Foreword

In my foreword to the 2018-19 Tasmanian State Service Annual Report, I said the focus for 2019-20 would be on improvement and reform as we prepared to undertake the first major review of the State Service in almost 20 years. The Report also set out other priority areas for the State Service Management Office (SSMO) that would see a range of workforce management projects progressed or completed.

Although 2019-20 brought more challenges than we could have anticipated, it also gave us many opportunities across the State Service to implement improvements and reforms that have changed the way we work. This, and the flexibility and commitment of State Service employees, means significant progress was made towards achieving many key priorities.

September 2019, saw positive progress in the ongoing negotiations with public sector unions that gave State Service employees an immediate wage increase of 2.3% per annum fully backdated as part of interim agreements, and paved the way for the finalisation of new two and three year agreements in early 2020.

In November two sessions of the first Aboriginal Cultural Respect Training Foundation Module were piloted. Developed as an action under the Aboriginal Employment Strategy to 2020, the Module responded to the need for an accessible, consistent, quality controlled and culturally authentic Aboriginal training package for State Service employees.

We continued to provide employment opportunities for young Tasmanians through the Tasmanian Graduate Development Program (TasGraD), and the State Service School-based Traineeship Program. Over February and March 2020, 21 new graduates and nine school-based trainees began their State Service careers through these programs.

Addressing barriers to gender diversity also continued to be a priority. In 2019-20 new family-friendly provisions in awards and agreements increased paid maternity, adoption and partner leave, and brought in changes to superannuation contributions for employees on unpaid and half pay parental leave.

In the 2018-19 Report, I noted that we had already met and surpassed our 2020 commitment to have 40% of our senior leadership being women. I am pleased to report that the percentage of women in the Senior Executive Service has increased by a further 2.45% and as at June 2020 is 45.78%.

In early March 2020, I was proud to be involved with the Tasplan International Women’s Day Awards for Excellence, and as Head of the State Service joined our partner organisations, TasCOSS and the Local Government Association of Tasmania in recognising the exceptional achievements of women in leadership in local and State Government roles, and in the Community Sector.

March was also the time for employees to have their say about what it is like to work in the State Service, with the 2020 State Service Employee Survey running from 10 to 31 March. The Survey was a shorter, interim pulse Survey with fewer questions compared to the full Survey in 2018, but it provided agencies with a valuable opportunity to check in on employee perceptions and the impact of workforce initiatives. SSMO and agencies will be working to analyse and respond to the results¹ of the Survey over the coming months.

When the World Health Organisation declared the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic on
11 March 2020, instead of preparing for what is usually the start of a busy Tasmanian festival season, it became a time to Stay Home and Save Lives.

With 31,998 people employed in the State Service around Tasmania, we needed to move quickly to make sure we could continue to deliver essential services and support the community while keeping our workforce safe. This meant being flexible in how we worked, and where we worked.

Whether employees transitioned to working from home as part of a flexible working arrangement or continued to attend the workplace, there were adjustments to be made. For some this was balancing work responsibilities while supervising children or caring for vulnerable family members, for others it was attending workplaces with changed priorities and new social distancing rules. We had to adapt to meeting in virtual spaces and working collaboratively with each other, and with our stakeholders, in innovative ways and using new technology.

Through existing flexible working principles, agencies were able to adapt flexible arrangements and introduce solutions to allow a greater number of employees to work from home, and allow them to balance their work with other obligations.  With the exception of the Department of Health and the Department of Education where the majority of employees are frontline workers, flexible working arrangements supported almost half of the State Service workforce to work from home during early 2020.

Flexibility and mobility were key components in allowing us to quickly refocus priorities during the initial critical period, and as part of our ongoing whole-of-government response to COVID-19. The Tasmanian Government’s Interoperability Arrangements for Sharing Skilled Resources provided many employees with the opportunity to apply their skills in other roles, or other agencies. Employees have volunteered to be redeployed to support the activities of the State Control Centre, answering calls and providing information through the Public Health Hotline, and to support guests in Government quarantine facilities.

Through secondment arrangements, we have also been able to quickly bring in new skills from outside the State Service to support our pandemic response activities.

At the time of writing of this year’s Report Tasmania’s borders remain closed, but public health restrictions have eased and many State Service employees have begun transitioning back to the workplace. Just like any other Tasmanian employer we are keeping employees, customers and the community safe in our workplaces, with COVID-19 Safety Plans that have been developed in line with WorkSafe Tasmania’s COVID-19 Safe Workplaces Framework.

This year’s Report highlights the progress that has been made across whole-of-service programs in the area of workforce management, and is based on information collected from all agencies. With 2019-20 being a year of refocusing priorities and resources to respond to COVID-19, I made the decision to reduce the content in the 2019-20 Report to meet only the necessary reporting requirements. This decision reduced the resource impact on agencies in providing information to SSMO, and the result is a shorter Report.

SSMO continues to provide advice and guidance to agencies across a range of employment matters that have resulted from COVID-19.

There is no doubt that 2019-20 has been a challenging year. But State Service employees continue to demonstrate their resilience and their commitment to making a positive difference to the Tasmanian community.

Jenny Gale
Head of the State Service