Our staff take part in the annual Australian Public Service (APS) employee census, which is conducted from May to June.
The census collects employee opinions and perspectives on a range of topics, such as employee engagement, leadership, communication, innovation, and wellbeing.
Our results contribute to the APS State of the Service Report.
Key findings
In 2025, 91% of our staff responded to the survey.
While we saw improvements in areas such as health and wellbeing, there was a slight fall in some areas of the survey such as communication.
Our results show that:
- 83% are happy to go the extra mile at work
- 82% feel committed to their agency’s goals
- 87% believe strongly in the purpose and objectives of their agency
- 89% say their immediate supervisor cares about their health and wellbeing
- 85% say their agency supports and actively promotes an inclusive workplace culture
- 79% believe one of their responsibilities is to continually look for new ways to improve the way we work
- 80% agree the culture in their agency supports people to act with integrity
- 91% understand how their role contributes to outcomes for the Australian public.
Our 2024 Census Action Plan focused on communication, continuous improvement and collaboration. Responses to 2025 census questions linked with these focus areas showed:
- our ‘enabling innovation’ index lifted by two points to 65
- collaboration remains strong: most staff (88%) feel comfortable checking with colleagues, and 82% value others' individual skills.
2025 Census Highlights Report
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Areas that we want to improve (our Action Plan)
We are committed to maintaining a culture where people belong, are supported and connected, and aspire to continuously evolve.
Following consultation with staff, we have identified three focus areas for our 2025 Action Plan.
Target area: Collaborate as One ACNC
We want to clarify collaboration mechanisms for leaders and managers.
What we will do:
- review and refine our processes and ways of working to facilitate efficiencies and reduce duplication
- ensure that internal procedures support effective collaboration and decision-making.
Target area: Communicate with purpose
We want to improve meeting effectiveness and review the way we communicate internally.
What we will do:
- review regular meeting schedules to ensure each meeting has a clear purpose, defined attendees, and expected outcomes. This will help us make better use of our time and resources.
- assess whether our current Communications Protocol is functioning as intended and identify any areas for improvement to enhance clarity and consistency.
Target area: Engagement & Development Opportunities
We want to improve our existing internal engagement forums and expand development opportunities for staff.
What we will do:
- evaluate the effectiveness of internal engagement forums to ensure they are achieving their intended purpose, are engaging and accessible to all staff who wish to participate and have a clear process for approval and implementation as appropriate.
- create more opportunities for professional growth, including informal, at-level job shadowing across teams, mentoring and job-shadowing (APS staff and EL/SES staff) and attending events and stakeholder engagements with the Commissioner.
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