The APS Employee Census is a survey administered to all APS employees, and collects information on important workforce issues, such as job satisfaction, employee engagement, performance management and leadership.
The results give us insights into what we do well, and what we can improve to ensure our department a great place to work. For the first time contractors were invited to participate in the Census which has enabled our department to understand the sentiment of all our staff.
2021 continued to be a year of significant challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in these circumstances, the overall census results were positive, and most groups had small increments in the engagement and well-being factors.
Staff have reported high personal drive and commitment to their work with 93 per cent of responding staff saying they are ‘happy to go the extra mile’. Similarly, a high proportion take personal responsibility for improving work processes and suggesting new ways of doing things.
The Department participation rate for the census was 86 per cent (for comparison, the overall APS participation rate was 77 per cent), in line with similarly high participation rates from previous years.