Workforce planning, staff retention and turnover

During 2019–20 the ARC reviewed its priorities for the year and the need for staff in particular areas to support those priorities. The ARC maximised opportunities to develop a flexible and responsive workforce by:

• enabling staff rotations to support staff development
• encouraging staff to assist with NCGP and ERA processes during peak periods of activity
• providing targeted training opportunities
• providing opportunities to work at higher levels during staff absences
• ensuring relevant knowledge management and sharing processes were in place.

In 2019–20 staff turnover figures were much lower than in previous years, with 14 separations recorded compared to 31 in 2018–19. Seven of these separations were for career opportunities inside or outside the APS.

Employment agreements

During 2019–20 the ARC employed non-Senior Executive Service (SES) staff under the following arrangements:

• ARC Enterprise Agreement 2017–2020: Under this agreement ARC employees receive a productivity salary increase of two per cent upon commencement of the agreement, two per cent after 12 months, and two per cent after 24 months service.
• Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs): AWAs are formalised individual agreements negotiated by the employer and employee. Changes to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 stipulated that no new AWAs could be entered into on or after 13 February 2008. The ARC has a small number of staff on AWAs that were negotiated before those changes were enacted.
• Individual Flexibility Arrangements (IFAs): Employees covered by the ARC Enterprise Agreement 2017–2020 may agree to make an IFA to vary the effect of terms of the agreement. IFAs within the ARC generally deal with retention allowances or remuneration, allowing the CEO to ensure the employment conditions of specialised employees reflect market forces and experience.

In March 2020, the CEO signed a Section 24 determination to extend the current Enterprise Agreement for a further 3 years.

Training and development

ARC training and development activities are conducted within the framework of the agency’s Learning and Development Strategy 2019–2020. This strategy aims to equip ARC staff with appropriate training opportunities to ensure the agency has access to the skills and knowledge required to achieve its objectives.

In the 2019 APS Employee Census, 83 per cent of ARC staff indicated that they believed the ARC provided access to effective learning and development opportunities compared to 69 per cent for the APS as a whole.

In 2019–20 the ARC’s People and Services Section coordinated access to a range of training opportunities including eLearning, in-house training, and external opportunities such as coaching and studies assistance.

In-house training

During the year, all employees were required to undertake mandatory eLearning modules. These modules included:

• Data Literacy Module 1 — Using Data in the APS
• Data Literacy Module 2 — Undertaking Research
• Data Literacy Module 3 — Using statistics
• Data Literacy Module 4 — Visualising information
• Data Literacy Module 5 — Providing evidence to decision makers
• Introduction to Risk in the Commonwealth
• Managing Projects with Microsoft Teams.

In 2019–20 all new starters to the ARC also participated in the APSC’s APS Induction Portal trial.

The ARC also provided staff with access to a range of further training opportunities, including:

• Bystander to Upstander training
• The Art of Conversation
• APS Career Coaching
• Management in Action
• Responding to Expressions of Interest
• How to prepare for Interviews
• Essential Writing (APS 5/6 staff)
• Cyber and Data Security
• Deconstructing, Decoding and Demystifying ARC Committee Contracts
• Mental Health: Managing for Team Wellbeing
• Public Information Disclosure
• Aboriginal insights: Engaging with Aboriginal communities
• Career coaching (APS 6 staff).

Work health and safety performance

The ARC’s Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) arrangements, provided in accordance with Schedule 2, Part 4 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act), are reported in Appendix 5.

Productivity gains

During 2019–20 the ARC continued to review its procedures to streamline administrative processes and systems for ARC staff and NCGP, ERA and EI stakeholders. In addition, the ARC:

• streamlined grant guidelines and grant agreements to multi-year documents
• streamlined NCGP application forms
• enhanced the automated population of research output data into NCGP application forms
• improved functionality and automation for eligibility management in NCGP application forms
• introduced establishment toolkits to assist new cohorts of ARC CoE and the ITRH scheme
• increased the amount of ERA and EI data which is publicly available and searchable through the ARC Data Portal.

Diversity

The ARC Workforce Diversity Program provides the framework for a number of diversity plans and policies including the Multicultural Access and Equity Plan, Discrimination and Harassment-Free Workplace Policy and ARC Reconciliation Action Plan.

In 2019–20 the ARC:

• required all staff to complete Bystander to Upstander training
• enabled several staff to attend Aboriginal insights: Engaging with Aboriginal communities training
• discussed diversity, and assessed agency outcomes, through the ARC Diversity Working Group’s Diversity Program
• required all staff to take part in online National Reconciliation Week activities
• participated in National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee week activities
• publicised R U OK? Day to raise awareness of the importance of meaningful conversations with colleagues to foster mental health
• continued to encourage use of the Employee Assistance Program
• participated in ‘Wear it Purple Day’ morning tea to foster supportive, safe and accepting environments for the young LGBTIQA+ community.

Overview

Table 5: All ongoing employees, current reporting period (as at 30 June 2020)

Table 6: All non-ongoing employees, current reporting period (as at 30 June 2020)

Table 7: All ongoing employees, previous reporting period (as at 30 June 2019)

Table 8: All non-ongoing employees, previous reporting period (as at 30 June 2019)

Gender

Table 9: Number of ongoing employees by gender, current reporting period (as at 30 June 2020)

Table 10: Number of non-ongoing employees by gender, current reporting period (as at 30 June 2020)

Table 11: Number of ongoing employees by gender, previous reporting period (as at 30 June 2019)

Table 12: Number of non-ongoing employees by gender, previous reporting period (as at 30 June 2019)

Full-time/part-time employment arrangements

Table 13: Employees by full-time and part-time status, current reporting period (as at 30 June 2020)

Table 14: Employees by full-time and part-time status, previous reporting period (as at 30 June 2019)

Location

Table 15: Employment type by location, current reporting period (as at 30 June 2020)

Table 16: Employment type by location, previous reporting period (as at 30 June 2019)

Indigenous employment

Table 17: Indigenous employment, current reporting period (as at 30 June 2020)

Table 18: Indigenous employment, previous reporting period (as at 30 June 2019)

Number of staff by employment arrangement

Table 19: Employment arrangements, current reporting period (as at 30 June 2020)

Salary ranges

Table 20: Employment salary ranges by classification level, current reporting period (as at 30 June 2020)

Performance pay

The ARC does not provide performance pay or performance-based bonuses.

Non-salary benefits

The ARC offered a range of non-salary benefits to employees in 2019–20 including:

• flu vaccinations
• a healthy lifestyle allowance
• superannuation advice
• access to salary packaging arrangements
• access to the Employee Assistance Program.

Senior Executive Service remuneration

Terms and conditions for ARC SES staff are set out by common law contracts. As at 30 June 2020 there were four common law contracts in place for ARC SES staff.

Remuneration is reviewed annually taking into account the individual’s personal skills, knowledge, experience and capabilities as well as achievements against goals set in the preceding performance cycle.

At 30 June 2020 the notional salary range for SES Band 1 and Band 2 officers was between $170,000 and $250,000. Further information about the ARC’s remuneration of key management personnel (Table 21) and senior executives (Table 22) is provided below.

Table 21: Information about remuneration for key management personnel, 2019–20

Table 22: Information about remuneration for other highly paid staff