It is important that APS managers are incentivised to deliver outcomes in the long-term interests of Australia, build capability of their staff and agency, and are responsive to immediate priorities. Formal recognition and celebration of great people managers will strengthen APS capability and make it a more rewarding place to work.
What we think is needed
- Managers required to devote significant time developing and mentoring staff - and recognised for doing so, supported by effective leadership training, and reinforced through positive role modelling and clear accountabilities.
- Stronger incentives for managers to build and nurture capable and diverse teams and inclusive workplaces.
- Performance management practices and systems that support both managers and staff – including: routine use of 360-degree feedback and views of external stakeholders; and linking appraisal outcomes with career opportunities and learning and development requirements.
- These practices and systems should complement the new professions model by recognising and rewarding a diverse range of skills and career paths.
- Performance management of the Senior Executive Service that better reflects its legislated APS-wide functions and emphasises collaboration and cross-portfolio outcomes. This should be developed by the APS Commissioner and implemented by agency heads.
What is shaping our thinking
- International best practice, which highlights the importance of linking individual performance goals to organisational priorities, ensuring that managers provide continuous feedback, reward high performers, develop the broad middle, and move quickly on underperformers.
- Concerns about a lack of focus on coaching and development. Less than half of APS employees consider SES make time to identify and develop talented people and just over a quarter of all agencies report having a formal talent management strategy.
- Feedback that current career development and performance evaluation frameworks are not applied rigorously or consistently. Few APS employees consider their agency deals effectively with underperformance or recognises high performance.
What we are still exploring
- Strategies to upskill managers to develop their employees effectively, and to prioritise this responsibility consistently.
Comments
Thu, 02 May 2019
I have personally shared my begging of reporting PFADS with my staff showing them how their KERS are feeding into mine and aligning expectaions. Suggest this becomes a recommended practice. Prior to 2000 Defence had a scheme to reward initators of savings with a small percentage of the saving. Suggest that that is a strong motivator for workforce and should be considered.
Thu, 02 May 2019
They are empowered - most just don't have skills or ability to manage properly.
Thu, 02 May 2019
What does this mean? Many managers are too lazy and/or incapable and/or unskilled to address difficult issues such as bad processes, policies and staff. People with very brown noses are put into management positions without any consultation from their at level or lower level colleagues - the ones who have suffered through their poor management, rudeness and destructive behaviors - on the ability of the person to manage.
Thu, 02 May 2019
Training and support on new styles of management and leadership such as strengths-based, skills-based, adaptive and servant leadership. Less focus on process and ticking the box and more on action. Implementing a cross agency mentoring program for all levels. Consistent performance management approach across all agencies.
Wed, 01 May 2019
I believe managers and team leaders need more development and support in relation to providing effective performance feedback. I have observed a number of staff who are good performers and who have become demoralised because they have only ever received feedback on their weaknesses. In order to grow people need to know what their strengths are and what they are doing well. Managers need to understand the psychological impacts of performance feedback which is not balanced and how they can better motivate staff.
Wed, 01 May 2019
the panel has failed to address the problem of individual accountability in the APS. they are probably the best paid employees in Aus and have the best employment conditions but are not accountable for their failures to perform their duties. In the light of that fact de Brouwer's comments are incomplete and not in the interest of the Aus public
Wed, 01 May 2019
Why do managers need to be incentivised ?.. this is something that all managers should just do.. especially at SES Band 1, 2 and 3 levels. There should be an expectation that managers are responsive, recognise and celebrate their staff achievements.
Wed, 01 May 2019
The ability to lead and inspire people - and not lead using fear, intimidation and favouritism needs to be recognised as a core skill and ability. There is still too much emphasis on perceived 'technical ability' in our leaders and not enough on their leadership. This is exacerbated by bad leaders recruiting like-minded people and not embracing diversity - this along is stifling the APS and its potential. There has to be a fundamental shift in the recruitment of SES and greater retribution for those that use fear, intimidation and bullying behaviour to get ahead. Without these points being addressed the status quo will remain.
