Workforce movement and stability
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Intention to leave
An employee’s intention to leave, and how engaged they feel in their work and workplace are linked and are indications of organisational performance. Questions on intention to leave are included in the WfQ survey.
- 45% intend to stay working in their position for at least the next three years
- 31% intend to stay working in their position for the next one to two years
- 16% intend to leave their position within the next 12 months
- 8% intend to leave their position as soon as possible.
Source: WfQ 2024.
When asked to describe their intention to leave, most employees who indicated they intend to leave were doing so with the intention of applying for a new role within their agency or another agency in the sector.
The main reasons for employees leaving their positions remains consistent:
- senior leadership is not meeting the employee’s expectations
- lack of career opportunities in their current agency
- seeking skill development in another area
- emotional exhaustion.
Source: WfQ 2024.
| 2024 | % | 2023 | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior leadership is of a poor quality | 22.57% | Senior leadership is of a poor quality | 24.17% |
| There are a lack of future career opportunities in my agency | 20.29% | There are a lack of future career opportunities in my agency | 21.27% |
| I am looking to further my skills in another area | 17.71% | I am looking to further my skills in another area | 18.26% |
| I am emotionally exhausted | 15.45% | I am emotionally exhausted | 17.55% |
| I want to try a different type of work or I'm seeking a career change | 15.05% | I am not satisfied with the work | 16.36% |
| I am not satisfied with the work | 14.87% | My immediate supervisor's leadership is of a poor quality | 15.59% |
| My immediate supervisor's leadership is of a poor quality | 14.50% | I want to try a different type of work or I'm seeking a career change | 14.67% |
| I wish to pursue a promotion opportunity | 13.07% | I am expected to do more work than I reasonably can | 13.45% |
| I have achieved all I can in my current position | 11.87% | I wish to pursue a promotion opportunity | 12.65% |
| I am expected to do more work than I reasonably can | 11.84% | I have achieved all I can in my current position | 11.85% |
Source: WfQ 2023—2024.
Where employees are engaged, they intend to stay in their current role for longer:
- 61% intend to stay working in their position for at least the next three years
- 30% intend to stay working in their position for the next one to two years
- 8% want to leave their position within the next 12 months
- 1% want to leave their position as soon as possible.
Source: WfQ 2024.
For this cohort of highly engaged employees, most (53%) intended to or already had applied for a new position within their agency. The most prominent reasons for leaving their position were related to a desire to acquire new skills (34%), seek a promotion (25%) or career change (23%).
Where employees are disengaged, they intend to leave their current role sooner:
- 13% intend to stay working in their position for at least the next three years
- 13% intend to stay working in their position for the next one to two years
- 28% want to leave their position within the next 12 months
- 46% want to leave their position as soon as possible.
Source: WfQ 2024.
For these disengaged employees, most (77%) were doing so because of poor senior leadership (51%) and supervisory quality (26%). However, most (40%) were seeking opportunities within the public sector as opposed to leaving the sector altogether.
Hires and separations
Hires and separations are important performance metrics in terms of the health and engagement of the workforce. They are also critical in terms of strategic workforce planning as the balance between separations and hires informs and enables the prediction of workforce growth.
Workforce planning amid increasing complexity
The Queensland public sector is navigating complex workforce challenges driven by evolving customer demographics and service needs, technological innovation, and data and digital transformation. Amid a fiercely competitive labour market for skilled professionals, there is also a paradigm shift in employee expectations, advocating for innovative and dynamic work and workforce models.
In a proactive response, the Strategic Workforce Council, consisting of Chief Human Resource Officers from all departments, established the Sector Workforce Planning Leadership Group in 2024. Driven by dedicated workforce planners, the group aims to advance the capability and maturity of workforce planning across the sector and to progress strategic workforce planning priorities across the Queensland public sector.
The Sector Workforce Planning Leadership Group’s concerted efforts and collaborative spirit have not only met the challenges presented but set new standards in workforce planning that promise to sustain the Queensland public sector’s workforce agility and responsiveness into the future.
