Defence

Personnel

Our people in focus

The Secretary of Defence, Mr Ric Smith, with the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, recently released the 2005 Defence Attitude Survey: Summary of Results. This new report highlights the changing face of Defence’s organisational climate since the project’s inception in 1999. Emily Jacka explains.

In an increasingly competitive job market, where attracting and retaining quality employees is becoming ever more difficult, understanding the view of Defence staff of their employment and work environment is vital.

The Secretary explains: ‘Defence must continue to attract high-calibre people, while retaining a significant proportion of our existing workforce, if we are to succeed as an organisation’. He goes on to say that, ‘by understanding the needs and expectations of future and present employees, we are in a better position to address the continuing challenges of recruitment and retention. The Senior Leadership Group recognises that the annual Defence Attitude Survey serves as the primary source for this information.’ Since the project began in 1999, the annual Defence Attitude Survey (DAS) has matured into a valuable management tool, assisting with the development and evaluation of human-resource initiatives.

Although the primary aim of the DAS is to provide Defence management with a picture of Defence’s current organisational climate, the project is now at the stage where it can shed better light on how this climate is changing. The 2005 Defence Attitude Survey: Summary of Results highlights shifts in attitudes and perceptions over time, and in so doing, enables better measurement of where Defence is succeeding and where greater attention is needed. This focus on trend data will continue in the 2006 Defence Attitude Survey, currently in the field.

However, the capacity for the survey to accurately monitor long-term trends relies on representative response rates from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and civilian populations. In 2005, response rates for Navy and Army (38 per cent and 34 per cent respectively) represented an improvement from the previous year, but were still below desirable levels. Air Force and Defence Civilian response rates were better (both 50 per cent) but there is still room for improvement.

Interpreting results over time

Although analysis over time has some significant benefits, for some items it may still be too early to determine confidently whether observed changes represent developing trends or are simply minor fluctuations. While some small differences may be significant, from a management perspective, only differences greater than 10 per cent would lead to the view that a change in staff perception is of concern.

Key results from 2005

Analysis of the 2005 DAS results has highlighted numerous areas in which Defence appears to be doing well, as well as some areas where issues are becoming of increasing concern to staff. A brief summary of some of Defence’s ‘successes’ and ‘challenges’ follows. More detailed information on the survey’s results is available in the publication 2005 Defence Attitude Survey: Summary of Results, which is available on the Personnel Executive Intranet home page at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/dpe/ on the Defence Restricted Network.

Examples of current successes

• 

  I have confidence in Senior Defence Leadership

  Confidence in senior Defence leadership has shown continual improvement since 1999. In 2005, approximately half of Defence personnel indicated they had confidence in their senior Defence leaders, compared with only a third in 1999.
• Perceptions of immediate supervisors have remained consistently positive over time. Consistent with previous surveys, over 70 per cent of respondents reported that they were satisfied with the leadership provided, had confidence in their supervisor and that their supervisor set high standards of ethical behaviour.
• Defence continues to foster positive levels of member engagement and pride. The large majority of ADF respondents care about the future of the service, believe that life in the service is enjoyable, indicate that the quality of work done in their workplace is very important to them and are willing to put in effort beyond that normally expected in order to help the service be successful.

Examples of current challenges

• ADF members’ satisfaction with salary has fallen. In contrast to the positive trend observed across the Services prior to 2003, ADF respondents’ satisfaction with their current salary declined in 2004 and 2005; whereas Defence civilian results have remained relatively constant since 2002.
• 

  The amount of time my job takes up makes it difficult to fulfil my family and/or personal responsibilities

  Balancing work and personal life is still of concern to many members. Air Force and Defence civilian personnel are consistently more likely to agree that their workplace encourages a healthy work–life balance compared with Navy and Army personnel. However, it is encouraging to note that the levels of agreement for Navy have been improving each year. Also of note is the finding that, although Defence civilians had the lowest proportion of respondents agreeing they experienced conflict between their work schedule and personal life (24 per cent compared with over 45 per cent of ADF respondents), these results represent a negative shift from 19 per cent in 2004.
• Satisfaction with Civilian Performance Appraisal has fallen. The proportion of Defence civilian respondents who indicated that they were satisfied with the performance appraisal system is down from 63 per cent in 2004 to 47 per cent in 2005.
• Satisfaction with levels of verbal recognition has fallen. The proportion of respondents that reported they had been adequately recognised and rewarded verbally for their work has decreased across all groups, from over two-thirds in 2003 to less than 55 per cent of all respondents in 2005.

It is clear that Defence faces a number of challenges in trying to meet the needs and expectations of its workforce. The wealth of information that Defence personnel who have participated in the Defence Attitude Survey have provided since 1999 will support policy formulation undertaken to address these challenges.

Emily Jacka is a research officer in the Defence Personnel Executive.

The 2005 DAS

• The 2005 DAS was distributed in November–December 2005 to a 30 per cent sample of Navy, Army, Air Force and Defence civilian personnel, stratified by service and rank to ensure representativeness of the results.
• The four surveys were tailored for each of the three services and the Australian Public Service. Each survey included approximately 33 demographic items and around 136 items assessing members’ attitudes and beliefs at the time of the survey.
• The attitude items covered a number of themes, such as leadership, career management, service life, conditions, family, performance, wellbeing, communication and change management.
• ADF personnel also received a Military Justice Supplement, previously distributed in 2003.

These results have been analysed separately.

New items

• The majority of the new items in 2005 will be used to assist with the evaluation of the new Defence Collective Agreement, assessing issues such as provision of feedback; effective management skills; reward and recognition; leave and flex; principle-based decision making; and Employee Assistance Programs.
• Additional items investigating members’ opinions of the alcohol- and drug-testing program and policies were also included in the ADF surveys.

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