Our people
The core public service values—customers first, ideas into action, unleash potential, be courageous and empower people—continued to underpin the activities and aspirations of our workforce throughout 2017–18.
This year, DPC empowered its people by using employee feedback to drive strategic, business and action planning. Employees voiced their opinions through the annual Employee Opinion Survey and through active engagement in the strategic workforce planning process.
The department also focused on initiatives to drive a diverse, inclusive and supportive workplace to further unleash the potential of its workforce.
The following is a snapshot of DPC’s workforce profile for 2017–18 based on June 2018 Minimum Obligatory Human Resources Information (MOHRI) Data:
- employed 466.95 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs), including 49.50 FTEs in the OQPC
- comprised a workforce in which 69.65 per cent were women and 61.29 per cent of all senior executive and senior officer roles were occupied by women
- maintained a workforce with an average age of 41.18 years compared with the service-wide average of 44.25 years
- provided part-time work opportunities with participation by 15.07 per cent of our staff
- contributed 7 FTEs to deliver corporate services to our client agencies and to the Public Service Commission
- experienced an annual separation rate for permanent staff of 3.84 per cent
- paid one early retirement, redundancy or retrenchment package at a total cost of $54,512.79 during this period.
Key achievements 2017–18
- Applied the 70:20:10 learning framework across the department to build the capability of employees to deliver the department’s strategic objectives. (The 70:20:10 learning framework entails 70 per cent on-the-job learning, 20 per cent learning through others, and 10 per cent through formal training).
- Continued to roll-out a tailored management program to build the managerial capability of current and future managers.
- Coordinated the Policy Futures graduate program to drive whole-of-government policy capability development. Thirty-one graduates commenced in February 2018.
- Introduced a succession planning framework and toolkit to enable a more proactive approach to managing the department’s future workforce needs.
- Continued a strong focus on employee performance by promoting and embedding the online performance management system.
- Enhanced leadership engagement and presence with new starters through face-to-face induction programs.
- Delivered a health and wellbeing program that included practical support to build a safer and healthier working environment. Highlights included focused activities for: Harmony Day, Youth Week, Men’s Health Week, as well as healthy eating, mindfulness seminars, influenza vaccinations and promotion of a healthy work-life balance.
- Implemented a 2018 Employee Engagement Program of Work to build inclusion and diversity across DPCand embed long term behavioural change through targeted workforce strategies including:
- introduction and delivery of five ‘Plate of Inspiration’ lunchbox sessions for departmental staff
- ongoing delivery of Speaker Series events, cultural capability training, disability awareness training, domestic and family violence awareness and bystander training for employees
- introduction of senior executive service lunch box sessions focused on developing leadership within the department.
- Launched the DPC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Capability Action Plan 2017–2020. The plan has seen tangible results towards developing a more culturally responsive organisation through:
- appointment of a Cultural Champion of Change to lead the cultural capability work across DPC
- commissioning of artwork by Sid Domic to represent the department’s whole-of-government leadership to engage with Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities, build connections across government, bring departments together, and lead a shared vision
- development of Acknowledgement Cards to assist staff to appropriately acknowledge Traditional Owners and Elders
- focused internal campaigns on Reconciliation week including the screening of the DOMO Boys documentary, and hearing from an invited Indigenous guest speaker, the Community Engagement Manager for the Office of the Commonwealth Games
- delivered a suite of cultural capability training programs and events departmentalto staff.
- Launched the DPC Disability Service Plan 2017–2020. The plan contains a range of actions and initiatives designed to provide people with disability with improved access to our products and services. It has a strong focus on promoting employment opportunities and in providing enhanced support for people with disability within our agency and will aid our transition to full implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in 2019. Key achievements include:
- signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Job Access Australia
- working in partnership with the Public Service Commission to deliver a whole-of-government disabling barriers forum, disability awareness training and promote DPC roles to job seekers with disabilities on their disability networks
- enabled a range of accessibility features on our systems, facilities and on portable devices to support specific requirements for people with disability, including using closed captioning and text transcriptions with all videos published online and on the department’s fire safety and training videos.
Future directions 2018–19
- Encourage collaboration, partnerships and broader skill development through the implementation of an internal and external job rotation program for DPC employees.
- Improve business systems, practices and reporting processes through the implementation of electronic forms, Power BI (interactive data visualisation business intelligence tools) and the upgrade of the online Performance Development Agreement System.
- Review the department’s Strategic Workforce Plan through a consultative process, providing opportunities for all staff to provide input into the future direction of our workforce and the identification of key actions.
- Continue to build a more diverse workforce reflective of the broader community we serve.
- In the Strategic Plan 2017–2021 one of DPC’s strategic objectives was to ‘maintain a high-performing workforce’. In order to measure this we identified four factors—job empowerment, innovation, organisational leadership and agency engagement, and measured these through the annual staff engagement survey: Working for Queensland Employee Opinion Survey.
DPC achieved positive results, scoring in the top two quintiles against these factors. Data includes Arts Queensland and Corporate Administration Agency results as they were part of DPC at the time of the survey.
Public Sector Ethics Act 1994
- DPC continued to support the principles identified under the Public Sector Ethics Act 1994 by delivering Code of Conduct training to 438 employees during 2017–18. The training focused on integrity and accountability and was delivered online through the department’s learning management systems.
Case study
White Ribbon Accreditation
Director-General Dave Stewart signs White Ribbon pledge to stand up and speak out against domestic and family violence.
DPC was accredited as a White Ribbon Workplace on 23 November 2017 and is now officially recognised by White Ribbon Australia (WRA) driving cultural change to prevent and respond to domestic and family violence.
The White Ribbon Workplace Accreditation Program recognises our commitment to prevent violence, support employees affected by domestic and family violence, and promote gender equity and safe and respectful workplace cultures. This is, and continues to be, demonstrated through effective leadership, resource allocation, communication, human resources policy development, ongoing training and external collaboration.
Accreditation involved addressing 15 criteria within the three standards of Leadership and Commitment; Prevention of Violence Against Women; and Responses to Violence Against Women.
Accreditation is valid for a period of three years and is contingent upon DPC’s continual, demonstrated commitment to the WRA workplace accreditation program. Our WRA Operational Plan outlines DPC’s planned actions for the next three years which will ensure continuous improvement and ongoing evaluation of our culture and commitment to zero tolerance of domestic and family violence in the workplace and, to ensure we maintain a healthy, safe, respectful and inclusive working environment.
Domestic and family violence is a workplace issue. It can affect the safety, wellbeing, productivity and performance of all employees—those experiencing violence, those who may use violence, carers and colleagues.
As the lead agency in Queensland, DPC plays a dual role in the prevention of domestic and family violence. We do this by firstly addressing, at the departmental level, how violence and all forms of harassment against women are recognised, prevented and responded to within the workplace. Secondly, we do this by providing whole-of-government direction and guidance, to drive cultural change required more broadly across our state.