About this report

This report draws on evidence from a range of sources, including the NSW Public Service Commission’s (PSC’s) People Matter Employee Survey (People Matter survey) and Workforce Profile, and the Department of Customer Service’s State of the Customer report. The following points will help you get the best understanding of the information in this report.

• The acronym ‘pp’ stands for ‘percentage points’.
• All diversity statistics are based on self-disclosed information.
• Representation of cultural background, non-binary representation, LGBTIQ+ representation, and representation of people who provide care for someone outside work is based on results from the People Matter survey.
• We use the term ‘people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds’ in this report which represents People Matter survey respondents that selected at least one non-English speaking cultural background.

People Matter Employee Survey

The People Matter survey asks NSW public sector employees about their experiences at work; with their teams, managers and leaders; and in their organisations more broadly. The 2022 survey was open from 22 August to 16 September. Around 205,000 employees across the sector responded to this year’s People Matter survey, a 49% response rate.

Most of the survey results are presented as ‘per cent favourable’, which combines the number of ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’ responses to a question or set of questions. In this report, some questions have been grouped for theoretical or practical reasons. Responses that are considered ‘favourable overall’ are reported as a percentage for these questions. These scores provide an overview of workplace practices that affect employee experience, and they are each assessed through multiple questions in the People Matter survey.

State of the Customer

The Department of Customer Service’s State of the Customer report details the NSW Government’s work to fulfil its goal to deliver easy, effective and trustworthy government services. The 2022 report was published on the NSW Government’s website on 7 October. It notes what government services are working well and where there are areas for improvement, as identified by customers. 

The report includes feedback captured through the NSW Government’s Customer Experience Survey. The survey is how the government measures whether its services are easy to use, effective and trustworthy. The survey provides insights into the experience of over 30,000 individuals and businesses annually, covering 550 different transactions across 37 government services. 

The State of the Customer report replaces the Customer Satisfaction Measurement Survey, which concluded in 2020.

Workforce Profile

The Workforce Profile is an annual and comprehensive report of the demographic characteristics and employment arrangements of all public sector employees. The PSC and all public sector agencies jointly collect and contribute to this report. The census date is the last payday of the financial year, and the census period is the two weeks leading up to and including the census date. The data in this report are for the census date, unless otherwise specified. For 2022, the census date was 23 June.

Geography

Throughout this report, ‘metropolitan’ refers to the Greater Sydney metropolitan area and the Newcastle and Wollongong local government areas (LGAs). ‘Regional’ refers to the remainder of NSW.

The maps showing the geographic distribution of NSW public sector employees using the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS’) Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4) classification. SA4s are the largest sub-state regions in the Main Structure of the ASGS and are designed for the output of a variety of regional data. They represent labour markets. The SA4s that make up the Greater Sydney metropolitan area have been amalgamated into Sydney East and Sydney West for ease of reporting.
 

This report discusses the performance of the Public Service, government sector and public sector, each of which have a specific definition.

• The Public Service includes those employed under Part 4 of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013 (NSW) (GSE Act) in the service of the Crown.
• The government sector, as defined by the GSE Act, includes the Public Service, the Teaching Service, the NSW Health Service, the Transport Service of New South Wales, the NSW Police Force and other Crown services such as the TAFE Commission.
• The public sector incorporates the government sector and other government agencies, including the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the Audit Office of New South Wales, the Parliament of NSW, the Judicial Commission of New South Wales, and State owned corporations such as water and energy companies.

The data in this report relate to the public sector, unless otherwise specified.

The Commissioner would like to acknowledge the assistance of:

• PSC staff members who developed this report – Chris Lamb, Sam Nielsen, Emilie Priday, Donna Fox, Monica Rose, Rashi Lekhwar, Sherry Ann Toomey, Helen Reynolds, Angela Koshy, Fiona Winfield, Ying Ying Chen, Krishna Kasturi, Alpna Malik, Ladislas Bizimana, Ailene Del Mundo and Andrew Novak
• the PSC Advisory Board – Sandra McPhee AM (Chair), Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, Jordan O’Reilly, Geoff Stalley, Michael Coutts-Trotter and Paul Grimes PSM. 
• the Customer Insights team at the Department of Customer Service for its work on the State of the Customer report and Customer Experience Survey
• NSW public sector agencies for supporting the People Matter survey and Workforce Profile collections, and for sharing their stories as case studies
• Editor Group and Metro Graphics for their expertise in editing and designing, respectively, this report.