An article has been floating around the graduate recruitment industry this week in light of Tony Abbott's 2010 budget reply. It regards freezing graduate recruitment in the Australian Public Service (APS) for 2 years should the coalition be elected this year.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/051710-abbot...ts-public-sector-hiring-freeze.html
If the goal is cost reduction across the APS, Tony Abbott's plan for APS graduate recruitment is completely flawed.
I understand any government will need to take drastic measures to claw back the debt coming out of the GFC (or Labor's time in government, depending on your views) ... however freezing the very talent pipeline that provides the APS with some of its highest quality people (young graduates) for 2 years will INCREASE costs in the APS long term, not reduce them.
Freezing graduate recruitment in the APS for 2 years will:
1) Compound the massive LEADERSHIP GAP across the entire APS over the next 5-10 years as the ageing APS workforce retires on mass. More than 70% of the Senior Executive Service (SES) are aged 45 or more and will be looking towards retirement in that time. As they retire, there will be no-one to replace them. (MAC Report, “Managing and sustaining the APS workforce”)
2) Compound the massive SKILLS SHORTAGE contributed to by retention issues and career progression expectations in graduates. 62% of graduates in their first year of working in the service expect to leave within 3 years. (AAGE Development and Retention Survey, 2009) Not only will a certain percentage of graduates continue to move, they will not be replaced. Any sector needs to plan for natural attrition and will pay down the track if they don’t.
3) Majorly damage the graduate employer brands APS departments and agencies have spent the past 10 years or more building ... the employer brands that today attract the best of the best graduate talent from all over Australia and will take another 10 years to rebuild. The same challenge major firms and IT companies faced when they froze graduate programs after the dot.com bust and 9/11 in 2001 and arguably, have only recently recovered from.
The solution to cutting people costs in the APS is not to freeze graduate recruitment. That's the last thing the APS should be doing.
With all due respect to the many thousands of 45+ year old APS employees who have served our country for so many years, the people cost is in those in the ageing workforce who no-longer want to be there.
The solution to cutting people costs is to let those in the ageing APS workforce who want retire, to retire. APS statistics show retirement number will be large in the next 5-10 years anyway. We should replace them, as well as as reduce people costs, through ongoing, structured programs involving:
1) Increasing graduate recruitment over the next 5-10 years, year on year;
2) Ensuring the ageing workforce, particularly leaders and managers, are trained, inspired and rewarded for leading, mentoring and passing down decades of knowledge and experience to graduates as they move through the ranks in their first 5 years, before 70% retire in the next 5-10 years.
3) Accepting that embracing new graduates and fresh young talent consistently over the next 10 years WILL close the leadership gap, reduce the skills shortage and position the APS well to maintain the positive graduate employer brand it has built. As a result, improving the organisational culture, effectiveness and cost structure of the APS long term.
And if that's not enough, the argument is simple.
In order to best serve the Australian people and be the best APS it can be, which is what the APS exists for, shouldn’t we continue to give the APS access to our country’s best young people so they can do that?
