Outlook

Strong management of financial resources will be required for the effective implementation and alignment of government priorities in the areas of foreign affairs, trade and investment, and development assistance, including the establishment of new posts funded in the 2015–16 Budget. As part of the Government’s smaller government agenda, work is underway to review the department’s functional efficiency.

The department remains an attractive career choice for individuals with broad experience and those with more defined areas of expertise in foreign policy, development, trade, consular and our enabling services (such as IT, property, human and financial resources). A challenge in the coming year will be to increase our workforce planning capacity to better forecast needs in years to come, assess whether those capabilities can be met in-house or need to be brought into the department, and recruit across the range of our requirements. In parallel, we must ensure that our training programs address internal needs and equip our officers for developing deep expertise in highly varied working environments. Strengthening skills in our LES workforce and HR systems to meet our needs overseas remains an important goal. Ensuring health and safety concerns are addressed in a complex international environment, while meeting Australian standards, remains an area of focus.