Introduction

Public and private sectors throughout the developed world face considerable difficulties in sustaining their workforces. Issues such as the ageing of the workforce, fewer available skilled employees, and greater mobility of workers all significantly challenge the ways in which organisations recruit and manage their workforces. A robust and dynamic approach to recruitment is therefore critical to secure a skilled workforce able to deliver the diverse range of services provided by government.

In response to these challenges, the Australian Public Service (APS) recruitment framework has undergone significant reform over the past decade. There has been a move away from a centralised system of recruitment and training to a devolved recruitment framework which provides greater flexibility and responsiveness in recruitment. The Public Service Act 1999 (PS Act) provides the legislative framework for employment in many Australian Government organisations.¹. Under the PS Act, agency heads are responsible for employment decisions in an agency.

To assist APS² agencies better manage recruitment in this devolved environment, the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has issued a range of recruitment guidance, provides training and advice, and responds to questions about recruitment issues. The APSC has a role to modernise APS employment, including by continuing ‘to review the employment framework, with emphasis on streamlining recruitment processes'.³ The APSC also promotes innovative recruitment and retention strategies.

Recruitment is a central component of an APS agency's human resource management (HRM) framework directed towards achieving agency outcomes. Mature frameworks governing recruitment activities in the APS typically involve agencies developing strategic approaches to recruitment based on workforce plans, ⁴implementing structures to manage and support recruitment activities, conducting recruitment processes in accordance with legislation and better practices, and systematically monitoring recruitment performance for continual improvement (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 The APS recruitment framework

Source: Australian National Audit Office (ANAO).

Underpinning strategic approaches are three distinct recruitment processes: defining and identifying employment requirements; attracting a pool of suitable applicants; and selecting the right person for the position.

Despite long experience in recruiting staff, well-established recruitment practices, and the assistance provided by the APSC and others, recruitment remains an ongoing challenge for APS agencies. At a strategic level, there is uncertainty about planning recruitment needs into the future, and the current tight labour market conditions make it difficult to attract sufficient skilled staff, especially in the areas of information technology, financial management, accounting, HRM and project management⁵. Operationally, the most critical difficulties are: defining the role to be filled and the skills and capabilities required; attracting a quality field; and being able to collect sufficient robust information on each applicant to support a reliable recruitment decision. A continuing sensitivity for recruitment is that it involves people, their emotional responses to recruitment processes, and often their reactions to the disappointment of unsuccessfully applying for positions.

The importance of recruitment to the achievement of agency objectives and staff satisfaction requires recruitment activities to be undertaken effectively, efficiently, and in a fair and transparent manner, consistent with legislative requirements.

Trends in APS recruitment activity

There were 143 525 ongoing APS staff as at 30 June 2007. ⁶ APS recruitment activity rose sharply between 2003–04 and 2006–07, from around 19 000 to 39 000 staff,⁷ reflecting the increased mobility of APS employees, strong employment growth, and an increasing number of retirees.

ANAO analysis indicates that employment growth accounted for 22 per cent of APS recruitment activity in 2006–07. Growth in the size of the APS placed increasing pressure on many agencies to recruit skilled staff in 2006–07. The ANAO notes the cyclical nature of growth in the APS and the possibility that reduced growth in coming years may alleviate some pressure on agencies to recruit skilled staff.

Individual APS agencies often face markedly different recruitment environments, especially in terms of the: availability of suitable candidates; pre-employment requirements (such as security checks); extent of staff turnover; and proportion of recruitment activities filled by employees of the agency. Reflecting these different environments, recruitment rates ⁸varied considerably across APS agencies in 2006–07, ranging from 12 per cent to 62 per cent.

