The best and worst public service agencies for flexible work revealed

But after two weeks back in her role, and just 10 weeks after giving birth, Ms Dinsmore decided to return to full-time hours - something she says wouldn't have been possible if her department hadn't supported her to work from home three days a week.

"... I was a bit concerned that if I was going into the office five days a week, full-time hours, that it might just be a bit much for me physically," she said, adding that she was still recovering from a c-section at the time.

"But the other big consideration for me was being able to continue breastfeeding my baby... Being able to work from home meant that I wasn't just pumping throughout the day, but was actually able to breastfeed him directly, which was really important. And I'm not sure I would have been comfortable going to full-time hours if I hadn't been able to do that."

Ms Dinsmore is just one of thousands of public servants who has some sort of flexible working arrangement, the latest APS staff survey has revealed.

Analysis of APS census results from 98 APS agencies, undertaken by The Canberra Times, shows that about 80 per cent of public servants either work part time, work away from the office, or have flexible hours, a compressed work week or a job-sharing arrangement.

We can also see that almost two-thirds of public servants work away from the office or from home.

The Australian War Memorial and the National Portrait Gallery of Australia - perhaps unsurprisingly, given the nature of their work - had some of the lowest proportions of staff working remotely or from home.

Of the main departments, the Department of Home Affairs had the lowest remote work rates, with just 23 per cent of staff saying they worked outside the office. Services Australia wasn't far head, with 28 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission was the only APS agency to return a result above 90; a mammoth 94 per cent of staff who filled out the census there said they benefit from working away from the office or working from home.

The census not only showed which agencies were happiest with their pay packets, but also revealed where staff were the most satisfied with their leave, flexible work arrangements, and other benefits.

Of the 99 agencies who asked their staff about flexible work satisfaction, those at the Director of Public Prosecutions were the least happy.

Only 52 per cent of survey respondents at the DPP said they were satisfied with their non-monetary conditions, trending down from six points from last year's results. The National Portrait Gallery wasn't far ahead, with 54 per cent.

Are you comfortable asking your boss to work from home?

Ms Dinsmore said she felt comfortable asking her senior manager to approve her flexible working conditions - and from the looks of things, other APS staff are too.

There were 99 APS agencies that asked staff if they were confident a request for a flexible work arrangement would be given "reasonable consideration" in their agency. An average of 82 per cent of staff across them answered yes.

Staff at the National Blood Authority and National Mental Health Commission were the least sure - only 55 per cent of respondents in those agencies said they were confident their request would be given reasonable consideration.

At the other end of the spectrum, Climate Change Authority, Commonwealth Grants Commission, and National Health Funding Body all returned perfect scores. All three represent some of the smallest agencies in the APS, each with fewer than 100 employees.

The latter two agencies also ranked highest in terms of staff satisfaction over their non-monetary conditions, like leave and flexible work arrangements, returning results of 97 per cent.

But Ms Dinsmore said that while staff in her department have had access to flexible working conditions, the fact that it needed to be signed off by a senior manager was a barrier to some.

"Particularly if they didn't know that senior manager, they weren't necessarily comfortable sharing the details about why they needed the arrangements and their personal life," she said, adding that the Department of Education had reduced the level of manager required to sign off on arrangements this year, making it a "simpler process".

Public servants' ability to access flexible work is set to change this year, though, as the Public Service Commission seeks to attract and retain workers.

The federal government agreed in 2023 to remove caps on the number of days public servants can work from home following service-wide bargaining negotiations with the unions.

The decision formalised a move from the Secretaries Board in April to declare all APS roles as flexible, to some extent, and created a consistent approach to flexible work arrangement across the public service.

The change will mean government agencies include the option for all roles to be flexible in their enterprise agreements, with the presumption that agencies will approve flexible work arrangements.

There will also be scope for staff to work outside of their agency's regular hours, and workplaces may support those working from home with equipment and other costs.

Managers, though, will still be able to deny or amend requests for flexible working arrangements on reasonable business grounds.

Ms Dinsmore, who was a member of the Community and Public Sector Union's bargaining team during negotiations, described the change as "a really big win for us".

"My experience so far [with requesting flexible working arrangements] has been pretty positive... but I do know that our policies changed over time and people have ended up with some difficulties, previously, accessing it," she said.

"... I think the hope is that everyone will feel more comfortable being able to make the request for whatever reason - whether it's to support a new family, whether it's to take on responsibilities like caring for other relatives, or whether it's just trying to get that work life balance."

She said the onus would be on managers to prove why an arrangement wouldn't work, and encourage flexible work requests to be approved unless there is a significant issue.

Note on methodology: We examined the census data from 99 APS agencies that published their results online. Of these, the Climate Change Authority did not capture results about how many staff have part-time work arrangements, work from home/remotely, work flexible hours, have a compressed work week, or have a job sharing arrangements. As such, we excluded the CCA from the total number of agencies when considering that dataset, bringing the total to 98.