Wed, 01 May 2019
In my experience no manager has the time to develop people in the team. The demands placed on them are too great and the staff training priority too low. I don't blame managers for this as there are very limited opportunities for large numbers of staff anyway
Sun, 28 Apr 2019
I believe that our guiding legislation is inconsistent. We require effective performance and for managers to engaging with managing under performance. However other related legislation places perception on a pedestal and finds that where an employee feels that they can no longer work with a manager they are often moved to a new section either through claims of unacceptable behaviour or medical certification from gps that individuals feel anxious of being given constructive feedback. More often than not what I now observe is managers who won’t engage with managing processes because the staff member will invariably be moved to a new section, can say what they like about the manager to whomever will listen and sometimes come with challenging bullying and harassment complaints for a manager to work through. I don’t believe we will see real change in our ps act performance requirements until we look at how overly generous we are under the src act.
Fri, 26 Apr 2019
Just to add to the undercover boss suggestion (which I like): what happens afterwards, who does the susser-outer report matters to, how long does it take, what are the changes, and how can they come into effect?
Wed, 24 Apr 2019
Do an "undercover" boss of the APS, for all levels including management. These objective observations of culture, and day to day running of agencies, will have insight beyond that of surveys and other information gathering techniques. For those not familiar with this concept it is when the "boss" of an organisation is disguised and employed in a different role - and receives feedback and training just as any normal new employee would. It highlights hard working employees with initiative and also poor performers very quickly.
Wed, 24 Apr 2019
The APS could consider what it wants to demonstrate: leaders, leader-managers, and/or managers?
Wed, 24 Apr 2019
If someone is engaged or promoted into a management role, but performs poorly, there needs to be better mechanisms to address it. Currently, they can stay and do what they like.
Tue, 23 Apr 2019
Greater transparency on the results of APS surveys. At this point, this is a 'closed shop' situation within DHS. Only the HR staff in ACT and Brisbane have immediate access to the data - with business teams being provided access through a portal. The Learning team would like to analyse data on business teams response to program interventions but does not have access to the data required. This means it's efforts to measure the effect of training become based upon largely subjective measures.
Mon, 22 Apr 2019
Have a look at other countries govenment models or businesses that have successful outcomes where their staff have been empowered and implement similar models to try? I.E. Google, Apple.
Mon, 22 Apr 2019
I understand the need for gaining further skills within the leadership team; can we start to see more training and opportunities for those who are interested in a career path within the Department. Many of the opportunities have been taken away from the APS staff and in the Regional area's it presents harder to gain these skills to become a leader or even be pro-active with your career path. It presents as 'unless you are in leadership, there are no training or furthering skills opportunities', but you cannot get into leadership without this. What happened to the future Leadership development training, the Diploma opportunities? Give development and furthering yourself back to the staff, with recognised training and up-skilling.
Thu, 18 Apr 2019
To ensure lasting change: Who wants lasting change if it's not fit for purpose/no longer addressing the problem to be solved and possibly there are new reasons to change? I think a better phrasing would be' How do we ensure change has worked i.e. been effective in solving the problem'. This can be achieved by having very clear drivers for change in the first place; Be sure about what you are trying to achieve and why (what is the problem you are trying to solve), when you want to achieve it by, and how will you know you have achieved it (KPI's). Then a review every 12-18 months can show how effective that change element has been and what needs to be done going forward. In my department it seems that change has been ever present the last three years with still no end in sight. Employees are demoralised, exhausted, frustrated etc. Ongoing change is very damaging and it would be good for our leaders to give us a framework for transition towards change so that worries about our future (working and personal) can be diminished.
Thu, 18 Apr 2019
Manager's do not achieve these outcomes without the strength of their teams. It is important that our leaders remember some of the fundamentals of leading people, gestures that may seem insignificant to them are usually the most significant for staff. Managers need to make the time to personally thank, aknowledge, and mentor their teams. This investment of time will pay dividends in the future.