Costs of staff turnover and recruitment

There are significant direct and indirect costs associated with recruitment activity and staff turnover in the APS. Direct recruitment costs can include advertising, hiring external recruitment agencies and time taken by selection committees. Indirect costs associated with staff turnover can includelower productivity before an employee leaves, vacancy costs until the role is filled, and loss of productivity associated with new employees.⁹

Based on the assumption that direct recruitment costs amount to an average 15 per cent of salary, direct APS recruitment costs were estimated to total around $370 million in 2006–07.¹⁰ Indirect costs of staff turnover (for example, lost productivity and training costs) may have been of a similar magnitude.¹¹ Given the imprecise nature of the underlying assumptions and methodology, these estimates are indicative only. However, they demonstrate the significant cost of APS recruitment activities.

Key challenges for recruitment in the APS

The nature and extent of changes in the employment environment pose considerable challenges for the APS to attract, retain and develop skilled and talented staff. In the face of skill shortages and changing population demographics, APS agencies are competing with each other and other sectors to fill jobs. Their approach to recruiting staff can be a key factor in how successful they are in finding the right people.

Recruitment therefore can no longer be regarded as a ‘soft' issue, as the APS positions itself ‘to succeed in a war for talent'.¹² To succeed in this environment, three distinct challenges for the APS are: implementing more strategic approaches to recruitment; improving the quality of recruitment processes; and adopting APS-wide approaches to recruiting key occupations.

Audit objective and scope

The objective of the audit was to assess whether APS agencies had sound approaches to recruitment, to assist in providing the workforce capability to deliver government programs effectively. Sound approaches to recruitment involve agencies:

• establishing and implementing strategic approaches to recruitment to address current and future workforce priorities and goals;
• managing and supporting recruitment activities through the provision of expert advice and support, legislative and procedural guidance material, and training for staff involved in recruitment activities;
• conducting recruitment activities effectively and in compliance with legislative and administrative requirements; and
• systematically monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of recruitment strategies, policies and activities.

In undertaking the audit, the ANAO analysed APSC recruitment and survey data covering all APS agencies, and conducted a detailed assessment of three agencies' recruitment strategies and practices against the four criteria outlined above. The three audited agencies were the Department of Finance and Deregulation (Finance),¹³ the Australian Taxation Office, and Comcare. These agencies faced quite different recruitment conditions and, as such, provided a cross-section of APS agencies.

The ANAO also assessed APS-wide policy and guidance and recruitment initiatives undertaken by the APSC, and whether Finance had established professional communities of practice in accordance with recommendations from the Management Advisory Committee (MAC) Report No.5, Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce, 2005.

The audit examined recruitment activities for ongoing positions in APS agencies subject to the PS Act, except for graduate, cadet, Indigenous, disability and Senior Executive Service (SES) positions.

Management of Recruitment in the Australian Public Service

Recruiting sufficient skilled staff was difficult for APS agencies in 2007: unemployment in was at 30 year lows; there was strong demand nationally and internationally for skilled employees; and APS employees were increasingly mobile.¹⁴ While ongoing APS employment increased by over 8700 (6.5 per cent) ¹⁵in 2006–07, many positions remained unfilled, and most agencies (88 per cent) reported having continued difficulty in recruiting people (other than for their graduate program) with the required skills.¹⁶

Over recent years, a number of reports from MAC, APSC and ANAO¹⁷ have advised agencies to implement strategic recruitment approaches based on workforce planning analysis (which seeks to identify current and anticipated gaps in workforce capabilities). APSC State of the Service Reports show a moderate increase over time in the proportion of agencies implementing workforce planning approaches. Nevertheless, nearly half of all responding APS agencies¹⁸(47 per cent) reported that they did not have policies, strategies and/or frameworks in place to support them to meet workforce capability requirements over the next one to five years. The three audited agencies had not implemented workforce planning processes that were able to identify capability gaps, and had not tailored recruitment initiatives in response to clearly identified skill shortages. The lack of mature workforce planning processes impairs agencies' capacity to address challenges arising from the changing workforce environment. In addition, none of the three audited agencies had developed recruitment strategies that addressed both general and targeted recruitment.

