Attraction and Retention

Application

This Policy applies to all departments and public sector bodies of the State of Victoria and their non-executive level employees, as defined under the Public Administration Act 2004 (Vic) (PA Act) and other Victorian legislation.

Overview

The Government is committed to ensuring that the public sector attracts and retains a diverse and high performing workforce to continue to deliver high-quality services to the Victorian community. To support this commitment, all public sector employers must have a strategy in place that seeks to address key attraction and retention issues as they arise in their specific operational contexts. This policy outlines the Government’s expectations of public sector employers.

Expectation of Government that public sector employers have an attraction and retention strategy

Continuing to build diversity and capability within the broader public sector workforce underpins the public sector’s ability to make a positive contribution to the lives and communities of Victorians.

All public sector employers must have an attraction and retention strategy in place, which seeks to address key issues relevant to their workplaces, and which must be developed in consultation with the relevant union/s. While specific strategies will necessarily differ from agency to agency, the goal must be to attract and retain the necessary talent to meet existing and emerging workforce needs.

In accordance with Government’s Wages Policy and Enterprise Bargaining Framework, an attraction and retention strategy may be implemented as a Best Practice Employment Commitment (BPEC) as an enterprise bargaining outcome. If the enterprise agreement has a nominal expiry date significantly into the future, the Public Sector Agencies may choose to implement an attraction and retention strategy earlier but should consult with the portfolio department and departments should consult with Industrial Relations Victoria (IRV) to identify any potential industrial issues prior to doing so.

Principles

A public sector employer attraction and retention strategy must consider the following:

Public sector employers must ensure that through strategic workforce planning they identify workforce needs and strategies to attract and retain an appropriately skilled workforce that is capable of meeting the public sector employer’s current and future needs.
Employee expectations of their employers and employment conditions are changing. Increasingly, employees are interested in flexible ways of working, meaningful work with prospects for career progression and an ability to maintain a work/life balance.
Public sector employers should give due consideration to the drivers of employee attraction and retention that are specific to the relevant public sector employer and/or industry. This may vary across employee demographics, roles, and the nature of the work of the public sector agency and may be influenced by the stages of their employees’ personal and professional lives.
Any costs arising from implementing an attraction and retention strategy are to be met from within the entity’s existing funding allocations.
To meet changing employee expectations and ensure appropriate workforce capabilities are maintained, Victorian public sector employers should establish a strong employee value proposition. A value proposition comprises of the considerations that employees perceive as the value that they will gain through employment with a particular organisation.
An attractive employee value proposition may include, but is not limited to, work-life balance, meaningful work, positive workplace culture, workplace diversity and inclusion, and employment benefits such as flexible ways of working. As part of their attraction and retention policies, public sector employers should communicate a positive value proposition to attract and retain capable workforces.

Strategies

Public sector employers may operationalise the above principles through a range of workplace practices and initiatives, which may be captured in by a broader attraction and retention strategy.

Attraction strategies may include, but are not limited to:

Developing and communicating a strong employee value proposition to attract skilled and diverse prospective employees to the public sector.
Designing and implementing best-practice approaches to recruitment and selection, including streamlining hiring practices, and reducing timeframes where possible.
Designing and implementing strategies to attract and recruit from diverse and under-represented communities, including First Nations peoples.
Designing and establishing incentives to support the attraction (as well as retention) of employees in rural and regional areas, for example reimbursement of reasonable relocation expenses.
Designing and implementing appropriate remunerative incentives and rules for deploying such incentives, for instance, the appointment of a preferred candidate to a salary above that of the classification base salary.
- Public sector agencies must be able to demonstrate clear link between such an incentive and key service delivery goals (e.g., where the role is a critical role and there will be a significant and immediate impact on service delivery if it remains vacant). Such incentives must be approved by senior management with appropriate delegation within the public sector entity.
  - Any attraction incentives, other than appointment above the base of a classification, should only be offered on a temporary basis, for a defined period.
  - Agencies must keep adequate records of the payment of any such incentives, and incentives should be reviewed regularly, in particular to ensure they do not have negative consequences for gender pay equity. Any agreement between the parties must be appropriately documented prior to formalising the individual’s recruitment.
  - Agencies must ensure that remunerative incentives do not include performance-based bonuses or incentive payments.

Retention strategies may include, but are not limited to:

Promoting and implementing flexible ways of working for all staff, including by developing a flexible work policy that supports employees to balance their work and their commitments outside of work.
Fostering and promoting inclusive and diverse workplaces.
Demonstrating a commitment to provide secure employment.
Developing meaningful career pathways through the establishment of capable leadership pipelines, a commitment to succession planning, formal tools to support career progression and implementing and promoting relevant learning and development resources.
Facilitating greater mobility across the workforce, including by linking skill development and career aspirations, reducing operational barriers to mobility, and implementing appropriate frameworks to match employee skills to emerging and current organisational needs.

Further Information

For further information and advice employees and public sector union representatives should contact the local Human Resources or People and Culture Unit (or equivalent) of the relevant entity for further assistance in the first instance.

People and Culture Representatives of Public Sector Entities should contact their Portfolio Department for further assistance in the first instance.

People and Culture Representatives of Portfolio Departments should contact their usual IRV portfolio contact for further assistance in the first instance.

Flexible Work
Secure employment
Right to Disconnect

Updated 16 February 2026