The Census is conducted by the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) as an annual health check of the Australian Public Service (APS). Staff across the APS are asked questions about their attitudes to work, wellbeing, performance, leadership, and general impressions of the APS. In 2020 the Census was open from 12 October 2020 to 13 November 2020.
In 2020 82% of the department responded to the voluntary survey. This means we have access to a high quality data set that we can use to inform our workplace engagement strategies.
The results showed that we performed well in areas of staff engagement (71%) and wellbeing (68%), with both indices being similar to other APS agencies. In addition, our results showed us that:
- Our staff are engaged and committed, with our people happy to go the extra mile (94%) and believing strongly in the purpose and the objectives of the APS (88%).
- Our staff suggest ideas to improve our ways of doing things (88%).
- Our agency supports and actively promotes an inclusive workplace culture (81%).
- There is a level of uncertainty around priorities across the agency.
With the challenges of 2020, the results reflected a level of uncertainty which the department had not experienced before.
We have continued the conversation on our Census results through a series of workshops to celebrate our achievements, identify root causes of the results, and develop action plans to drive future improvements.
You can find the department’s highlights reports in PDF PDF: 31327 KB.
For a full list of our Census results, please head to Employee Census Results.