Thu, 18 Apr 2019
Give Team Leaders (EL1s and EL2s) more control over promotion and hiring. They know the capability of their team members and what skills they need most, it is counterproductive to push contractors into development teams who lack the skills required for the required workload.
Thu, 18 Apr 2019
Within the Department of Human Services. There are many leaders who are performing higher duties. There are two issues, in my experience, appointed to positions will little to no training or supprt or any prior merit. They remian in higher duties and insecure about their own abilities, suggesting they do not have the capacity to focus on Learning and Development needs of staff beneath them, as they are too considered with managaing up. This is specifically for those aspiring leaders coming up the ranks. Unless the government focus on making jobs permannt or having a fairer recruitment (short term and long term high duties system) dis-satisfaction will continue and natrual attrition of very good staff will continue to happen, we will loose very good staff to other gvernmetn organisations or to private organisations. My solution is an independent recuritment watch dog - who can conduct regular audits. This will combat nepotism, appointments in positions not based on merit, create more opportunities and career pathways, making for more engaged staff.
Thu, 18 Apr 2019
Team leaders are unable to manage their teams and develop their staff as staff are expected to learn through self-paced learning and Operational Blueprint procedures as they go. Teams are not even able to manage work to develop staff as this is done by Channel Operations. Team leaders are hamstrung and aren't even able to send staff on training without going through the process of requesting this from Channel Operations.
Thu, 18 Apr 2019
Do the opposite of what the Brisbane Delivery Centre is doing and follow the workers agreement when is comes to broadband application. Give staff the opportunity to act so that they can develop their skills.
Wed, 17 Apr 2019
Just do it
Tue, 16 Apr 2019
Returning from 18 years working for the NZ government, I got a real shock to see that under my agency's enterprise agreement, salary advancement happens automatically as long as performance is 'satisfactory'. The NZ system varies between agenics, but usually includes an element of managers collectively working out how to spread the money available in any year across employees based on their respective performance and current position in their band (aiming to align performance with pay rate as much as possible). This usually means that high performers at any level get more of a pay rise than those who simply do a satisfactory job (who may not get any pay rise at all). I'm astonished that Australia still seems to reward longevity rather than performance.
Fri, 12 Apr 2019
A formal and carefully designed mentoring program across levels would be very valuable. Because the APS does not provide this the Institute of Public Administration Australia has had to fill the gap.
I think this is particularly important for very senior APS who seem to think they know it all - and maybe they did 5-10years ago and then the world moved on. THis why I say carefully designed in particular to try to avoid groupthink by having a very narrow cohort of mentors.
Thu, 11 Apr 2019
The traditional structure of the public service has rewarded people for tenure and technical expertise by appointing them to management positions. Alongside that we have people who are great leaders and managers not able to progress because they don't have the technical expertise. Therefore, the proposal should consider the classification, work level standards and recruitment practices so that there is recognition that we need both technical capability and leadership capability - this is not necessarily going to be the one and the same. Likewise, good managers need better support - for many years middle management has been tethered with a poor performance management framework so that trying to manage an underperformer has been nigh on impossible and will often result in the individual making harassment or bullying claims when really they are trying to get them to do their job. Therefore, for the APS to truely transform the performance management framework and the tools for managers needs to be completely revisited. The APSC needs to play a bigger role in the shaping the leaders of tomorrow - particularly the transition between EL2 and SES - we are losing capable people at this point.
Wed, 10 Apr 2019
Role statements vary in different departments whilst the competency requirements are the same. As a leader finding the balance to deliver services to Australian citizens remains BAU approach. Departments lack the depth in providing sufficient training through facilitators and learning modules. As the first jobs to go are always in the learning development teams. Outsourcing does not help. Can we have a common learning systems
Wed, 10 Apr 2019
Our frustrations with people we work with usually boil down to us being humans. It is not just the public sector! We require managers to assess their employees on intangible attributes that are hard to measure any other way than through opinion. We need to support managers to provide this opinion humanely and carefully, but to definitely provide it. Not providing feedback but holding a differing opinion on performance than the employee has is cruel and unfair - find a way to tell them, to help them manage their reaction and to support them to change for the better.
