Employee performance and engagement
Indicators of sector performance
The Queensland public sector uses multiple data sets, and data types to measure sector performance—including minimum obligatory human resource information (MOHRI) collected from payroll data and the annual Working for Queensland employee opinion survey results.
Combined, these data sets capture hundreds of thousands of data points. Used together they provide powerful lead indicators and lag measures of workplace performance.
Working for Queensland survey results are used as lead indicators, or predictive measurements of performance. For example, survey data on the extent to which people feel their work is meaningful and impactful, predicts engagement and ultimately retention and absenteeism.
While the attitudes and sentiment captured through the Working for Queensland survey provide lead or predictive indicators of behaviour and performance, MOHRI data captures lag performance measures. Absenteeism and turnover are examples of employee behaviour in response to low levels of, for example, engagement performance
Employee performance management
Employee performance in the Queensland public sector is managed using a positive performance management approach – with a clear focus on understanding and building on the strengths and successes of our employees.
The Queensland Public Sector Act sets out positive performance management principles, which outline the importance of:
- continuous learning and development to build expertise within the sector
- providing feedback to employees and constructive communications between managers and employees
- recognition of employees’ strengths and contributions
- providing opportunities for growth and training
- managing employees’ work performance and to take early and appropriate action if unacceptable work performance arises
- embedding these principles into management policies and practices.
Positive performance management helps our employees identify their development needs and assists them in achieving their performance goals. It establishes role expectations, provides goal clarity, gives purpose and meaning, and aligns employee efforts to organisational requirements.
Across the sector we collate and analyse data to understand how well performance expectations are established and performance is managed.
The foundations for successful positive performance management are strong across the sector:
- 88% believe they understand what is expected of them to do well in their jobs
- 74% agreed they get the information to do their job well
- 82% understand how their job contributes to their organisation’s strategic objectives.
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
The quality of communication between employees and their manager or supervisor is the basis for positive performance management, and these foundations are also in place. When there are low levels of clarity, information, communication and feedback these measures can become job demands, which can lead to burnout.
- 72% agree that performance expectations are communicated clearly by managers/supervisors.
- 75% say their managers/supervisors show appreciation for their contribution to work objectives.
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
Another aspect of positive performance management is how employees are assisted with their professional and personal development.
- 25% discuss their professional development with their manager or supervisor.
- 40% agree their manager or supervisor supports their professional development by connecting them with learning and development opportunities.
- 32% agree their manager or supervisor takes the time to provide informal feedback on their performance.
- 36% agree their manager or supervisor provides them with constructive feedback to help improve their performance.
- 47% agree their manager or supervisor acknowledges when they do something well.
The proportion of those who responded unfavourably to the above statements is only at 20% or less. Forty percent or more of respondents provided a neutral response to these statements.
These results tell us that there is a need to strengthen how feedback is given to employees. This suggests managers and supervisors need to be more proactive and intentional about performance discussions.
More focus on creating more meaningful opportunities for career development and learning is also needed. Raising awareness about the development opportunities on offer for public servants should be prioritised. This is one goal of Even better strategy—to provide better opportunities for current and future public servants to perform at their best.
Impact of work
Queensland public sector employees, regardless of their occupation or organisation, share a commitment to serving the people of Queensland and making a difference to our communities.
How employees see the impact of their work is an important indicator of performance
- 77% of Working for Queensland survey respondents say their work has had a positive impact on the lives of Queenslanders.
- Employees in frontline and frontline support roles feel this more strongly, with 80% saying their work has a positive impact on the lives of Queenslanders.
- 78% of all respondents say their organisation has had a positive impact on the lives of the people of Queensland.
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
This strong sentiment remains consistent with other years and is similar to 2022.
The results align strongly with one of the Queensland Government’s current employee value propositions which is to be the difference – and make Queensland better through what you do.
Further analysis of the Working for Queensland survey data shows when employees believe their work has a higher impact on their community they also have:
- a greater sense of connection with their work
- higher employee engagement scores
- lower levels of burnout.
Collaboration
Collaboration and mutual support leads to more effective communication, trust and camaraderie – and can positively impact overall job satisfaction and performance. High-performing teams can also contribute to work-life balance and overall wellbeing.
Collaboration practices start at the team level and impact work group performance. Collaboration indicators are quite strong across the sector as outlined below in the metrics associated with discussing work challenges, managing workload together and sharing learnings.
- 86% discuss their work challenges with the people in their workgroup.
- 78% work together to manage workload.
- 82% share their learnings.
