect there will be significant changes to the current Act? The answer's no," says Ms Briggs. "The areas that we will look at in particular though are around whether or not the legislation needs an overriding statement about what binds the Australian Public Service together. Do we see ourselves as working in the public interest or the national interest; how do we fold in our responsibilities to the Government of the day - are the sorts of questions we're asking."

"There's a lot of discussion around the values in the legislation. Some people feel there may be too many of them, that there's some repetition and that not all of them are values. Others, however, feel that the values provide a comprehensive statement of the principles that should govern Public Service behaviour. Our focus on the values is going to be particularly difficult, I think."

"And then there are the technical issues that have been raised since the Act was introduced, including concern about the non-ongoing employment conditions being too inflexible. There are issues around how well agencies are able to manage reviews of action, code of conduct issues and there are some whistle-blowing challenges for us as well."

Clearly, one of the key challenges the APS faces is the perception that the framework we operate within is staunchly conservative and bureaucratic. So does this perception - whether right or wrong - demand a revised Public Service Act that is more flexible and better adapted for the twenty-first century?

"That's what I'm hoping for," says Ms Briggs. "What we really want to do is not get in the way at all of the devolved administration of agencies. In fact, we want to do more things that will enhance the power of Agency Heads to manage the staffing of their organisation, for example."

According to the Commissioner, the current legislation surrounding the Australian Public Service is far less complex and difficult to manage than some agencies - who have written additional layers of process into their own internal governance arrangements - would have us believe. Indeed, if the legislation becomes more flexible in its new format, there's even more opportunity for agencies to follow suit and streamline their processes.

Being perceived as a progressive, flexible organisation is key to attracting people to the Public Service in the future. Since members of Generation X and Y - a critical demographic in terms of recruitment and retention - characteristically shy away from the traditional, conservative organisation in favour of flexibility and adaptability, the challenge ahead is to market and firmly position the APS as an employer of choice.

The Management Advisory Committee, of which the Secretary of Defence, Ric Smith, is a member, has been discussing the increasing number of Graduates amongst the APS workforce, says the Commissioner.

"Right now we're discussing Generation X and Y expectations and what we need to do as senior executives to support their career aspirations and, as well, to attract them to the Public Service and retain them. There's no doubt that a few interesting things are coming out of that," she says.

"Preferences for non-hierarchical systems of working and a lot more flexibility - and a continuing and important passion amongst people to want to work in the national interest - are coming to light. When people are coming into the Public Service in their late 20s, 30s and 40s, they're really coming in with that goal. They've worked in the private sector and other places, and have not found it sufficiently satisfactory so have come to work in the interest of the nation."

But, regardless of this desire to work in the national interest, the fact remains that the image of the Public Service has taken a bit of a battering in the last number of years. The recent Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) episode has exposed the relationship between Ministers and Government officials, amongst other things, in a rather stark light. So what can we, as public servants, learn from this episode?

"There are some interesting issues in the DIMIA episode and the report on the completion of inquiries by former Police Commissioner, Mick Palmer," says Ms Briggs, who commends the report to all public servants.

"It suggests that the organisation - that its culture - has focussed very much on processes and not on linking the average staffer to the outcomes the Government might be seeking and to what the law is actually saying. That says to me that public servants always need to maintain perspective on the work they do and reflect carefully on it. We should be asking ourselves questions like, 'Am I doing the right thing? Is this the way the Australian community and Government would expect me to be administering this legislation? Do I understand the legislation properly and, if not, am I being proactive in doing something about that?'

"General issues highlighted by the Palmer Report into DIMIA include a focus on systems and systems capability. Have we invested enough in these systems and do our people know how to use them effectively? Is our training fit for purpose? Are we training people effectively and have we thought carefully about what they need to be trained in?"

The report goes on to address the broader areas of governance of the organisation, risk management and communication. It concludes that DIMIA wasn't focussing sufficiently on the inherent risks of their business and that in all probability, they didn't detect that the climate around the organisation was changing as much as it was.

"I think there are messages there for public servants about keeping your eyesight up a bit above the horizon and watching what's coming at you. One of the ways you can do better at that is to be quite rigorous about getting feedback - whether it's staff surveys, client surveys, feedback from the political arms of Government, or relationships with the press. All of those things can feed into whether your organisation is outward looking or more inward focussed. The more inward focussed it is, the more dangerous that can be."

As to the lessons from this for the Public Service as a whole, the Commissioner is steadfast in her conviction about the need for individuals to be accountable for their actions.