The three audited agencies had structured their recruitment functions to broadly suit their circumstances. Managers in line areas who were responsible for recruiting staff were generally satisfied with the advice and support provided by HRM staff, although they often made only limited contact with HRM staff when managing recruitment activities. Greater interaction between line managers and HRM staff is likely to assist agencies improve recruitment planning, selection of candidates, timeliness and recordkeeping. To better support recruitment processes, there would also be benefit in two of the agencies providing recruitment guidance material that was short, easy to understand and practical to implement. The provision of recruitment training varied significantly across agencies, and implementing training needs analysis mechanisms would help agencies ensure that staff involved in recruitment processes were adequately skilled, including in the application of merit-selection principles.

APS employees generally held fairly negative views about APS recruitment processes. Of those who applied for an APS position in 2006–07, only 36 per cent were left with a positive impression of the agency following the selection process.¹⁹ Although survey results varied considerably across agencies, key areas of applicant dissatisfaction related to: the opportunity to seek feedback; the perceived fairness of APS recruitment processes; and the timeliness of APS recruitment processes. To better support staff in undertaking recruitment processes, agencies should consider implementing quality control and/or quality assurance processes (such as sample-based compliance reviews by HRM staff) and developing recruitment planning templates for use by selection panels.

There is scope for the audited agencies to collect and utilise more comprehensive information about the effectiveness, timeliness and efficiency of recruitment activities. In particular, these agencies did not systematically monitor and assess whether they: attracted sufficient suitable candidates, recruited suitable people; undertook recruitment activities at an appropriate cost; or used external service providers effectively and efficiently. Given the high cost of staff turnover and recruitment, it is important that agencies' monitor and report key elements of recruitment performance so they can continually improve recruitment strategies and processes.

The audited agencies considered APSC guidance material and direct assistance to be useful and had assisted them provide agency-specific policy and guidance, and support line staff involved in recruitment activities. To further support APS agencies, the APSC could expand the guidance it provides about recruitment performance measures for reporting and evaluation purposes. The APSC, and to an extent Finance, have made considerable progress to address seven relevant initiatives from MAC Report No.5,²⁰ although it was not yet possible to assess the impact of these initiatives on APS-wide recruitment.

Key findings by chapter

The audit found that many of the issues facing APS agencies in managing recruitment were similar to those outlined in earlier reports by the APSC, MAC and ANAO.²¹

Key findings for recruitment in the APS are outlined below in relation to agencies' strategic approaches, management and support, processes, and monitoring and evaluation, as well as APS-wide recruitment guidance and initiatives. These findings are followed by an outline of six areas that agencies could usefully focus on to enhance their recruitment practices, and a discussion of sound and better practices identified in the audit.

Strategic approaches to recruitment (Chapter 2)

Over recent years, a number of studies²² have identified scope for APS agencies to adopt more strategic approaches to recruitment. Of prime importance is workforce planning, which is ‘a continuous process of shaping the workforce to ensure it is capable of delivering organisational objectives now and in the future'.²³ Amongst other things, workforce planning involves the identification of workforce requirements by assessing the demand (workforce required) and supply (workforce available) dimensions of the workforce to identify any capability gaps—that is, gaps between current workforce capability and current and future workforce capability requirements.

At the time of audit fieldwork, only one of the three audited agencies had assessed the gap between demand for and supply of labour. This agency had identified the current and future workforce requirements against broad occupational categories,²⁴ which did not provide sufficient explanation of the skills required. To facilitate a more robust assessment of the gap between demand for and supply of labour, the agency planned to examine how it could implement a workforce capability model.²⁵ The other two audited agencies have rapidly advanced the completion or improvement of workforce planning and capability modelling approaches in recent months to support their implementation of workforce planning in 2007–08. These approaches have the potential to better support future recruitment strategies.

More broadly, nearly half of all APS agencies responding to an APSC survey²⁶ acknowledged they did not have policies, strategies and/or frameworks in place to support them to meet workforce capability requirements over the next one to five years. The main challenges to implementing workforce planning across the APS involved obtaining adequate information about workforce skill sets, demographics and characteristics, and the ability to plan for changes likely to impact an agency's business. Given the difficulties of implementing effective workforce planning approaches based on sound information about potential workforce requirements, it is desirable that agencies treat workforce planning as an iterative process. There are also advantages from drawing on resources such as the APSC and other APS agencies for advice in implementing effective workforce planning approaches.

