Public servants are being offered the chance to grow "bigger minds" by joining a force of "free-range employees" to move around departments in "targeted deployments".
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The Public Service Commission is looking for a few good women and men who want to escape the career cage of working in just one department and spread their wings into other public service workplaces.
"Operation free range" will be launched next year, but the commission is not looking to take on any old bureaucrats. There will be a pre-vetting process for applicants for the public service's new rapid reaction force.
"Applicants sign up to be considered for needs-based deployment, essentially becoming 'free-range employees' to be mobilised for targeted interventions," the commission says.
"The pilot aligns employee capability with business priorities.
"It does this by developing a pre-vetted list of applicants ready for deployment to identified priority areas.
"The APSC will consider the needs of the participant along with the home and host agencies in its support of each secondment, ensuring maximum success."
The commission promises a win-win situation from free range, with departments able to call upon a ready-and-willing group of public servants to step in and fill gaps caused by unexpected circumstances. The free-rangers themselves will benefit from the experience of working outside their "home" departments.
"Mobility builds professional networks and enhances employability," the commission says.
"The more mobile people are, the better they relate and communicate.
"Early indicators from the APSC's future of work project suggests that, more than ever, employees are seeking out employers who can offer a more tailored approach to career management, based on new experiences.
"Secondments develop skills and capability, provide new perspectives, build resilience and offer personal and professional growth that can enhance career opportunities."
The advantages of mobility do not stop there, the commission says.
Temporary placements can offer the chance of "horizontal development ... vertical development ... and growing bigger minds".
But the commission conceded the public service's track record on employee mobility is patchy.
"Workforce flexibility, including ease of mobility, is a key driver of productivity," the commission told public servants last week.
"In the last five years, only 2.4 per cent of ongoing APS employees moved between agencies and only 40 per cent of executive level employees reported having worked in more than one agency."
The attractions of operation free range for host agencies are manifest, the commission says.
"Pre-vetted employees are screened and are ready for deployment so business needs can be met quickly through the mobilisation of skilled employees to where they are most needed," according to the announcement.
"Temporary assignments enable the formation of strong links and partnerships between agencies and enhance awareness of whole-of-government priorities."
The home agencies will not miss out either, according to the commission, with temporary placements able to freshen-up long term employees with a new challenge.
"The retention of valued staff, through providing professional development opportunities and expanded career pathways," the commission's circular states.
"Secondments offer the opportunity to share expertise and fresh ways of doing things, with staff returning to their home agency at the end of a time-limited project."
