Case Study
Department transported to a new level of capability
Client issues
Over 5 years ago a large government Department was about to embark on reducing its workforce from 1,300 to 650 staff. Importantly, this was to be achieved without reducing the amount of work that the Department needed to carry out.
The Secretary elected to offer his people the skills to handle the period of change, and to manage the increased workload after the downsizing. He made it very clear to everyone would have to carry out the Department’s usual workload, but that he was willing to support them. A classic case of wanting to accomplish “more with less”
PEP’s response
Based on the results of a pilot program in the organisation, the Secretary funded PEP for:
- All of his SES level staff
- The SES’s feeder groups
- The Minister
- The Minister’s office
Other staff were able to participate though they had to fund PEP from their own budgets.
Outcomes
Over the next three years about 75% of the Department attended PEP. They were able to achieve the initial objective of maintaining their service delivery despite a halving of their workforce.
When the Secretary was subsequently promoted to Secretary of a much larger Department he introduced PEP to his executive team and that Department has been consistently implementing PEP ever since.
The secretary wrote: “PEP is easy to support – it’s simply the best and only mechanism I’ve come across that actually works”.
