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Building an Indigenous Employment Strategy kit
Advertising recruitment opportunities
Many Indigenous Australians find out about employment opportunities through word of mouth, reputation or referral rather than through the Gazette or national newspapers. Tapping into the ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people find out information can increase agency contact with potential Indigenous applicants.
An agency's website can greatly influence a potential applicant's opinion about that agency and whether they want to apply for a job with it. It may be useful to include positive written messages about commitment to Indigenous employment and visual images of Indigenous Australians engaged in diverse employment within your agency or in the APS. Posting your agency's Indigenous employment strategy on your website can also be helpful.
The Commission website includes the Public Calling pages for specific information about Indigenous employment in the APS, such as recruitment rounds for graduates, trainees and cadets.
Good recruitment practices
- Advertise a variety of positions, not only positions dealing with service delivery to Indigenous communities, through Indigenous media such as Indigenous newspapers the Koori Mail, National Indigenous Times, The Torres News. The National Indigenous Radio Service and regional Indigenous radio stations are also effective ways to tap into specific audiences.
- Provide recruitment information to Indigenous community organisations, as well as Indigenous support units at education institutions and Indigenous Coordination Centres.
- Display eye-catching, poster-size advertisements with an Indigenous focus, e.g. using identifiable Indigenous art styles.
- Make sure all job ads are written in inclusive plain English designed to attract a wide pool of suitable applicants. Avoid jargon, bureaucratic language or terms that are not familiar to the general public.
- Include the tag line 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are encouraged to apply' in all advertised positions.
- Be prepared to be flexible about application periods. In some cases confining yourself to two weeks may restrict your pool of potential applicants.
Selection practices
The application and selection process for positions in the APS can be daunting for Indigenous people with little or no experience with public service procedures. It can be helpful to supply applicants with copies of your agency's policies that explain how you conduct selection processes, and what the purpose of each step is. Having a contact officer—such as the IEC—to talk potential applicants through what they need to do and what they can expect through the various steps of the process may also be helpful.
Selection Panels
Having an Indigenous staff member on a selection panel, particularly if that panel is assessing an Indigenous applicant, is desirable. This simple step can send a message that your agency is an organisation that employs Indigenous people and values their contribution. Providing selection training for relevant Indigenous employees is a good way of ensuring that a pool of experienced and skilled Indigenous panel members is available.
In many cases, insisting on having an Indigenous person on the panel won't be realistic. For non-Indigenous employees on the selection panel, appropriate backgrounds, training and experience can help to ensure that panel members have the right skills to communicate effectively with Indigenous applicants.
Supporting Indigenous applicants during job interviews
Like many people, Indigenous people often find presenting themselves at an interview with a government agency intimidating, and may be uncomfortable with disclosing personal information. Providing support during the interview can assist the applicant feel more comfortable and relaxed, helping them to present their claims effectively. Support for Indigenous (and other) applicants can be achieved in various ways:
- providing advice on the interview process in advance so that applicants can prepare themselves adequately
- allowing applicants to bring a support person with them to the interview who can support them by explaining (although not answering) questions or just by being there
- allowing the applicant extra time to become comfortable and not feel rushed through the interview
- using appropriate language.
Special Measures
APS agencies can use Special Measures provisions to create employment or promotion opportunities that are restricted to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants. These provisions are designed specifically to provide job opportunities for Indigenous people. The Public Service Commissioner's Directions work with the provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 to enable agency heads to allow this to happen.
It is good practice for agencies to be explicit about the legal basis for the decision to restrict selection to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates. This could be done by noting in the advertisement and on selection documents that 'the filling of this employment opportunity is intended to constitute a special measure under section 8(1) of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975'.
Indigenous development programmes
Your agency can also use the Special Measures provisions to access development pathways for Indigenous employees created and delivered by the Commission, including traineeships, cadetships and graduate programmes. You can find out more about these programmes on the Commission's website.
Some agencies run their own Indigenous development programmes or general trainee programmes with nominated places for Indigenous Australians. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), for example, runs an Indigenous Australian Contract Management Development Programme. For further information on Special Measures please refer to Circular 2006 No.1 available from http://www.apsc.gov.au/circulars/.
Identified Positions
Your agency can use Identified Positions to help selection panels choose the right person for the job by including selection criteria that address the skills, knowledge and attributes considered essential or desirable for the effective performance of the duties of a particular position.
Identified Positions have been generally used where government work relates to the provision of programmes and services to Indigenous Australians. They are not created under any special provision. Rather, their use is based on long-standing APS policy, and an understanding that careful consideration can lead to the use of selection criteria that explicitly recognise the value of skills and knowledge relevant to working with Indigenous people and communities.
The key requirements of the criteria usually are:
- demonstrated knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies and cultures, and the issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- demonstrated ability to communicate sensitively and effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Identified criteria are consistent with the merit and reasonable opportunity values under the Public Service Act 1999 and do not raise issues of discrimination under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, because the employment opportunities advertised in this way remain open to all eligible applicants (whether or not they are Indigenous), and the criteria are simply part of the skills set needed to do the job.
Agencies have the flexibility to expand or add to the core criteria. Your agency, for example, could modify a criterion to include the ability to communicate with a particular community group. Agencies can adapt these criteria as they see fit for a particular position—they are a guide rather than a prescription.
Current practice in some agencies is to include the identified criteria into all job roles in certain regions in recognition of the strong Indigenous client base (these roles may or may not be advertised as identified positions—that is a decision for each agency to make in each case). The inclusion of the criteria in such cases recognises the importance of knowledge of and communication with the Indigenous community.
For further information on Identified Positions please refer to Circular 2006 No. 1 available from http://www.apsc.gov.au/circulars/.