Wed, 10 Apr 2019
I think this is crucial to the future of a truly innovative and flexible APS. Utilising 360 feedback processes will highlight any management/leadership issues, but this must be done with a level of caution. In a prior job, the manager receiving 360 feedback was intimidating those reporting to them which made a mockery of the process. I would also like to see references in job applications from staff above AND below to guage their ability to lead and manage.
Aren't we all about setting up people to succeed rather than fail. Providing the toolkit and support managers and leaders need to create an environment of calculated risk taking and innovation is the key to a successful, future APS.
Wed, 10 Apr 2019
Sorry before you incentive Managers, how about growing Management skills, few if any Managers in the public service have received formal training on how to actually manage people, skills and behaviours around what this looks like in terms of 'best practice' need to be developed, a growth framework if you like. Management skills and development should be a priority - the public service should grow managers first, know how to measure this skill before you look to incentivise them.
Wed, 10 Apr 2019
Despite the growth in HR branches in many department they are still woeful when it comes to supporting staff who are being bullied - both in terms of the victim and the perpetrator. There needs to be a consistent framework to weed out these types who often get moved on into other roles and become someone else's problem as senior management shy away from tackling the issue.
Another issue is the deskilling of EL1s and EL2s. The APS is still extremely risk averse and fearful of reputational damage so the clearance processes are extreme, leading to bottlenecks for even the most basic of tasks eg developing an agenda for a meeting. This has happened due to a flattening of reporting lines (thanks Boston Consulting for applying your one size fits all approach to the APS). Additionally there needs to be focus paid on ensuring ELs are well rounded - its all well and good to have someone with technical skills and no direct reports but as they climb the ladder they lack management experience which hinders high performing teams and extremely poor people management skills. There is so much potential in the APS, I hope this review will set in motion real change not just speculation of what needs to be done.
Wed, 10 Apr 2019
Some of this exists now, albeit in an inconsistent way and incentives generally work to encourage positive behaviours. However, the yawning gap at the moment is what happens when managers don't meet their staff development responsibilities OR any of their responsibilities. Where are the REAL accountabilities that ensure they will; what will happen if they do not? A real consistent, overt process is required AND there need to be checks and balanced to ensure it is applied fairly across the board. Too often, everyone at a leadership level in a department will know that a particular manager isn't doing their job but nothing happens - staff, customers and the business suffer but the manager just limps along from one role to the next creating chaos. Empowered managers accountable for developign staff sounds like a great idea but not without real accountability at all levels. It's not ok for senior leaders to demand that middle managers manage their staff performance (and underperformance) and then not do the same with lazy/defiant/unsuited middle managers. What will guarantee we eradicate these double standards ie how will we know everyone in the chain is doing the right thing because that's what it will take to change the APS and really move it forward. Do what we say requires checks and balances!
Tue, 09 Apr 2019
Good luck! The main motivation for managers is to manage upwards and keep their immediate manager who they directly to happy. Any attempt to implement this proposal will result in a 'fick and flick' process. Doing something though is better than doing nothing - so you should still try albeit with unlikely chances of success.
Tue, 09 Apr 2019
Can you stop employing and creating those woeful micro managers who make people unwell and create more problems than they are worth. Particularly as staff go on long leave, workers compensation or move contracts. If managers are good operators and are well respected by there peers, there is no need to use thumb screws to get people to work. Organisations are very poor at identifying managers who lack skills, who have destructive personalities, and whose commitment is about the money they receive and not the people who work with and under them. The journey to the destination is as important as to arriving at the destination. Whole teams need to be given incentives NOT just managers. Feedback should be as much bottom up as it is top down. Both need to listen and hear each other to be on the same page and move forward. The old command and control systems have limited value and stifle innovation, productivity and creativity. Use blockchain technology to track public funds to reduce waste, fraudulent mismanagement and where and how the funds make a difference to desired public policy/strategy goals. Link cost of public policy with pilots before roll outs to reduce system failures and adequate infustructure analysis and coatings.
