Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

standards and practices and how their performance goals align with the strategic direction oftheir organisation and unit.The most developed workforce capability paradigm is the Commonwealth’s IntegratedLeadership System (ILS) which articulates five core capability clusters to assist inprofessional development, capability planning and agency succession management. 379 Thisunambiguous articulation of expected workforce capabilities enables officials to worktowards common performance goals. In the words of one official “if you don’t have a maphow do you know your final destination?”:Despite detailed clauses in the Agreement and other policy documents addressing thisissue in the Public Sector Management standards this matter [dispute resolution] isparticularly badly handled in the ACT Public Sector. Often these matters drag on formonths and sometimes years resulting in staff being on extended periods of paid orunpaid leave without a resolution to the problem. It has also resulted in someexpensive workers compensation and stress leave claims which are both costly to theservice and unsatisfactory in their outcome for the parties concerned.Properly qualified and skilled Human Resource managers in departments would gosome way to solving this problem and creating a more positive problem solvingculture. It would create real career paths for staff who are skilled or wish to becomeskilled in this area to stay in the ACT Public sector. The new Respect and Diversitypolicy together with suitable training for staff and managers will assist in thisprocess. 380A clear expression of expected workforce capabilities and performance standards for theACTPS combined with improved people and performance capability will assist with timelyresolution of workplace disputes.The Review believes it critical that non-technical workforce capabilities are developed for thegeneral clerical classifications (including administrative service officers, senior officers,public affairs officers, legal policy officers, tourism officers, etc). The Commonwealth’s ILSprovides a solid tested model for the ACT. Importantly, if People and Performance Divisiondoes not have the skilled resources to undertake this development in-house then thoseresources should be recruited to work alongside existing officials to build capability in thisessential area of strategic people performance and workforce planning.ResourcingHand in hand with workforce capabilities is the remuneration structure for ACTPS officials.The matter of resourcing drew some commentary during the course of the Review. Officialsand stakeholders identified several weaknesses in the existing classification structure, both interms of remuneration as well as work value measurement. The Review’s mandate does not379 See http://www.apsc.gov.au/ils/index.html380 Submission No. 3.Capability, Capacity and Effectiveness: 285