Chapter 4 – Improving Workforce Data Collections – Development and Reporting

Improving State Service workforce data collection continues to be a key workforce priority, so that appropriate reporting and ongoing development frameworks can be implemented to ensure a capable, productive workforce and a rewarding employment environment for employees.

Having appropriate, timely and accurate workforce data and systems is required by all contemporary organisations. Such data and systems assist with current and future planning activities, as well as ensuring accurate reporting of compliance matters and milestone reporting of key activities.

One of the main activities underway in 2014-15 that supported improved reporting and data collection was the HR Integration Project. The project follows an external human resources (HR) information services review, which found that those services required improvement because current systems:

• require very high levels of manual transactions;
• contribute to high overheads;
• have limited ability to provide whole-of-government reporting;
• have an operational (rather than strategic) focus; and
• have been constrained by vendor (not owner/business)-driven development.

 A business case to reform these services was finalised during 2014-15, and includes the following activities:

• align the deployment, structure and coding of agency databases and existing interfaces, simplifying and standardising as required;
• deploy existing automatic transaction processes, as well as identifying and building additional automated processes for current high-cost or frequent processes;
• create a data warehouse to manage whole-of-government reporting, and standardise agency reporting and legacy data;
• build organisational capacity in HR systems and data management fields; and
• progressively migrate all small and medium agencies’ production databases to one central database.

In addition to these activities, agencies will be able to implement a range of new modules and interfaces to improve services and reporting in the following areas:

• recruitment and application management;
• work health and safety; and
• performance management.

When fully implemented, the project is anticipated to deliver the following benefits:

• reduced maintenance costs;
• reduced resourcing requirement within agency HR groups;
• better reporting to Government and line managers;
• service enhancement through quicker upgrades, faster service, greater availability; and
• significantly improved HR productivity.

All agencies have endorsed the HR Integration Project’s Business Plan, and SSMO is working on a funding model to secure resources and on a program plan to realise the identified benefits of the project.

In addition to the work on the HR Integration Project, there are a number of other initiatives underway that contribute to this priority area.

Many agencies have focused on reviewing their existing reporting requirements, processes and current systems in 2014-15. For example, some agencies have improved reporting of employee training on topics such as work health and safety, anti-discrimination, workplace behaviour awareness sessions, and the State Service Principles. The recording of events using electronic systems will further reduce the requirement for the manual inputting of information and make the information more accessible.

At the whole-of-service and agency-levels there has been work on improving the use of non-HR system information to support workforce planning activities, such as the data collected through the People Matter Survey, skills audits, monitoring of training books, reports on performance review processes and capability assessment tools. Improving the use of these data sources will not only support workforce planning, but also, building agencies’ capability to respond to workforce management challenges and opportunities.

During 2014-15, there was a growth in the demand for workforce data, at the whole-of-service and agency-level. This increase has helped drive some of the improvements mentioned above and SSMO will continue to work with agencies to improve the collection and effective use of workforce data sources in order to support this growing need.

Continue reading: Chapter 5 - Supporting Leadership and Management Development