Meaningful work

Further analysis of the WfQ survey data shows when employees believe their work has a higher impact on the community, they also feel more connected with their work and more engaged.

When 2024 WfQ data is filtered to include only the responses of employees who feel their work has a high impact on the community reported perceptions of feeling energised, inspired and proud of the work are between nine and ten percentage points higher than the scores for the total sector.

Similarly, where levels of perceived impact on the community are high, so too is engagement.

Meaningful work not only speaks to the individual’s need to contribute significantly to their work, their team and their organisation but also to the importance of receiving feedback about their performance, their value and their contribution.

Case study: Impact in action

Supporting the Queensland community through disaster

Between January and March 2025, there were three major adverse weather events that impacted Queensland communities—flooding in North and Far North Queensland, Tropical Cyclone Alfred and flooding in Western Queensland.

The Queensland public sector mobilised to help communities respond and recover.

Positive performance management

Employee performance in the Queensland public sector is managed using a positive performance management approach. As outlined in section 85 of the Queensland Public Sector Act 2022 and directive 02/24, this approach has a clear focus on understanding and building on the strengths and successes of our employees.

The foundations of positive performance management relate to the employee’s understanding of what good performance looks like and having the basic tools and information to contribute to strategic objectives in addition to regular, constructive and specific two-way feedback.

From these foundations employees are better able to identify their development needs and achieve their performance goals. It establishes role expectations, provides goal clarity, gives purpose and meaning and aligns employee efforts to organisational requirements.

The quality of communication between employees and their manager or supervisor is the basis for positive performance management and the creation of meaningful work.

Meaningful work is as much about the feedback managers and supervisors provide as it is about the employee’s independent perception of their contribution.

Again, these are critical performance foundations and positivity is strong.

Another aspect of positive performance management is how employees are assisted with their professional and personal development.

Discussions of professional development give employees a sense of meaning through the establishment of professional goals.

These items are asked on a frequency scale with the % positive being the proportion of people that respond often and always:

• 27% discuss their professional development with their manager or supervisor often and always
• 41% of employees feel their manager or supervisor supports their professional develop by connecting them with learning and development opportunities often and always
• 34% feel their manager or supervisor takes the time to provide informal feedback on their performance often and always
• 37% agree their manager or supervisor provides them with constructive feedback to help improve their performance often and always
• 49% agree their manager or supervisor often and always acknowledges when they do something well.

While the positive response figures have increased, these results tell us that there is an ongoing need to strengthen how feedback is given to employees.

Previous sections of this report refer to the challenges of delivering world-class services and building a highly capable and effective public sector in an extremely challenging fiscal environment.

Positive performance management is a clear opportunity to deliver on this challenge. Positive performance management mechanisms including the provision of informal feedback, the provision of constructive feedback to improve performance and the acknowledgement of good performance.