Working in the Culture and Structure of the Public Service
When we work in the public sector our role is to support and provide service to a range of stakeholders. This includes serving the public, the Parliament, our Minister and the government of the day, our cluster/agency, other organisations and our colleagues. We are responsible for providing relevant, responsive and quality service and we do this in a way which reflects our core values. While every agency and Department is different, the NSW public sector has some common principles we all work with which make it a good place to work and to receive service from. Learning how it all works can make the transition to the public sector easier.
Many roles in the public sector require a good understanding of how government works and how to work with stakeholders both – both internal and external – to our organisation. It is important that employees know what each of the three layers of government – local, state and federal- are responsible for and how they interact. Knowing about the roles and responsibilities of individuals, committees and other groups in government provides people with the context for some of their work, such as writing Ministerials, briefing notes, developing policy or communicating with the Minister’s Office.
The NSW Public Service Vision is to have a highly capable public sector workforce characterized by a culture of integrity, trust, service and accountability. Often organisational values are great slogans on the walls or in corporate documentation. To make them “living values” every employee must be able to translate them to actions they carry out in their own role. This is an important component of how the government will achieve the 2021 goals.