As part of targeted recruitment strategies, 78 per cent of APS agencies reported²⁷ having measures to attract and retain people with critical skills (such as recruitment/retention bonuses or skill shortage allowances). These recruitment strategies targeted areas such as graduate and specialist skills (such as accounting). However, at the time of audit fieldwork, none of the three audited agencies had developed a recruitment strategy to address both targeted and general recruitment.

To develop more creative, innovative and targeted attraction and recruitment strategies, agencies can adopt employer branding strategies. Employer branding is the practice of developing and marketing an organisation's reputation as an employer. The development of agency-wide branding material was a high priority for recruitment activities in two of the audited agencies. One of these agencies had developed a recruitment advertising manual and employment value propositions²⁸ to incorporate in recruitment advertising. The other agency developed employment value propositions after the conclusion of audit fieldwork in the agency. The third agency was planning to undertake an attraction and branding strategy.

Delivering on employment value propositions that are offered to job seekers is as important as identifying and promoting value propositions. In this regard, while the majority of employment value propositions developed by the two audited agencies were supported by the results of the APSC State of the Service Employee Survey and/or agency staff surveys, some branding material did not accurately reflect employee perceptions of the key positive attributes of working in their agency. More generally, none of the audited agencies had based the development of attraction and branding material on sound research or evaluated the impact of their branding strategies.

Factors that attract people to work at APS agencies vary considerably across agencies and, as a result, agency branding material should be designed to reflect those factors that best represent the key attractors to the specific agency rather than simply relying on key attractors to the APS. While such an approach allows APS agencies to distinguish themselves from one another, agency branding material should also deliver consistent messages to job seekers about the benefits of employment in the APS. In this regard, there is an opportunity for the APSC to provide more guidance on core employment value propositions of the APS.

Recruitment management and support (Chapter 3)

In most recruitment activities, a manager from the line area seeking to recruit staff is given overall responsibility for planning, managing and undertaking the recruitment process. However, managers are generally not recruitment experts, and their success will be greatly enhanced if they have more active support of recruitment staff from the agencies' HRM function, and recruitment experts.

The APSC has provided considerable guidance to agencies about how to manage and support recruitment activities. All three audited agencies had structured their recruitment functions in a manner consistent with the APSC's Working in Partnership²⁹ model, as managers from agency business lines were responsible for managing general recruitment processes, with the support of agency HRM staff. While the three agencies had structured and coordinated their recruitment functions to suit their circumstances, one of the more decentralised administrative models had lead to a situation where line areas were not always aware of specialist skills available to them. These findings reinforce the importance of effective coordination and communication mechanisms where agencies opt for more decentralised administrative approaches.

There was considerable variance in the quality of recruitment guidance material provided by audited agencies to assist with undertaking the process and decision-making. While one agency had provided recruitment guidance material that was short, easy to understand and practical to implement, this was not the case for another agency. The third agency did not have guidance that directly addressed recruitment processes. The absence of informative and current recruitment guidance material increases the risk that agencies' recruitment activities will not be effective, efficient, or comply with legislative requirements.

Effectively planning, managing and undertaking recruitment activities requires a broad range of skills. As selection committee members and delegates are generally not recruitment experts, they require training to effectively undertake recruitment activities. Delivery of recruitment training in the audited agencies ranged from formal programs and coaching provided at the outset and throughout the selection process to assistance and guidance being available on request. Similarly, the APSC found that the level of recruitment and selection training provided to panels varied across the agencies. Agencies would benefit from analysing training needs to help ensure that staff involved in recruitment processes are adequately skilled.