Thu, 04 Apr 2019
Ensure sufficient funds and efforts are dedicated to quality and ongoing capability building and objective measurement of people managers and leaders.
Too frequently this activity is not prioritised anywhere in the system (whether it be NPP development where Finance removes any training/development funding, to APSC being improperly core funded, to individual agencies under funding capability).
Thu, 04 Apr 2019
Many managers of technical teams are expected to also do technical work. This reduces their time to do management. Having all staff time be paid by projects (cap-ex) with no op-ex reduces the ability of both managers and staff to spend any time on personal development, training and mentoring.
A lack of measuring diversity at the team level, and a lack of measuring the movement of non-white/non-male staff away from teams (typically reducing team diversity) makes it impossible to measure which managers attract and promote diverse applicants and which managers tend to consistently have any non-white/non-male staff who have joined their team, leave their teams for possibly gentler pastures.
The PDS as implemented provides no linkages between desired staff development and organisational implementation of that development. For example if enough staff - across multiple teams with different managers - would like to learn X-thing, then at the organisational level it might be worth organising training or access to training for those staff, even where it might only be one or two staff members for each manager.
If you want lasting change you have to provide both staff and managers confidence that these measures won't change with the next change of Director or the next change of CTO or the next change of government etc etc. In the 2.5 years I've been in the APS, my department has had 2 organisational shuffles. SFIA was tried but never heard of again. Other initiatives have come and gone. There's a lot of cynicism because the landscape is ever changing; not the changes from security requirements based on the cyber-threat landscape change or those sort of out-of-our-control changes... but because the internal landscape is ever-changing. Combined with the former, it's exhausti
Thu, 04 Apr 2019
In the last 10+ years there has been a strong shift toward autocratic managers who have very limited people / interpersonal skills and are only focussed on achieving contracted outcomes, disempowering and demotivating staff. In job descriptions and selection, managers should be required to have proven people /interpersonal skills with a democratic and inclusive management style and an understanding of situational / adaptive leadership models.
Wed, 03 Apr 2019
Enable and encourage APS transfers to other areas, secondments, knowledge sharing.
Wed, 03 Apr 2019
Hire Leaders to be our managers. Train them and give them time to devote to their staff. Create mentor programs that cross workplace boundaries. Ensure a balance of Leadership with equal female and male management representation. 360 degree feedback should be paramount.
Wed, 03 Apr 2019
Problem: Managers are hampered by the current performance framework - all bark and no bite. This continues to come up in APS Census results year on year. This proposal could be strengthened by looking at how the APS Act is translated into practice about what is expected for APS staff and how we hold them to account - in the private sector you perform or you are out. This single change would provide a different culture and move the public service from a 'guaranteed job for life no matter your performance' to one where people are awarded for their efforts, performance and achievements.
Mon, 01 Apr 2019
This is an interesting opportunity for APS to capitalise on its internal capabilities. APS staff are often misaligned with their core skills and capabilities, and operating in a different job family. It is essential to establish a register for staff capabilities and academic qualifications that can be shared within APS agencies.