"This question about taking personal responsibility for what you do as public servants and how you behave needs to be backed by the values that are in our legislation because, by law, that's what we're supposed to do. So, that's why the Public Service Act is so fundamental to the way we operate."

In other words, it's about making the Public Service Act a living, dynamic thing that people can really relate to. The Commissioner suggests that this is one of the reasons why the review team will look to streamline the APS Values so that those values are at the forefront of people's minds in their daily workings. There is a clear opportunity to be quite specific about what is expected of an individual in their capacity as a public servant.

How we, as public servants, behave directly impacts and informs the view that the Australian public have of the APS, and the Commissioner acknowledges that there is room for improvement in terms of the image of the APS.

"I feel quite strongly that the APS is one of the best public services in the world. By any objective measure it is and it's recognised across the world as such," says Ms Briggs. "When I or other senior public servants travel overseas, it never ceases to amaze us how far behind other countries are, compared to where we are."

"We've also faced, in recent years, an increasing level of criticism that we've become politicised," Ms Briggs admits. "It's quite right and proper that the Public Service's mistakes are transparently held up for the public to judge. It's not surprising to me that our mistakes reap far more criticism than mistakes in other sectors, and that's because of the responsible, and in many respects, powerful positions that many of us hold in the Public Service. But that means that we then have to be careful and thoughtful about how we behave."

"In my view, there's no better way of improving the image of the Public Service than in doing the jobs we do well and investing in the quality of the people that we have. We're an increasingly skilled, competent, capable workforce and we've got more tools to do our work than we ever had before. The capability of the Public Service is enormously improved on what it was," she says.

Two key channels through which to improve the image of the APS are, the Commissioner maintains, leadership and personal relationships. The Australian community and other stakeholders need to view the APS as being represented by a solid and impressive leadership group. Supporting this, public servants should be cognisant of the significance of the day-to-day relationships they have with the community. These relationships, along with behaving with professionalism and producing quality work, are what the Commissioner thinks really matter.

"It's important for public sector leaders to convey the kinds of challenges the Public Service faces in doing our day to day business - our work is complex and it's hard, but that means that it's incredibly rewarding as well, " says Ms Briggs. "You build up your image by the way you work with others."

'Career public servant' - legend or reality?

Growing up, my understanding of the 'career public servant' was of a 20-something that, once they had walked through the doors of the public service, could often be found years later still doing that same job. While the revolving doors at the entrance of the public service building might have continued to usher people in and out, during the various phases of their life and career, not so for the 'career public servant', whose propensity it was to stick with what they knew.

"It depends on the individual and it also depends on the location of the individual," says Pubic Service Commissioner, Lynelle Briggs. "In Canberra, where 50% of jobs are still public service jobs, then you've got to say that a career public service job is perfectly viable. Similarly, in many parts of regional Australia, public service jobs are great jobs with considerable influence and personal returns for the communities they operate in. In the cities there's less connection with the community and there are more opportunities to move into other careers in the private sector, State Government and so on."

"But at the moment, interestingly, we're seeing a fairly high level of retention of our staff - we had expected that it would be lower." These retention rates, says Ms Briggs, are indicative of the situation all around the country, so it's possible that we may well still see a career public service. The difference now, compared to the past, is that the Public Service of today might be very different in terms of the nature of the work people do and the working relationships they have.

It's fair to say that there's a level of ignorance in the general public about what the Public Service is, what it does and also the enormity of the whole concept. In Defence alone, for example, there are a plethora of directions and specialisations you may choose to pursue. Multiply this by the entire Public Service and in many respects, the APS is one of the largest industries you can choose to pursue a career within.

"One of the interesting things that our current research has been telling us is that when people are recruited to the public service, they join an agency and it's only when they get into that agency that they realise two things," says Ms Briggs. "Firstly, the incredible breadth of subject matter in the Public Service, but secondly that within the one organisation, you can be in service delivery, policy, regulation, communication and public relations, human resources, or corporate affairs. So that is something else that I think is a useful selling point for us to attract staff and indeed to bring people back to the Public Service."

The question is how do school leavers and university graduates - the primary target audience for recruitment - view the Public Service? Is there a way to use the release of the new Act as a means of communicating today's image of the Public Service? Will the new Act be leveraged to position and market the Public Service as employer of choice, now and in the future?

Defence

Big Picture

Employer of choice? Today's Australian Public Service

With a review of the Public Service Act set to revitalise the legislation governing the Australian Public Service, Karlene Sargent spoke with Public Service Commissioner, Lynelle Briggs, about the review and whether the notion of the 'career public servant' has had its day.

'Career public servant' - legend or reality?