Recruitment processes (Chapter 4)

Recruitment processes in the APS are governed by a set of guiding principles and legislated minimum requirements which help ensure that recruitment processes are conducted fairly. These principles and the minimum requirements form a recruitment framework that gives agencies considerable flexibility but do not prescribe a lengthy or complex process.³⁰ Non-compliance with the guiding principles and minimum requirements not only adversely impacts on recruitment objectives, but can impart a negative impression about agencies and the APS as a whole.

As mentioned in paragraph 22, an APSC survey found that only 36 per cent of respondents were left with a positive impression of the agency following participation in a selection process in 2006–07, with key areas of dissatisfaction relating to the: opportunity to seek feedback; perceived fairness of APS recruitment processes; and timeliness of APS recruitment processes.

The APSC State of the Service Employee Survey 2006–07 found that there was considerable variance with the perceived adequacy of feedback across agencies. The proportion of internal applicants who agreed that they were given adequate opportunity to seek feedback ranged from 23 per cent to 81 per cent across APS agencies. ANAO analysis indicates that the opportunity to seek feedback is a key driver of applicant satisfaction with the recruitment process. These findings reinforce the importance of agencies providing applicants with adequate opportunity to seek feedback on their application and interview performance.

In relation to the perceived fairness of recruitment processes, examination of a sample of recruitment processes from the three audited agencies found no selection processes which patently did not adhere to the principle of merit-based selection. Nevertheless, there were aspects of a few of these recruitment processes that might give rise to perceptions of favouritism, which emphasises the importance of agency approaches being clearly underpinned by the merit principle.

With regard to recruitment timeliness, the APSC suggests a target of 21 days from date of advertising to when a verbal offer is made to the successful candidate. The APSC State of the Service Survey 2006–07 found that this target was often not met, as only 22 per cent of APS employees who had applied for a job in the APS in 2006–07 had been informed of the outcome of the recruitment process in one month or less from when they submitted their job application. The ANAO found limited evidence of planning to support the timely completion of recruitment processes.

The ANAO also examined the recordkeeping practices of audited agencies and found instances of poor recordkeeping practices in relation to recruitment and personnel files in all three audited agencies.

Monitoring and evaluation of APS recruitment performance (Chapter 5)

Given the importance of recruitment to achieving agency outcomes and the magnitude of APS recruitment costs, it is critical there is sufficient monitoring and evaluation to support agencies' efforts to continuously improve the effectiveness and efficiency of recruitment activities.

The three audited agencies had not implemented many of the key elements of a sound recruitment performance monitoring/improvement framework. In particular:

• agencies typically did not monitor or report on the effectiveness or cost of recruitment activities;
• recruitment evaluations tended to be ad hoc and adopted different evaluation methodologies and performance measures; and
• agencies did not always have mechanisms to monitor whether recruitment evaluation recommendations were implemented.

As a result, there was limited capacity for agencies to identify cost-effective recruitment processes or strategies. More generally, recruitment costs and outcomes were not reported transparently or consistently across APS agencies. Consequently, it was not possible to provide a robust estimate of the total direct cost of APS recruitment activities or identify the most cost-effective recruitment strategies. Consistent reporting of recruitment costs and outcomes would significantly enhance the capacity of APS agencies to improve their recruitment practices, which has the potential to yield significant savings.

The APSC publication Better, Faster: streamlining recruitment in the APS (2007) is the main publication that provides APS agencies with guidance about performance monitoring and evaluation of recruitment activities. This publication provides a methodology for reviewing recruitment processes through process mapping and the use of a diagnostic tool to assist with the design and application of an efficient recruitment process. While the publication discusses a number of performance measures, it does not define a core set of performance measures to assist agencies assess the effectiveness, timeliness and efficiency of agency recruitment processes. Agencies would benefit from implementing recruitment performance evaluation and continuous improvement mechanisms in line with this publication.

APS-wide recruitment guidance and initiatives (Chapter 6)

The Australian Public Service Commissioner's role is to: develop, promote, review and evaluate APS employment policies and practices; and facilitate continuous improvement in people management throughout the APS. The APSC and Finance had responsibilities to implement a number of recommendations from MAC Report No.5 Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce report.

