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SMH:
Public servants should pull their weight at work or look for a new job, the Public Service Commissioner has warned.
The blunt assessment from Commissioner John Lloyd comes as he prepares to unveil new rules making it easier for bosses in the Commonwealth bureaucracy to sack underperformers.
Mr Lloyd also says he is going to make the public service's notoriously slow hiring process quicker and easier and give departments more opportunities to use temps, part-timers and contractors.
The commissioner shared his vision of a transformed Australian Public Service workforce with delegates at the Australian Human Resources Institute national conference in Melbourne on Monday.
But Mr Lloyd's vision of the future might be an unsettling one for many of the Commonwealth's 160,000 public servants.
The commissioner signalled he would soon be ready for the next offensive in his war on underperformers, and he says he has the backing of the APS rank-and-file.
"The APS has struggled to effectively manage underperformance," he told the conference
"This is a clear and consistent message from employees themselves."
There was a blunt message for those who were not contributing, with Mr Lloyd saying the APS should take a leaf from the private sector's book on dealing with slackers.
"Public servants who are not engaged by their work or cannot contribute at the required level should consider seeking other opportunities," he said."This could be another APS role or something outside the APS.
"Some companies actively manage out the bottom 10 per cent of performers every year.
"Commercial pressures mean a private sector manager cannot 'carry' someone who is underperforming.
"Why should people and how they perform be any less important in the public sector? Public resources are as important as those allocated by shareholders."
Mr Lloyd said that performance management was not about retribution, although an employee might end the process looking for another jobs.
"Performance management should not be punitive," the commissioner said. "Although the end may be a separation."
A speedier recruitment process was also badly needed in the public service, Mr Lloyd told his audience, and time-wasting had to stop.
The service's famously time-consuming application forms should go and marathon interviews should also be consigned to history, the commissioner said.
"It takes too long to recruit someone into the APS," he said.
"A good outcome is to welcome someone within 10 to 12 weeks of commencing the process.
"We have to ensure that fair treatment and merit selection underpin the recruitment of staff. But there are more efficient methods available.
"Applications should be succinct, interviews short and focused and referee checks limited to genuine contenders."
The public service should also get used to seeing more temporary workers, contractors, part-timers and casuals making up its ranks and it should be easier for bosses in the bureaucracy to get non-full time workers onto their books.
"The APS, like other sectors, will have to access non-ongoing employees, contractors, labour hires, part-time and casual employees," Mr Lloyd told the conference.
"The access should not be unduly complicated or restricted."
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