Published on the 19/03/2025 | Written by Heather Wright

Succession planning needed…

A fifth of all of the Australian Public Service’s ICT and digital solutions team is nearing retirement, posing a ‘significant challenge’ to the delivery of digital projects, including maintaining current critical systems and cyber requirements.

The APS Data, Digital and Cyber Workforce Plan 2025-30, from the Australian Public Service Commission, outlines the need for a coordinated approach to attract, develop and retain those with data, digital and cyber skills as the impacts of an aging workforce (for aging, read 55+) hit home.

“Projected retirement of these ‘legacy skills’ presents a great risk to business continuity.”

The plan warns that ‘retirement-related separations’ have been increasing over the past five years, with many of those retiring responsible for supporting critical systems.

“Ensuring appropriate knowledge transfer practices are in place will be important,” the plan notes.

The numbers to employees retiring is expected to continue to climb – from 3,549 in 2024 to a projected 5,223 in 2029. At the same time the number of systems reaching technical retirement is also climbing, from just eight in 2024 to 37 in 2029.

The report says legacy systems alone require more then 800 ASL (average staff level) to support their operation, with the skills, such as COBOL programming, required to maintain the outdated systems becoming harder to find.

“The retention of skills and an aging workforce is of concern to agencies, particularly the cohort of workers who maintain legacy systems. Couple with a lack of succession planning and pipelines in place, projected retirement of these ‘legacy skills’ presents a great risk to business continuity.”

It’s not just the existing systems and potential knowledge loss of them that is causing the APS concern, with its ability to attract and retain specialist digital skills having ‘tangible impacts’ on the execution of digital projects.

“Currently, agencies are unable to keep up with the demand generated by new and existing digital projects and one-quarter of early digital proposals coming forward have listed workforce risk as a major delivery concern.”

Attracting experienced and mid-level employees into APS data, digital and cyber roles is an ongoing ‘difficulty’, with low labour market supply, broader competition and affordability cites as key factors.

The report says the rapid pace of technological advancements has outstripped current skill sets of the workforce in cyber, with traditional recruitment processes struggling to keep up with demand.

The Australian Computer Society has projected Australia’s tech sector to need 100,000 more tech workers than currently targeted for by federal government, come 2030, as the required job force grows from the current one million to 1.3 million. But another report this week has suggested one possible untapped talent pool: Women.

The RMIT Online report says reskilling women into technology could deliver an AU$6.5 billion business benefit.

Just 30 percent of the Australian tech workforce are women, compared with 44 percent of the overall professional workforce.

“Attracting more women into technology roles would not only improve the diversity of the sector but importantly help to solve Australia’s technology skills crisis,” Women in Tech: How Skills and Talent Diversity Drive Business says.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand’s public service has been undergoing mass redundancy and ‘rationalising’ of roles, including a proposal to slash Health NZ’s digital and data team by more than 1,000 – or 47 percent.

The APSC plan’s action items include repositioning its Digital Traineeship program, which the APSC says has shown high potential with growing numbers of diverse applicants with significant work experience, as a mid-career or career transition program to support mid-career professional seeking career change.

Designing and modernising the hiring process for mid-career workers, engaging with academia to attract fresh graduates straight from training and upping efforts to attract former staff to re-join are also among the plans set out to attract, recruit and retain staff.

Improving career pathways and mobility opportunities, investing in continuous skill development and strengthening in-house expertise were touted for capability uplift, alongside improving retention of critical knowledge through better practice guidance and/or a toolkit to support conversations about retirement intentions, workplace flexibility options, knowledge transfer – including building it into contracts – and succession planning.

Growing and deploying a specialist cohort and ensuring they are retained over the medium to long term, and enhancing capability planning maturity were also among the action areas.

“These goals demand a united, whole-of-service approach to take advantage of opportunities across data, digital and cyber domains,” the Digital Transformation Agency says.

“We are sitting at the crossroads of opportunity,” Chris Fechner, DTA chief executive, says. “This plan is a commitment to adopt the right capabilities, practices, standards and culture to effectively use data and digital technologies. It is one of the many necessary pieces to streamline the operations of government.”