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
These collaboration metrics were analysed across different leadership levels. As employees progress to higher levels of leadership, the levels of collaboration increase.
| % positive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual contributor | Team leader | Program leader | Executive/chief executive | |
| Discuss work challenges with the people in workgroup | 84% | 88% | 91% | 92% |
| Work together to manage workload | 75% | 83% | 88% | 93% |
| Share their learnings | 79% | 87% | 91% | 93% |
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
Connection with work
Levels of connection with the work you do can be determined by a number of factors – the extent to which your job inspires, energises or makes you feel proud of the work you do.
Measuring these factors is challenging, as they are influenced by organisational culture and to an extent depend on the types of tasks the individual must complete daily.
While the impact and collaboration metrics previously discussed were asked on an agreement scale, the connection with work data is asked on a seven-point frequency scale – from never and rarely to often and always. The Working for Queensland items that measure connection with work include respondents feeling energised by their work, inspired to do their best and proud of their work.
- 29% feel energised by their work often and always – 21% fairly often and 25% some of the time.
- 47% are inspired by their job to do their best often and always – 21% fairly often and 16% some of the time.
- 63% are proud of the work they do often and always – 18% fairly often and 11% some of the time.
This data was stable between 2022 and 2023.
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
Where people perform frontline work, the extent to which they feel energised by work decreases to 25% often and always.
Where people work in program design and program management the extent to which they feel energised by their work increases to 41% often and always.
The nature of the work itself significantly impacts the connection and, particularly, the sense of energy.
Like the collaboration metric, seniority has a significant impact on connection.
| % often and always | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual contributor | Team leader | Program leader | Executive/chief executive | |
| Energised by work | 27% | 29% | 42% | 64% |
| Inspired by the job | 45% | 47% | 58% | 76% |
| Proud of the work | 60% | 65% | 74% | 86% |
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
Continuous improvement
Continuous improvement is a critical performance measure and is directly related to the effectiveness and efficiency of the services delivered to the people of Queensland.
This data has remained stable between 2022 and 2023 and encompasses a range of themes.
- 61% proactively seek better and new ways to do their job often and always
- 67% help coworkers learn new skills and share job knowledge often and always
- 59% help coworkers that have too much work to do often and always
- 59% work with colleagues to identify better practice often and always
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
As was the case for collaboration and connection with work, leadership level has a significant impact on perceptions of continuous improvement.
| % often and always | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual contributor | Team leader | Program leader | Executive/chief executive | |
| Proactively seek better and new ways to do their job | 58% | 63% | 75% | 86% |
| Help coworkers learn new skills and share job knowledge | 62% | 76% | 80% | 88% |
| Help coworkers that have too much work to do | 55% | 66% | 68% | 75% |
| Work with colleagues to identify better practice | 53% | 67% | 76% | 84% |
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
Employee engagement
Employee engagement is a global measure of employee experience. Employee engagement is asked on an agreement scale, as opposed to the frequency scale used in the previous sections.
Many factors influence engagement including, leadership, a positive and inclusive work culture, manager support, accountability, and flexible work.
The overall employee engagement score for the Queensland public sector is 58% positive—which has been stable since 2022.
Pride, likelihood of recommendation, inspiration, motivation and attachment contribute to understanding employee engagement.
- Pride: 66% are proud of the work they do for their organisation.
- Recommendation: 60% recommend their organisation as a great place to work.
- Inspiration: 55% find their organisation inspires them to do their best.
- Motivation: 54% are motivated to achieve their organisation’s objectives.
- Attachment: 53% feel strong attachment to their organisation.
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
In the Working for Queensland survey program of work, analysis is undertaken to determine which aspects of the work environment have the greatest impact on employee engagement. This analysis indicates that across the Queensland public sector the following elements have the strongest relationship with employee engagement.
- 60% felt agencies cared about their wellbeing.
- 70% felt their job gave them a feeling of accomplishment.
- 39% felt heard by their executive group.
- 48% felt heard by their manager.
- 57% thought senior managers model the values and principles of their organisation.
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.
This analysis provides a statistically reliable method for understanding where to focus attention and improvement. While personal accomplishment performs well, the other aspects are areas of focus.
Employee engagement is an important measure of performance with research showing that engagement predicts behaviours including effort, absenteeism and retention.
As overviewed in the section on diversity, different diversity cohorts have different employment experiences and so have different levels of engagement.
As has been the case with previous measures, leadership levels and engagement are correlated.
| % positive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual contributor | Team leader | Program leader | Executive/chief executive | |
| Employee engagement | 56% | 57% | 65% | 81% |
Source: Working for Queensland 2023.