Be stewards and champions of the public sector, driving innovation and promoting the value of its role
The Commission has played a critical role in supporting reform and acting as a steward and champion of the sector.
The Commission regularly convened the Public Sector Administration Committee with the Commissioner as Chair. This committee brings together senior leaders across the Victorian Public Service (VPS) to drive high quality public administration and performance for the benefit of all Victorians. This Committee has a particular focus on integrity, workforce, public administration and corporate reform.
The Commissioner is an active member of the Victorian Secretaries’ Board, presenting on critical workforce and integrity issues and supporting other key areas of focus identified by the Board.
The Commissioner also attended a variety of internal and public events and meetings to discuss and promote capability and collaboration, embed the public sector values and instil pride in the public sector.
The Commission convened other executive-level groups focused on people and culture, organisational development and occupational health and safety (OHS). These regular cross-departmental engagements facilitated visibility of emerging workforce issues, collaborative problem solving, and sharing of good and best workforce management and development practice.
The Commission launched a new series of in-person forums for Deputy Secretaries to stimulate new thinking and approaches to public sector leadership and stewardship, providing important opportunities for reflection, and cross-VPS peer connection and support.
The Innovation Network continued to collaborate with stakeholders across government providing support for VPS partners to reach a whole of Victorian government (WoVG) audience. This included programs, events and content across areas such as mental health, digital literacy and cyber security, participatory design, diversity and inclusion, gender equality, accessible communications and behavioural science, legal professions, and self-determination, all delivered in partnership with departments.
Lead innovative public sector workforce policy, programs and advice to drive better practice and delivery, including during a crisis
We provided whole-of-government advice related to human resources (HR) policy and practice and supported integration with recruitment platforms that we administer.
We partnered with Emergency Management Victoria to prototype an operating model for better mobilisation of the public sector workforce in response to emergencies. The prototype was tested in early 2024 via two activations to respond to severe weather events. Action based learning and evaluation is underway to inform improvements to the prototype.
The Commission’s work on the Job Family Architecture is also critical to underpinning its ability to move VPS employees where they are most needed. Throughout the 2023-24 period, eight different job groups were developed, validated and authorised by the Human Resources Directors Committee. Each job family is workshopped with subject matter experts within the VPS to ensure it is fit for purpose and adequately reflects the relevant roles within the field and broadly aligns with ANZSCO coding. It is anticipated that the Commission will have completed mapping all 19 job groups in late 2024.
As part of a partnership with WorkSafe, the Commission:
- developed an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Accountability and Reporting Framework that outlines commitments by VPS departments, WorkSafe and the VPSC to track VPS OHS performance and embed a continuous improvement approach
- supported WorkSafe to deliver two sector-wide OHS Forum events which built relationships across VPS Departments and drove collaboration in responding to common OHS challenges.
The Commission worked closely with the Department of Government Services to support the implementation of VicGov People, a new Human Capital Management System.
Provide evidence-based data and insights that support a stronger, safer and more sustainable workforce for better delivery
The Commission refreshed its annual State of the Public Sector Report. For the first time, the Report included a Commissioner’s message, a series of key performance indicators to monitor public sector performance, and stories to highlight innovative practice from across the sector. This information series comprising public sector workforce facts, figures, interactive data visualisations and data sets is published on the Commission website.
In 2023, the Commission achieved the highest ever response number for the People matter survey. Over 115,000 employees from 240 organisations completed the survey, providing insights about diversity, inclusion, employee wellbeing and engagement. Public sector organisations use the results to develop their people and culture strategies inclusion and diversity plans, and to inform their workplace gender audits under the Gender Equality Act 2020.
In 2023, the Commission also completed the annual collection of employee data from all 268 public sector organisations. The VPSC’s workforce data collections are used to understand organisation, industry, and sector level workforce trends.
Drawing on both People matter survey data and workforce data, the Commission developed workforce insights for several industries to support leaders in their roles.
As part of its WorkSafe partnership, the Commission reviewed data collection processes and developed a VPS Mental Health and Wellbeing Dashboard that analysed diverse government datasets to derive insights about mental health in the VPS, track trends and measure improvement. This Dashboard also identified opportunities for intervention to support improved mental health and safety practices and inform strategic whole-of-VPS OHS decision making.
Identify, develop and share good practice to build capability and support better ways of working across government
The Commission continued to work in partnership with departments to review capability needs across the VPS and identify opportunities to strength core craft capabilities.
In 2023, the Commission continued to draw on data to identify and share good practice in terms of public sector workforce culture, integrity and performance by:
- engaging with VPS and public sector organisations to identify the ingredients of positive workplace cultures
- preparing ‘tips for Boards in supporting positive workplace cultures’
- delivering People matter portfolio reports to secretaries and relevant deputy secretaries, which identified the characteristics of high performing organisations.
The Commission’s digital learning, sharing and connection platform, the Innovation Network, increased to 20,000 members across the Victorian public sector, up from 18,000 last year. In 2023-2024:
- 28 new Communities of Practice started up on the platform, across professional, discipline and staff led diversity networks
- Over 35 events were delivered online, in person and hybrid for over 11,000 attendees
- Sessions covered topics as varied as coding, behavioural insights, change management, plain language, workplace culture and flexible and hybrid working
- The Innovation Network also worked closely with organisational psychologists at Converge International to design a series of sessions for personnel impacted by workforce transitions.
The Commission also continued to coordinate regular meetings of Organisational Development, Occupational Health and Safety and Human Resources executives to support connection, collaboration and consultation across the VPS.
The Commission also commenced the Diversity Workforce Data Collection standards project, to develop a set of data standards to guide Victorian public sector organisations on asking for demographic data from public sector employees, such as gender identity and cultural background. These Standards, once implemented, will support consistent collection of diversity and demographic data from prospective and current employees.