Media Release

20 January 2009

Four agencies strike Gold for Career Websites

Four Commonwealth agencies have struck Gold for the quality of their Career Websites in the 2008 e-Career Awards:

• Australian Federal Police
• Australian Customs Service
• CSIRO
• Australian Bureau of Statistics

"These agencies take a one-stop-shop approach to providing career information on their websites," explains Dr Ann Villiers from Mental Nutrition, pioneer of the e-Career Awards. "They explain and illustrate what career paths are available, provide  helpful information to job applicants, and make it easy to locate information needed to make career and job decisions. This is what it means to provide excellent career information."

Dr Villiers assessed forty-four Commonwealth and ACT government Career Websites plus three job websites against criteria for five areas: home page identification, career information, job vacancy information, corporate information, and clarity and access. Each Career Website was judged as Gold, Silver or Bronze. Overall 50 per cent of all agencies' Career Websites surveyed were rated as Bronze.  Most Commonwealth departments were rated at the Bronze level.  ACT departments were split between Silver and Bronze. Nearly 50 per cent of Commonwealth agencies received a Silver rating.

"This research establishes that government Career Websites are, in general, neither greatly informative nor especially creative," says Dr Villiers. "Most websites would benefit from some strategic attention that focuses on the purpose of a Career Website and how it supports HR and business objectives."

"We know what the top attraction attributes for the public service are so we might expect agencies to use their Career Websites to highlight how staff can make a difference, to describe career pathways, outline development opportunities, and help applicants prepare quality applications. Yet most are not doing this."

Details of the Awards and what makes a quality Career Website can be read in the full report.

Contact: Dr Ann Villiers, phone 02 6254 5023 or use contact us.