Good afternoon Panel
I believe a Posting in/Posting out (PI/PO) type concept for APS Defence spouses would be a great tool to enable us to swap jobs when our partners PI/PO. Being an APS Defence spouse, it would be useful if there was an avenue I could look down to see if an APS defence spouse was posting with the ADF member from our respective locations, want to swap positions. I know there is/was an APS register of some description where you could put in an EOI for jobs, but believe you me that doesn’t work, I’ve worked in HR and know firsthand nobody looks at it.
I have recently posted with my wife (ARMY) to Townsville and had to take LWOP from my previous unit to accompany her. It has taken me the best part of 18 months to secure a permanent APS position, I was on the verge of having to resign from the APS because my LWOP was not being extended by my previous unit. I’ve been in the APS 6 years but have previously worked in the engineering industry for over 25 years. I have a vast amount of APS SME knowledge in WHS, HR Management and Admin along with a vast amount of APS corporate knowledge and should I have had to resign, the loss of that knowledge and experience would have been a great detriment to Defence APS. I believe having a similar PI/PO for ADF spouses/partners would be of great value to APS Defence enabling continuous capability therefore cutting down on recruitment costs. If the ADF can do it, then surely the APS can do it.
Kind regards
Simon Bourne