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Public Service Commission

State of the sector agency survey

The State of the NSW Public Sector Agency Survey assesses the impact that workforce and organisational practices are having on the NSW public sector, including those reforms enabled by the Government Sector Employment Act 2013 (NSW) (GSE Act). 

Agencies self-assess the extent to which they have implemented or improved specific workforce management and organisational management practices and any challenges they faced. The results provide agencies with the ability to benchmark their progress, as well as also facilitating our work in supporting the government sector in its workforce management and development. The data is integrated into the State of the NSW Public Sector report. 

2016 Agency survey main findings report

The 2016 main findings report uses data collected from 92 participating agencies. The focus of this report is on identifying the issues emerging as agencies apply GSE Act reforms, and the impact that the reforms are having on customer and service delivery outcomes.

Six key trends emerged:

  1. The majority of the sector considers that its organisational capability strengths are in collaboration and service delivery. 
  2. Agencies report that processes in key short-term workforce and organisational management practices have developed. 
  3. Reforms introduced under the GSE Act are starting to have an impact, and as the impact is felt, organisational capability gaps can be quantified and understood. 
  4. The majority of agencies report their commitment to diversity is underpinned by seeking to improve service delivery.
  5. Agency size has an impact on the maturity of practices, particularly in those related to change management, customer service, productivity and innovation. 
  6. Statistical analysis shows that agencies reporting mature future capability planning practices also report maturity in a range of other workforce and organisational management areas, irrespective of agency size.

Previous reports

The focus of previous reports is the extent to which core workforce management practices had been introduced across the entire sector: