The Australian Public Service will need a strategy to counter a rise in age-related retirements in digital and ICT domains in the coming years, both to maintain critical systems and deliver new projects.
A workforce plan, published late last week, warns that “more than 20 percent of the ongoing APS ‘ICT and Digital Solutions’ job family is nearing retirement age”, which it defines as “55-plus”.
While “retirement-related separations” from agencies increased over the past five years, reaching 3549 in 2024, they are expected to exceed 4200 in 2027 and 5200 in 2029, according to the workforce plan.
This will coincide with more systems reaching their technical end-of-life, creating a potential shortfall in skilled resources to operate and maintain them.
“Legacy systems alone require over 800 APS ASL [average staffing levels] to support their operation, and the skills to maintain these outdated systems are going to be harder to find,” the plan states.
“The retention of skills and an ageing workforce is of concern to agencies, particularly the cohort of workers who maintain legacy systems.
“Coupled with a lack of succession planning and pipelines in place, projected retirement of these ‘legacy skills’ presents a great risk to business continuity.”
Agencies also reported “difficulties” attracting experienced and mid-level employees into data, digital and cyber security domains.
Existing staff are “generally happy with their work and working conditions”, the plan notes, although there are “differing levels of satisfaction across these groups in respect to salary and the technology in their agencies.”
Concentration of roles in Canberra also continues to be a detriment to recruitment, although the plan notes many agencies now have presence in other capital cities to broaden the accessible talent pool.
The plan sets out some action items for the coming years, including work on a “modernised hiring process” to help bring in more mid-level, experienced tech workers; re-skilling of existing APS employees, particularly those with strong agency expertise, and guidance to assist agencies to plan for staff retirements.
The latter may comprise “better practice guidance and/or a toolkit for agencies to support conversations about retirement intentions, workplace flexibility options, knowledge transfer practices (including how to build this into contracts) and succession planning.”
Digital Transformation Agency CEO Chris Fechner said the workforce plan, which will be reviewed annually, “is a commitment to adopt the right capabilities, practices, standards, and culture to effectively use data and digital technologies.”
“It is one of the many necessary pieces to streamline the operations of government,” he said in a statement.