Fri, 29 Mar 2019
Celebrate great people managers and please get rid of bad people managers immediately. Have exit interviews and effective HR (locally based) that knows what is going on. It's this reticence to act when people formally complain about bad/ineffective/bullying managers in the APS hat puzzles me. Knew of a bad EL1 maanger that had three people lodge complaints, in different circumstances and at different times, nothing was done until last year he got paid out 15 years service with a redundancy offer. That's truly pathetic and I suspect there are many similar occurences across the APS. Many APS managers at the El1 or EL2 level are driven into the ground with a huge workload since Gov froze recruitment and introduced the ASL. In my dept, restructuring has pushed down a lot more responsibility and accountability (from El2 to El1 and from SES to EL2). As a result, they really do not focus on people management or developing people and teams due to time constraints and in many cases, due to complete and utter lack of interest in doing so. Also, I would go as far as to say that many managers in the APs are appointed due to technical knowledge or know how, and simply don't have people or HR skills (even when undergoing training). The APS needs to think about the important role of HR in recruiting managers that are able to develop people and teams - not everybody is up for it.
Fri, 29 Mar 2019
I support incentives for managers to develop staff. However, any robust APS development strategy will also need mechanisms and structures that make APS best practice accessible to all staff - independent of the goodwill and/or capabilities of their managers, or the culture of the department or agency.
Thu, 28 Mar 2019
Need to clearly define what it is to be a manager and what is expected of managers. If it is expected that they will be coaches and mentors and provide regular feedback then they need to be given time to perform that role. In many cases they would also need PD to be able to perform these functions. Revisit how much time is spent in meetings and ensure that managers have time to manage the work area they are responsible for and not just attend meetings. Managing underperformance needs a fair and equitable approach is taken to everyone. Need to differentiate between engagement, motivation and performing valued work and underperformance. Also need to ensure that the issue is the staff member and not the manager. 360 feedback would assist but would want an independant evaluation and oversight to ensure it was of actual value. Problem if there are only a few staff at a certain level if you want open, honest feedback. Want managers to develop their staff then it must be something they are accountable for. They could look at opportunities for staff but really individuals should also be accountable for their own development. Do these parties have the expertise to manage career development or do we look at other functions to assist.
Wed, 27 Mar 2019
In developing people, one should focus on long term personal and organisation goals, manager should be clearly supportive of staff career choices. However, there could be short term disruptions at work which could be risk managed effectively and create a more friendly workplace.
Wed, 27 Mar 2019
As long as the rigid bureaucratic culture remains unaddressed in the public sector people are not able to reach anywhere near their full potential. People must leave their values, aspirations, visions at the front door and do what ever they need to do to meet the expectations of their leaders. that is, do things the way they have always been done, don't dare make any significant mistakes, do not try anything new, perform totally in alignment with the role that you are in, etc, etc. The culture, individual performance, leadership abilities, outcomes, etc are all connected and must be addressed at a higher level of thinking than is currently in evidence.
Tue, 26 Mar 2019
People whom are appointed to people management positions should be spending the majority of their time with their people, further developing, recognising and rewarding and motivating and inspiring them to achieve their best every day. This can be measured in the output of teams (eg: improved productivity and accuracy/results). ie: if the people managers are successful in inspiring and motivating their teams, their teams will acheive more. Happy and engaged people always produce more. Instead of top down management, perhaps a new model of "self managed teams" where each and every team member are encouraged to shape the culture of their teams with accountable and achievable goals, as well as collectively and collaboratively providing solutions to all problems faced by the teams. Instead of traditional style of management being "I'm the boss, I'll tell you what to do and how to do it". How about "here is a problem, these are the boundaries - now we need to define our own goals of success and develop our own solutions to achieve results. We will be accountable for our own successes and failures. If our trials do not work, we will be committed to try a new and different solution...". Staff will feel cared about by being consulted and listened to, and being able to actively create their own culture, as well as further developing skills, self confidence, team morale. It would be good if people managers are supportive and encouraging of changes suggested by team members.
