PM&C APS Employee Census Results 2025

This report highlights the main findings of the PM&C Employee Census (the Census) results for 2025.

Overview

In 2025, employee participation in the Census was 90%, providing the department with a comprehensive view of employee sentiment. PM&C’s results have been broadly consistent with previous years, reflecting our engaged workforce.

The Census results include 6 key indices that draw together responses to multiple questions into single themed measures. PM&C’s index scores remain stable and continue to track above both the whole of APS and APS policy agency averages, achieving the following results:

  • Engagement: 79%
  • Immediate Supervisor: 79%
  • SES Manger: 75%
  • Communication: 72%
  • Innovation: 70%
  • Wellbeing: 75%

Key Strengths

The results reflect a workforce who are highly committed, capable and engaged. Highlights we celebrate include:

  • Providing a supportive workplace – PM&C aims to be a safe and respectful workplace free from discrimination, bullying and harassment. 89% agree that PM&C supports and actively promotes an inclusive workplace culture and 81% agree that PM&C is committed to growing the diversity of our workforce. 90% of respondents believe their immediate supervisor cares about their health and wellbeing. 87% agree that the culture within PM&C supports people to act with integrity.
  • Role Clarity and Autonomy – Engagement levels remain high and employees report a strong sense of pride for working at PM&C. 82% of respondents felt they had the necessary autonomy to perform their job effectively. 83% are clear on their duties and responsibilities and 85% have a clear understanding of the performance expectations of their role. These results reflect a dedicated workforce with 95% of respondents willing to go the 'extra mile' when required.
  • Reconciliation – Results for employees actively seeking to advance reconciliation through their role increased by 10 percentage points from 2024. This year, adding a second agency-specific question completed an action in the department’s Reconciliation Action Plan. Those responses created a baseline showing 73% of respondents agree that reconciliation activities at PM&C in the past 12 months have grown their understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and history.

Areas of focus

  • Promoting appropriate workplace behaviours – Although PM&C’s bullying, harassment and discrimination results remained unchanged from 2024, the number of employees reporting unacceptable behaviours decreased. We will continue to encourage employees to speak up, including creating anonymous avenues for reporting unacceptable behaviours.
  • Empowering managers – PM&C will strengthen cohesion between the EL2 and SES cohorts. Our actions will enable decision making at the lowest appropriate level, and drive capability growth across the department’s overall leadership cohort.
  • Communication and change management – As only 48% of respondents agreed that change is managed well within PM&C, a decrease of 4 percentage points, PM&C is developing a people-first approach to change management. This toolkit will provide a holistic and standardised approach for all change initiatives within the department.

Progress on our 2024 Action Plan

We are proud to have progressed well on our actions from the 2024 PM&C Action Plan.

  • A refreshed Appropriate Workplace Behaviour Policy has been published after consultation with all staff. As a department we will continue to promote it to reduce inappropriate behaviours.
  • The Workload Review Policy is being finalised and 2025 census results indicate decreased employee concerns across a number of workload management questions. As the Census immediately followed the pre-election caretaker period, the department is satisfied that the current responses indicate workloads are trending in the right direction, with ongoing monitoring to continue.
  • We continue to work towards building a stronger sense of leadership in the EL2 cohort. We have since held two EL2 forums, in April and November 2025. The forums include panel discussions, networking opportunities and various activities covering topics such as the important leadership role EL2s play in PM&C, managing workload for wellbeing, and navigating leadership challenges and opportunities
  • Analysis and presentations to the Executive Board, Group SES and Inclusion and Diversity Committee were presented. Local level action planning was actively promoted, including the provision of an action planning template and action planning workshop guide.

Where to from here

A tailored agency 2025-26 Census Action Plan has been developed based on our results. The action plan recognises our priority areas outlined above and actions to demonstrate our commitment to continuous improvement.

In addition to the Census Action plan, PM&C continue to make great strides through a range of workforce initiatives, many of which are driven by ongoing APS Reform priorities. More information on how we support our workforce and build capability can be found in PM&C’s Corporate Plan 2025–26 and Annual Report 2024-25.

More detail

For more detail about interpreting, benchmarking and comparing the Census results, we recommend visiting the Australian Public Service Commission’s Census page and reading the explanatory guide for more technical information.