e-Career Awards

The e-Career Awards promote career information excellence on organisations’ web sites. 

Why e-Career Awards?

• We are repeatedly told that there is a skills shortage.
• We are also told that younger employees are attracted to organisations that offer career and professional development opportunities.
• Applicants continue to find applying for public service jobs arduous and confusing.

A survey by Mental Nutrition® of over 30 government agency web sites shows that "..very few use the employment section of their web site to full advantage." A scan of some state and overseas government web sites shows a similar result.

How organisations make sense of themselves to job applicants makes a difference as to whether they apply. If the process is too complicated or doesn’t make sense; if there is little indication of career paths, if it’s too hard to find essential information, then people simply won’t bother.

The ANAO Performance Audit Report No 31, Management of Recruitment in the Australian Public Service notes that agencies need to be more creative and innovative in their attraction and recruitment strategies. (p. 61-62) The report emphasises the need to base attraction and employer branding strategies on sound research. The APSC State of the Service Employer Survey 2006-07 identified a range of attributes that attracted employees to their current job. These factors included:

• Future career opportunities in the agency
• Desire to gain experience or greater experience in the APS
• Ability to contribute to making a difference to the lives of Australians
• Agency’s reputation for good work-life balance practices
• Developmental/educational opportunities in the agency
• Opportunity to work on innovative or ‘leading edge’ projects.

Web sites are one avenue to provide information about these factors and how they apply to a specific agency.

The awards process

The awards focus on government web sites in the Commonwealth and ACT Governments.

A range of web sites will be assessed using criteria that examine:

• Home page
• Career page and information
• Job vacancy information
• Corporate information
• Clarity and access.

You can read the details of these criteria.

A scale 0-4 is used for each of the criteria.

Web sites will be judged as follows:

Categories of Awards

• Commonwealth departments
• Commonwealth agencies
• ACT Government departments

Special categories of Awards:

• Excellence in information for applicants
• Excellence in career path information

An awards report will be published based on case studies of Gold web sites.

Departments and agencies may receive individual reports.

Time frame:

The awards are announced in August 2008. Results will be announced by late January 2009.

Nominations:

These awards do not involve a nomination process. However, if you wish to have your web site included or wish to recommend a web site for inclusion, please let us know via the Contact us facility on www.selectioncriteria.com.au.