Since its establishment the Sector Workforce Planning Leadership Group has conducted:
- extensive research and established a shared resource and research hub
- two strategic workforce planning capability maturity surveys with major government departments
- three capability building human-centred design challenge workshops
- a series of sessions to share good practice, including briefings from JobsQld and the New Zealand Public Sector Commission as well as data and developments in workforce planning around the sector and nationally.
A high performing and engaged workforce is one that is attractive to new employees and is able to minimise separations. As such, separation rates are monitored as a measure of retention. The separation rate is the proportion of permanent employees who separated from the Queensland public sector as a proportion of the total number of permanent employees.
Absenteeism
Increases in unplanned leave, for example sick and carers leave, impacts workforce performance. The propensity for individuals to take excessive amounts of unplanned leave is strongly connected to low job satisfaction and low employee engagement.
It is important to monitor unplanned leave to understand the ‘normal’ use of different types of leave, particularly sick leave and carers leave. Taking these forms of leave is expected and a normal part of workforce management. When these leave usages are monitored over time in conjunction with other metrics, such as engagement, it is possible to identify performance issues.
In the 12 months to March 2025 employees had an average of:
- 2.9 days unscheduled leave per quarter
- 1.9 days sick leave per quarter
- 0.5 days carer leave per quarter.
It is likely that the intensity of natural disasters in the first quarter of 2025 as well as the amount of change the sector has faced will have impacted many individual public servants, in different ways, necessitating unplanned leave. Additionally, respiratory viruses and various strains of COVID remain present in the community.
Tenure
Turnover is a significant cost for any organisation.
With each departing employee, corporate knowledge and history is lost, training investment is lost, and new employees need to be trained impacting productivity. Tenure is an indicator of performance and is important to monitor over time, particularly to note if there are significant reductions in tenure.
One quarter of Queensland’s public servants have been employed for between 10 and 20 years within the public sector.
19 percent of the service has been employed for over 20 years.
Because of the size and scope of the public sector, employees can have an extremely varied career across the over 300 organisations that comprise the sector. Mobility is the key to tenure, capacity and capability. Government has made an election commitment to increase mobility across the Queensland public sector, at all levels, as a mechanism for increasing capacity and capability. The Public Sector Commission is engaging with agencies to design processes and guidelines to support mobility across the sector, including piloting mobility approaches for some professions and cohorts.
A career in the public sector
The Public Sector Commission has commenced developing a new employee value proposition (EVP) project to position the sector as an employer of choice. A robust and compelling employee value proposition campaign will support the Queensland public sector as an employer of choice, which is critical given the challenges of both attracting talent now and for the future workforce as well as retaining existing employees.
The EVP will showcase the array of diverse and rewarding career opportunities available within our sector, whilst promoting the sector as a great workplace for career development.
The employee value proposition will highlight the core selling points of the Queensland public sector:
- Meaningful work: employees can make a significant impact through work that deeply resonates within our communities.
- Inclusive workplace culture: our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion fosters a sense of belonging and empowerment.
- Career mobility: as the largest employer in the state, the Queensland Government offers a breadth of career paths, supporting professional development and enabling career progression throughout our diverse sectors and roles.
The employee value proposition will target specific cohorts with the following key messaging:
- Frontline employees: the meaningful nature of frontline work provides the opportunity for purposeful impact in their day-to-day roles; frontline staff feel valued within supportive teams that rely on and celebrate their contributions.
- First Nations employees: workplaces respect and actively promote cultural diversity and the richness of First Nations cultures and perspectives; leadership growth for First Nations employees is a priority, as we strive to increase First Nations representation within our organisational leadership and promote the importance of diverse voices at all levels of decision-making and policy development.
- Regional and remote workforce: regional and remote workers make a substantial difference within their local communities; leaders are supportive ensuring workers in regional and remote areas receive the guidance and understanding they need to have a positive impact.
- Graduates and early career: the Queensland public sector provides an environment that is rich in career growth opportunities; career starters engage in projects that are both meaningful and invigorating, with professional development and mentoring provided to foster their growing careers.
- Skilled technical workers: the opportunity to work on innovative projects enables technical workers to apply their skills in a meaningful and progressive way; continuous learning as an ongoing commitment allows skilled technical workers to expand their expertise through a range of professional development opportunities that contribute to the advancement of Queensland's services and infrastructure.