Mon, 25 Mar 2019
I think the empowerment of managers to develop their teams need to be more than just focusing on the development of staff that have potentials and reward them. There seems to be a culture that we will just leave staff who is not performing as is. I have a senior staff that does not perform at all in the team (high absence rate, performing badly when doing any work at all etc). I tried contacting HR and they push the responsibility to my senior management; then, for reasons I am not privileged to – the senior management prefers to keep the status quo. To be fair – this issue existed for at least 3 years, long before I took over the team, so there may be a specific reason why it was never addressed. However, there are only very limited rewards I can actually give to my performing staff – and so it is difficult for me to encourage them to continue to perform and develop their skills, when they see a senior staff getting higher pay for essentially doing nothing and without consequences. I have to admit this is new to me – I never have problem getting approvals from my manager when I need to fire non-performing staff when I was in the private sector (in fact most of the time I was the one asking my manager to give them a chance). Giving a staff time and encouragement to improve is one thing, but I cannot see how we can develop staff and team efficiently and effectively if we cannot address issues with the non-performance.
Mon, 25 Mar 2019
If you want empowered and accountable managers, ensure they are afforded the time to focus on development of their teams. Too often EL1's and 2's are busy doing the work rather than coaching/motivating and developing their staff. Is a Manager-Staff ratio something worth considering (e.g. I have worked in directorates with 20+ staff and others with only 3 staff...)
Mon, 25 Mar 2019
I believe the time it takes for managers to effectively manage, support and build staff capabilities needs to be taken into consideration. Effective people management also needs to be better built into the requirements for staff to become managers (through training, recruitment and core responsibilities). At the moment, it seems as if many managers do not prioritize people management or people management training as a key part of their job. Effective people management training should be mandatory for managers.
Sat, 23 Mar 2019
There is nothing here that addresses the underlying culture in the APS in most big departments.
While some cultures are positive, it depends upon the senior leader who sets the cultural tone and expectations, and needs time to set this in place.
In many departments there is an insidious culture of self-promotion, information hoarding, “limelight” seekers, dog-eat-dog. Health was the worst for it, but DVA and the APSC and DHS are also awful. Honestly, have a proper review of culture.
Many bullies, narcissists and psychopaths have been promoted into the SES ranks. The culture is rancid in many pockets of the APS !
Leaders reproduce themselves, as it’s a simple principle of leadership.
I offer this feedback based on my experience in change management, with consulting firms, 15 years as a specialist public servant across many govt depts and agencies including directly to a former APS Commissioner. I was a ministerial advisor. I have worked in the private sector, and am now an Executive Officer for a not-for-profit organisation.
I would love to see the APS becoming a truly positive, thriving organisation. A place where people are genuinely valued, where good behaviour flourishes. Behaviours that I’ve outlined above would simply not be tolerated. However this is a massive change program and would take several years.
This issue is truly the heart of the matter. If you can’t be sure to identify and remove bullies, narcissistic and psychopathic behaviour that is rife in the organisation you will have no success in any other.
Happy to discuss this further
REDACTED
Thu, 21 Mar 2019
As an APS 4 looking to develop my APS 6 capabilities I have relied heavily on myself as the driver for this and also on work from peers. there is no clear directon as to how this can be acheived or framework as a guide. Luckily I have engaged a very supportive mentor and we are working closely together. there is nothing to go to as to what we need to do to start the process or tips and hints etc. This could be across the board right through from APS 3 up to SES. what skills you have and need development in and what tools you need training in to enable you to effectively act in higher delegations.
Tue, 19 Mar 2019
A great deal of time and effort is devoted to recruitment. This is particularly wasteful, inefficient and frustrating when an "ideal" employee is acting in a position but has to compete to secure the position permanently. If an acting employee has, over a minimum period, say 3-6 months, demonstrated capacity to fulfill the role, engage productively with colleagues and others and has potential for future further advancement they should be able to be considered for direct appointment without a recruitment process. This would not be determined by the immediate supervisor, but by the supervisor's supervisor or a senior delegate. In this way talent would be acknowledged and retained without wasting the time of applicants and members of selection panels.
Tue, 19 Mar 2019
I support pro-integrity stances being incorporated into how the APS 'manages the managers'. Performance appraisal processes should gain 360-type feedback from the manager's manager, maybe another SES one removed, maybe a peer or two, definitely from all staff who work directly to the manager.