ACT head of service Kathy Leigh said flexible working arrangements helps to close the gender pay gap

ACT head of service Kathy Leigh said the pay gap between men and women in the territory's public service was sitting about 0.1 per cent so far this financial year. The gap at the end of the 2021-22 year was 0.5 per cent.

Speaking at an address held by the Institute of Public Administration Australia ACT, Ms Leigh said flexible working arrangements made a real difference to women's participation in the workforce.

"These flexibilities can make it attractive to work full-time or to work more part-time hours and I'm really keen to see all of our staff take advantage of this to share family and other responsibilities," she said.

"I believe this flexibility will immediately make a real difference to women's participation in our workforce, and also the gender pay gap.

"Having the full benefit of our whole workforce is crucial to ensuring that we have the best possible workforce."

Ms Leigh said most meetings in the territory's public service were held virtually, including meetings with ministers.

She said flexible work allowed for a person's performance to be measured on their outcome.

"These flexibilities also support staff see their work in terms of achieving particular outcomes, rather than being in a particular location at a particular time," Ms Leigh said.

"It was a good way of honing management skills. Anyone who was still managing by presenteeism has to shift to managing outcomes, which of course everyone should have been doing all along."

The ACT public service will continue to implement a flexible working policy beyond COVID.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr last year declared the era of in-office 9-to-5 work was over for the ACT's public servants, arguing flexible work would be a key way to attract and retain quality staff.

A recent survey of ACT public servants found staff strongly supported flexible working arrangements and the majority of workers rarely attend the office, with 52 per cent going less than once per week.

Work is also underway to open offices in Canberra's town centres and ACT public servants can choose to work from the office closest to them.

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At the address, Ms Leigh also spoke about communication saying it was the public service's "greatest capability gap".

She said there was a perception in the public service that communication could be seen as being political.

"I often wonder about why and I wonder if it's possibly because we conflate communication with being political and it's very important the public service does not become politicised," Ms Leigh said.

"The role of the public service engaging with the public isn't political."

"If we want to deliver on our good ideas and bring people with us whether it's the various stakeholder groups or the general public, we need to be able to engage with them."

Ms Leigh said she believed there was a greater role for communication and engagement staff to be involved with policy.

"Often they can provide a reality check about what might really be in the minds of the general community," she said.

Ms Leigh also spoke about how she felt there could be better collaboration between the federal and states and territories public services.

She said greater collaboration could help with tackling issues faced at the federal and state or territory level.

"We all know that the splits between Commonwealth and state responsibilities aren't the most logical or efficient, and a better understanding of the whole picture could assist us all to pursue better outcome," she said.

"We should actively encourage mobility between all public services, and we should formalise the arrangement so we don't have to reinvent the wheel each time."

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