A regulator’s lot: not terrific at TEQSA, pretty ordinary at ASQA

53 per cent of TEQSA staff are “proud to work in my agency,” 23 per cent down on the Australian Public Service as a whole

It’s one of the findings in the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency’s employee census for 2022, conducted for all Australian Public Service organisations.

Good findings include staff opinions on the agency’s flexible working arrangements, 23 per cent above the APS as a whole.

But the overall positive employee engagement score is 67 per cent – the same as last year and 9 per cent lower than the norm for regulatory agencies.

TEQSA people believe in their work. There are positives, largely in line with the APS overall on the “purpose and objectives” of the agency (84 per cent) and commitment to its goals (77 per cent).

But many are not happy. Just 37 per cent “feel a strong personal attachment” to TEQSA, down 11 per cent on last year and 26 per cent lower than for regulatory agencies in general.

Part of the problem might be that staff aren’t confident in top management. Positive attitudes to immediate superiors is 70 per cent, unchanged from 2021 and in-line with the overall APS score but just 32 per cent agreed the senior executive service work as a team, up 5 per cent on last year but 22 per cent lower than for the APS as a whole.

Last year CEO Alistair Maclean stated the 2021 survey occurred, “while the agency was also engaged in an extensive consultation about how we can strengthen our workplace culture and foster a working environment that supports all our staff to achieve their best,” (CMM December 6).

Perhaps they are consulting still.

And if you think morale is not universally terrific at TEQSA, it’s not great at  ASQA

Just 42 per cent of staff at the Australian Skills Quality Authority are “proud to work in my agency” – 34 per cent under the all of the APS figure.

Part of the problem appears to be the way top management is perceived. The overall score for survey respondents’ immediate supervisor is 70, unchanged from last year and just 6 per cent down on the APS as a whole. For the SES it’s 59, ten per cent lower. And then there are specifics, “the SES work as a team” rates a 32 per cent positive and “effective communication” between bosses and workers is 30 per cent.