Foreword

The challenges of early 2020 helped shape a new way of working for employees across the State Service, and gave us all the opportunity to be more flexible, responsive, and adaptive.

The beginning of 2020-21 saw Public Health restrictions as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic relaxing and State Service employees beginning to transition back to their workplaces and the ‘new normal’. The success of flexible working arrangements during the pandemic resulted in some employees choosing not to return to the workplace full-time, and with the support of their agencies they have continued to work under a hybrid model and split their time between the workplace and working from home.

The challenges of 2019-20 reaffirmed the importance of supporting employee health and wellbeing and making sure everyone feels supported and has access to the right resources. A key component of this support is the State Service Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which provides employees and their immediate family access to free, professional counselling sessions and support across a range of work and non-work related challenges. This year we completed the process to appoint a new panel of EAP providers, giving agencies more flexibility to provide support options that suit their workforce.

We also implemented a policy to encourage and support all State Service employees to get their COVID-19 vaccination as soon as they were eligible, and subject to their individual needs and risk factors. Through this policy employees are supported to attend vaccination appointments during business hours without loss of pay. The provisions of Regulation 24, Leave Because of COVID were also amended to provide paid leave to employees who experience side effects as a result of receiving the vaccine.

The registration of two new Agreements also provided an allowance to State Service employees working in the International and Domestic Hotel Quarantine Programs. This allowance recognises the additional social restrictions placed on these employees.

In October 2020, the Premier committed all Tasmanian Government Departments to the implementation of the Our Watch Workplace Equality and Respect Standards. This demonstrates our ongoing commitment to ensuring gender equality and respect are at the centre of all of our workplaces. As part of this implementation process, agencies have completed a self-assessment process to measure current processes and policies against the Standards, and are now reviewing their assessment results and preparing action plans.

This year we continued to build a culture of learning within the State Service and by necessity this was mostly online. The Tasmanian State Service Graduate Development Program (TasGraD) and the Manager Essentials Program are two examples of courses that were successfully transitioned to a facilitated online delivery mode. A range of courses offered through the Tasmanian Training Consortium (TTC) are also now available online as TTC moved to a new model of providing live online courses in addition to its suite of traditional face-to-face calendar events.

Our commitment to deliver on the action areas identified in the Aboriginal Employment Strategy to 2022, remained a priority this year. The scheduling of Aboriginal Cultural Respect training sessions across the State was a major success with the first round of sessions booked out in record time.  Our Aboriginal Employee Network contributed to the development of this training in addition to supporting a range of actions in the Strategy and aligning the Strategy actions with the Tasmanian Closing the Gap Implementation Plan to progress and achieve better outcomes for all Tasmanian Aboriginal People.

The Interim Report from the Independent Review of the Tasmanian State Service (the Report) was provided to the Premier in November 2020. This Report provided a number of findings and recommendations for consideration ahead of a second round of consultation that took place over early 2021. The final report was due to be provided to the Premier in May 2021, however the independent reviewer, Dr Ian Watt was unable to deliver the final report due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19.

While the impact of COVID-19 required a necessary refocussing of priorities over this reporting period, and has impacted the progress of some initiatives, this year’s Tasmanian State Service Annual Report highlights the progress that has been made across whole-of-service programs in many key areas.

Our commitment to diversity remains strong; with 46.39% of our Senior Executive Service being women as at June 2021, an increase of 0.61%; and our youth employment initiatives, including the TasGraD Program and School-based Traineeship Program have contributed to an increase in the percentage of employees under age 30 to 13.10% (from 12.48% in 2019-20).

While the effects of COVID-19 and the pandemic response are still being felt across Tasmania, State Service employees continue to show their ability to respond quickly and professionally to the demands of the ‘new normal’. Ongoing response and recovery activities have contributed to a growth in recruitment during this reporting period, with an increase in the number of positions advertised externally and Employment Directions 1A and 17A giving agencies the flexibility needed to respond quickly to internal staffing needs.

From 1 July 2021, all State Service employees, officers, volunteers, contractors and visitors will ‘check in’ using the Check In TAS App when entering the building of a Tasmanian Government agency. By displaying QR codes prominently at all entry points, State Service employees will be helping keep our community, colleagues and loved ones safe, and Tasmania open for business.

Jenny Gale
Head of the State Service

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