Each year, Australian Public Service (APS) staff are invited to complete the Census, conducted by the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC). It is an annual engagement survey that asks staff their views on areas such as job satisfaction, wellbeing, innovation, leadership, and general impressions of the APS. In 2021, the Census was open from 10 May 2021 to 11 June 2021.
This year, we had a strong response rate, with 87% of our staff sharing their views and experiences. This means we have access to a high quality data set that we can use to continue to strengthen our workplace to ensure everyone feels valued, supported, and deliver on our key purpose as a department.
Our Census results show us that as a department we value our relationships with our supervisors and colleagues. We have seen an increase in positive sentiments about local work areas across the board. In addition, our results showed us that:
- Our staff are committed to delivering high-quality work, by wanting to work the extra mile (93%) and cooperate together to get the job done (89%).
- Our staff continually look for new ways to improve the way we work (88%), demonstrating that we look to be innovative and adapt to new ways of working.
- Our staff are satisfied with the security and stability of their job (87%).
- There are opportunities for us to further investigate change management, communication and technology.
We get the workplace we make, so we have continued the conversation on our results through a series of collaborative workshops. We are celebrating our achievements, working to understand the root causes of our results, and identifying opportunities to improve. Sharing your experience at work and making a commitment to take action helps us all to build and maintain a workplace where we are happy and proud to come to work each day.
You can find the department’s 2021 highlights reports in PDF PDF: 1201 KB.
For a full list of our Census results, please head to Employee Census Results.