This advice focuses on Service Delivery, Public Administration and Accountability, and Corporate Support.
Service Delivery and Corporate Support Services functions are common to any organisation, whereas Public Administration and Accountability functions are requirements specific to government.
The work-function classification structure has been designed to:
- establish categories that can be consistently applied across all public service bodies;
- be capable of being assigned consistently within each public service body and maintained over time without loss of integrity;
- avoid any requirement to make fine distinctions about the classification of individuals and groups of staff, while providing credible and meaningful information on the deployment of staff in general terms;
- be reported in the VPSC’s annual workforce data collection and used in combination with occupation data (reported using the Australia and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) structure) so that it can to deliver greater detail and understanding of work performed by individuals; and
- limit the additional reporting burden by incorporating the requested information into the existing data collection.
It will provide the Government with consistent information on the proportion and number of staff working in the broad activity areas across all public service agencies. The information will enable the Government to make informed decisions about the allocation of resources to functions in the public service.
At the agency level the implementation of the work-function classification structure is intended to provide a means for departments to improve their internal analysis on the deployment of their workforce.