The APSC provides APS agencies with access to a range of guidance materials, support and resources for APS recruitment.³¹ The audited agencies advised the ANAO that APSC guidance material and direct assistance was useful and had assisted them to provide agency-specific policy and guidance, and support line staff involved in recruitment activities. However, as discussed in paragraph 47, the APSC could provide further guidance to agencies about appropriate recruitment performance measures for reporting and evaluation purposes.

The ANAO found that APSC, and to an extent Finance, have made considerable progress to address seven relevant initiatives from MAC Report No.5, although it was not possible to assess the impact of these initiatives on APS-wide recruitment.

Opportunities for improvement

Based on the results of the audit, the following factors are likely to enhance agencies' approaches to recruitment, to better provide workforce capability required to deliver agency products and services:

• use a workforce capability model to determine the gap between demand and supply of key workforce capabilities;
• develop and implement recruitment strategies to address the gap between workforce demand and supply, especially for key skills that are in high demand and short supply. An important strategy involves the development and use of branding material that promotes key factors that attract people to the agency and contribute to staff and job satisfaction in the agency, and recognises and aligns with APS-wide approaches;
• develop recruitment policies and guidance that are comprehensive, informative, current and accessible, while being short and easy to understand. To assist staff understand the agency's recruitment approaches, policy or guidance material should articulate desired recruitment outcomes including key performance measures and targets, and the consequences of poor recruitment;
• make recruitment a priority. Effective recruitment processes require commitment from line managers and HRM practitioners. It is critical that Selection Advisory Committees run timely recruitment processes, follow merit principles and offer clear and meaningful feedback to applicants;
• at a minimum, deliver training on agency recruitment policy and guidance to selection panels and delegates; and
• establish measures for monitoring, evaluating, reporting and improving recruitment outcomes, processes and costs.

Sound and better practices

Table 1 outlines sound and better practices highlighted during the audit. These practices were considered beneficial to improving recruitment in the audited entities.

Table 1 Sound and better practices

Recommendations

The report makes five recommendations based on findings from fieldwork at the selected agencies and broader audit analysis, which are likely to be relevant to all APS agencies. Therefore, all APS agencies should assess the benefits of implementing the recommendations in light of their own circumstances, including the extent that each recommendation, or part thereof, is addressed by practices already in place.

Summary of agencies responses

Each of the audited agencies, together with the APSC, agreed with the five recommendations. Where provided, agencies additional responses to the recommendation are included in the body of the report, and agencies general comments are included at Appendix 1.

Footnotes

_{1 Non-SES recruitment in the APS is guided by minimum requirements and a set of principles which are specified in the PS Act and four core legislative instruments arising from it, namely: Public Service Regulations 1999; Public Service Commissioner's Directions 1999; Public Service Classification Rules 2000; and Prime Minister's Public Service Directions 2000.}

_{2 Organisations that are subject to the PS Act are often referred to as Australian Public Service agencies.}

_{3 APSC 2007, Corporate Plan 2007–08, p. 2.}

_{4 ANAO Audit Report No.55 2004–05, Workforce Planning, p. 8, defined workforce planning as ‘a continuous process of shaping the workforce to ensure it is capable of delivering organisational objectives now and in the future'.}

_{5 APSC 2007, State of the Service Report 2006–07, p. 55.}

_{6 APS Employment Database data compiled for the APSC State of the Service Report 2006–07. Ongoing staff include full-time and part-time staff.}

_{7 Annual APS recruitment levels referred to throughout this report are defined to be the total number of APS engagements, promotions and movements as reported in the APSC Statistical Bulletin 2006–07. Movements refer to transfers from other agencies, not transfers to other agencies.}

_{8 The 2006–07 agency recruitment rates are calculated as total recruitment (that is, engagements, promotions and movements) expressed as a proportion of staff levels as at 30 June 2006.}

