Our workforce
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Our people are ready to meet any challenge
The challenges and opportunities that lie ahead require us to do more than hone our ways of working.
To rise to these challenges and turn opportunities into better services and outcomes for Queenslanders, we will need to unlock the full potential of our greatest resource—our people.
Central to our ability to face the future is our ability to adopt sector-wide, system-level perspectives and approaches. This means having a better understanding of the professional and technical skills we need to cultivate now, so we are ready to respond in the future.
It also means ensuring public sector leaders are equipped to work collectively and collaboratively to support government to implement sector-wide priorities and policies.
Focus area 2 responds to the challenges – increasingly complex local and global needs, skilling up for ongoing digital advancements and changing workforce demographics.
We better enable people to build their public sector experiences
Our public sector is made up of diverse people working in many different professions, locations, and organisations.
This breadth of expertise and experience is a strength. There are unique opportunities to pursue public sector professions, functions and expertise unmatched outside the sector.
Knowing the skills needed across the sector and identifying ways to acquire and grow those skills is key to enabling our people to build meaningful careers.
We need to get better at giving talented public sector professionals opportunities to move and develop within the sector—especially in those priority skills areas that cut across multiple public sector organisations such as policy development and implementation, human resources and IT.
This is a specific kind of purpose-driven workforce mobility.
It will require systems and processes to empower individuals to grow their knowledge and skills in priority areas for the benefit of the public sector and community while building rich and fulfilling careers.
We better identify future leaders and grow diverse potential
Our fast-paced public sector relies on thoughtful, decisive, and authentic leadership.
Our senior leaders are pivotal to delivering better services and outcomes – through both leading in their organisations and working together to steer the public sector as a system.
Leadership happens at many levels in our organisations. These roles require extraordinary people who are willing to invest in themselves and others, and who see the public sector as an interconnected system of services.
We need to better equip future generations of leaders with the breadth of knowledge, experience, and people skills necessary to deal with complexity and bring out the best in others. Leadership that reflects the community we serve will help ensure our advice and approach remains relevant and on point.
Our progress
Learn more about the progress we have made towards delivering an Even better public sector for Queensland.
Goal 3: We better enable people to build their public sector experiences
Undertake a workforce planning process for the sector focused on building and maintaining the sector’s core internal capability.
Expected delivery: Mid 2024
What is this action about?
- An important part of being responsive to the community and government is having the right skills, knowledge, and experience accessible within the public sector—often referred to as the right skills at the right time in the right place.
- Identifying the core public sector skills (such as policy or human resources) and expertise needed now and for the future is essential.
- This action is focused on identifying the core and common public sector functions and related professions we need to maintain and build to ensure the sector’s internal capability to support the work of government.
Deliver a sector-wide plan that focuses on the development of the core expertise, roles and professions which are common across the sector and are critical to support the work of government.
Expected delivery: End of 2025
What is this action about?
- It is not enough to identify the core and common public sector functions and professions—we must have a plan to develop and retain these critical capabilities.
- Approaches to developing these functions and professions will need to be tailored and respond to the current and future needs of the sector.
- This action builds on Action 6 to create a plan for developing the sector’s internal capability centred on non-frontline roles needed across the sector to support the work of government.
Determine appropriate system(s) and process(es) to mobilise non-frontline public sector expertise, roles and professions which are common across the sector.
Expected delivery: End of 2025
What is this action about?
- There is already a high degree of, and desire for, mobility within the sector as people move between jobs and across public sector organisations.
- A key element of growing our core public sector skills and expertise is providing opportunities for people with priority skills to move within the sector and deepen their expertise.
- This action builds on Actions 6 and 7 to determine the most appropriate systems, processes and mechanisms for mobilising the core non-frontline professional capabilities within the sector.
Design a new sector-wide non-frontline graduate program aimed at launching and supporting meaningful public sector careers.
Expected delivery: End of 2024
What is this action about?
- Our ageing population and predicted talent shortages mean we need a renewed focus on the future public sector workforce
- There are already many great public sector graduate programs operating in Queensland and the sector can benefit from an holistic approach to graduate employment
- This action aims to create consistent experiences across the sector for incoming graduates—including looking at how graduates are recruited, trained and supported to pursue their longer-term public sector career aspirations.
Goal 4: We better identify future leaders and grow diverse potential
Implement new chief executive performance expectations which promote contemporary, inclusive and accountable leadership practices aligned to the Public Sector Act 2022.
Expected delivery: Mid 2024
What is this action about?
- The Act provides guidance about the role of public sector chief executives, including the important role they play in reframing the relationship with Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples and promoting equity and diversity in the public sector.
- Chief executives of departments are also the primary policy advisor to their Minister and responsible for stewarding the public sector including by working together collaboratively to tackle sector-wide policies and priorities.
- This action will create clearer performance expectations for chief executives and their critical role in modelling contemporary leadership practices that drive a responsive, culturally capable, fair, high-performing and apolitical public sector.
Implement new leadership and performance expectations for the senior executive service, senior officers and emerging leaders aligned to the Public Sector Act 2022.
Expected delivery: Mid 2025
What is this action about?
- Senior leaders in the Queensland public sector are critical to delivering outcomes by providing objective and impartial advice to their chief executive and to government, championing the public sector principles outlined in the Act and adopting a public service-wide perspective in their work.
- Existing senior leaders need to understand what is expected of them, and emerging senior leaders need to know the skills and traits they should focus on developing.
- This action will create clear leadership and performance expectations for senior executives, senior officers and emerging leaders to ensure they are recruited, developed and managed based on contemporary leadership practice and performance expectations.
Design a development program for executives (chief executives and the senior executive service) focused on sector stewardship and systems thinking.
Expected delivery: End of 2025
What is this action about?
- The Act calls on executive leaders to adopt a public service-wide perspective, which requires viewing the sector as an interconnected ecosystem.
- Sector stewardship, systems thinking, and collaboration will demand new skills, knowledge and practices.
- This action will focus on building the stewardship and system thinking capability of executive leaders through a new leadership program that meets the needs of this busy and diverse leadership cohort.
- Last updated:
- 28 February 2025