Topic 1.6: Maintaining personal integrity

APS employees

Act with integrity

• Do the right thing—integrity should be central to every action and every decision, every day.
• Call out poor behaviour—do it in the moment if you feel safe to do so, or report it to your manager or HR. Don’t ignore it.
• Support your peers—be available to help when you can; make it safe for colleagues to come to you with questions or concerns.
• When in doubt, discuss. If you don’t know what is expected of you, if you’re not sure how the APS Values and Code of Conduct apply in a particular situation, if something doesn’t feel right—talk about it, e.g. with your manager, HR, or the Commission’s Ethics Advisory Service.

Managers and supervisors

In addition to their obligations as individual APS employees, managers and supervisors have particular responsibilities in upholding integrity in the APS.

Help staff understand and apply the APS Values, Employment Principles and Code of Conduct

• Make sure your staff are aware of the APS Values, Employment Principles and Code of Conduct, the Commission’s guidance material, agency policies, and where to go for help—starting with you.
• Provide easy access to integrity information and guidance, and support this with regular training and awareness-raising activities.
• Set and clarify specific performance and behavioural expectations for employees. Provide feedback that is clear, honest, timely, respectful, and useful. Performance obligations for supervisors are set out in s.39A of the Commissioner’s Directions.

Supporting employees to act with integrity

• Work with employees to ensure they have the skills to identify integrity issues, the capacity to raise and address them in a way that is appropriate to their classification, and the opportunity to practise ethical decision-making in a safe environment.
• Role-model good practice and behaviour—including ethical decision making and addressing difficult issues with sensitivity and courage.

Create a psychologically safe workplace

• Make it safe for employees to raise ideas and concerns. Make time to listen, and focus on understanding the issue before forming a judgement. If an employee has made a mistake, start by asking yourself: ‘How can I help you learn from this?’
• When an employee displays behaviour of concern, reflect on an appropriate response. Consider the broader context of the behaviour, as well as its possible impact on the workplace and on trust in the APS. Address small issues promptly, proportionately and sensitively—so they don’t become big ones.
• Be available to support your peers—model collaboration and pool your knowledge and skills to achieve better outcomes.
• When in doubt, discuss—managers are not expected to have all the answers, and complex issues benefit from a range of perspectives. Seek support from colleagues, your manager, HR or the Commission’s Ethics Advisory Service.

Address systemic issues

• Sometimes an employee’s behaviour may be a symptom of a broader issue in the team or the agency—e.g. a culture in which employees don’t feel valued, or where insufficient oversight is built into systems or processes. Recognise these situations, address the problem if you can, and escalate it if needed.