_{9 APSC 2003, Get It Right – a recruitment kit for managers: Project planner.}

_{10 HRM literature has suggested that direct recruitment costs typically amount to around 15 to 25 per cent of the salary of the position being filled. Consistent with this, recruitment agencies typically charge APS agencies between 12 and 18 per cent of the advertised position's salary to provide a shortlist of candidates for interview. The average APS salary in 2006–07 was around $63 000, yielding a direct recruitment cost estimate of $9450 per recruitment activity (based on the 15 per cent cost assumption). In 2006–07, there were 39 313 ongoing engagements, promotion and movements in the APS, yielding a total annual direct recruitment cost estimate of around $370 million. However, some movements did not involve a competitive selection process, which would reduce the overall direct costs of APS recruitment.}

_{11 HRM literature has also suggested that new APS recruits typically perform at only 60 per cent of their productive potential when they are first appointed, reaching 100 per cent only after they have been in a position for a year (see ANAO Audit Report No.50, 2002–2003, Managing People for Business Outcomes, Year Two Benchmarking Study, p. 19.)}

_{12 MAC Report No.5, Managing and Sustaining the APS Workforce, 2005, p. vii.}

^{13 The Administrative Arrangements Order of 25 January 2008 established the Department of Finance and Deregulation. The audit examined the administration of the predecessor department, the Department of Finance and Administration. The department is referred to as Finance throughout the report.}

_{14 The average agency retention rate fell from 92.7 per cent in 2003-04 to 90.3 per cent in 2006-07 (Table 12 of the APSC Statistical Bulletin 2006–07).}

_{15 APSC Statistical Bulletin 2006–07, p. 4.}

_{16 APSC 2007, State of the Service Report 2006–07, op. cit., p. 54.}

_{17 For example, MAC Report No.5, op. cit., p. 64, APSC State of the Service Report 2005–06, p. 173, and ANAO Audit Report No.61 2001–02, Managing People for Business Outcomes, pp. 34, 38-40.}

_{18 All responding APS agencies refers to the 88 APS agencies, or semi-autonomous parts of agencies (employing at least 20 staff under the PS Act), which completed the APSC State of the Service Agency Survey 2006-07.}

_{19 APSC 2007, State of the Service Report 2006–07, op. cit., p. 66.}

_{20 MAC Report No.5, op. cit., presents a high-level review of workforce challenges facing Australian Government agencies and suggests a range of actions to assist agencies respond to the challenges of attracting, retaining and developing the people they require.}

^{21 For example, MAC Report No.5, op.cit., APSC State of the Service Report 2005–06, ANAO Audit Report No.61 2001-02, Managing People for Business Outcomes, and ANAO Audit Report No.55 2004-05, Workforce Planning.}

^{22 See paragraph 25 and the previous footnote.}

^{23 ANAO Audit Report No.55, 2004–05, op. cit., p. 8.}

^{24 The occupational categories did not necessarily describe and capture the precise skills required, including the classification, level of skills, experience and competency required for a particular role.}

^{25 A workforce capability model establishes the key capabilities desired in the workforce of an organisation, and determines the gap between workforce demand and supply. For example, key capabilities of information and communications technology professionals often relate to analysis and design, and could identify skills such as: logical and physical data modelling; and object oriented design practices and techniques. In this regard, the workforce capability model would estimate the number of people required to be recruited with these capabilities.}

^{26 See paragraph 20.}

^{27 APSC 2007, State of the Service Report 2006–07, op. cit., p. 57.}

^{28 An employment value proposition aims to summarise key attributes of working for an organisation, to convince potential employees to seek employment at the organisation.}

^{29 APSC 2007, Better, Faster: streamlining recruitment in the APS, p. 11.}

^{30 MAC Report No. 7, 2007, Reducing Red Tape in the Australian Public Service, p. 41.}

^{31 Key APSC guidance material regarding recruitment includes Ongoing employment: Recruitment and related issues (2005), Get it right – a recruitment kit for managers: Project planner (2003). Better, Faster: streamlining recruitment in the APS (2007).}