This article was written by Sally Washington, Practice Fellow (Policy Capability and Public Management), Australia and New Zealand School of Government.
The problem: Governments need skilled policy staff, but few have articulated what a skilled policy professional looks like.
Why it matters: Policy professionals can’t improve if they don’t know what is expected of them, and development and training fall flat if it is disconnected from the skills needed for modern policy work.** **
The solution: Governments can set expectations about the skills required of policy professionals and use them to build the collective expertise of teams, organisations and the overall public service as part of building a high-performing policy advisory system.
How do policy practitioners know what is expected of them? As the world gets more complex, so do the demands of policy advice and the skills required to produce it. Policy practitioners need to be familiar with a range of newer methods (user-centred design, behavioural insights, data analytics, use of AI) as well as being skilled in more traditional analysis (cost-benefit, regulatory impact analysis) and the advisory tasks (briefing notes, verbal briefings, Cabinet submissions) that are the bread and butter of a policy professional’s job. This means going beyond generic public service or departmental competency frameworks to see policy as a profession with a defined skill set.
Articulate policy skills
Aotearoa New Zealand and the UK policy professions have articulated the skills required of policy practitioners. The UK has recently upgraded its Policy Profession Standards which are supported by a curriculum and comprehensive certified training options, up to masters level. Aotearoa has recently revised its Policy Skills Framework to include responsiveness to Māori and to reflect legislative changes in the Public Service Act 2020. The UK standards are organised around types of policy work — strategy, democracy and delivery, while the NZ framework is more about knowledge, skills, behaviours and practices that can be applied to any policy work. The Australian Public Service describes policy skills — strategy, policy and evaluation — as part of its ‘Public service craft’.
So what skills are required for policy? For this article, I’ll revert to the original NZ Policy Skills Framework. It’s a simple and practical articulation of the skills policy professionals need for their day-to-day work, regardless of portfolio or jurisdiction. And, it is highly transferable; it has been adopted elsewhere (for example, by the South Australian Department of Education). It includes knowledge (“what I need to know”), applied skills (“What I need to be able to do”) and behaviours (“how I need to act”). I describe this as engaging the ‘head, hands and heart’ in policy work. The skills cover domain knowledge (portfolio expertise); understanding government processes and priorities; analytical and advisory skills (use of evidence and evaluation, policy design that includes implementation and is well planned and managed); working with others (collaboration, engagement, communication) and having the right mindset (curious, agile, innovative and politically savvy). All of these are underpinned by generic public service foundations.
Figure 2. Adapted from the original NZ Policy Skills Framework
Each policy skill can be described at different levels of expertise: developing (starting out); practising (a safe pair of hands) and expert/leading (top of the game). While skills like “strategic thinking” and “political savvy”, have always been seen as critical for policy analysis and advising they are rarely described in a way that enables policy practitioners to assess their current level of expertise or the expectations for getting to the next level.
Take strategic thinking as an example. A generic description would be that the person thinks outside the box and can incorporate longer-term thinking and broad system perspectives into their policy advice. A person who is top of their game would be able to lead work to set a vision and strategic direction to achieve longer-term outcomes and translate that intent into medium-term plans and initiatives, including some expertise in foresight. But a person just starting out would be just developing an ability to see how current actions contribute to longer-term outcomes and the synergies between policy issues, portfolios and government sectors.
Assess and build the skills – of individuals, teams, organisations
In comparison to the UK model which enables policy professionals to move up levels of policy expertise consistent with the curriculum and training offerings, the NZ model enables policy professionals to show both breadth and depth of policy expertise, on the understanding that one individual is unlikely to be highly skilled in all policy tasks. Indeed, an individual might be an expert in terms of advising and influencing decision-makers but less skilled in planning and managing a portfolio of work (which is why career paths that shoehorn analytical experts into management roles, to progress up the ranks, can reduce overall performance).
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Articulating the skills expectations of policy professionals offers a foundation for mapping the skills of individuals and teams. This can be used in performance and development conversations, for training (“Where do we need to upskill individuals or the team?”) and for recruitment to specification (where a manager can identify and fill gaps in the team or organisation by collating the collective skills of the team). It is also useful for workforce strategies (“What skills are we going to need in the future and how do we develop or recruit them?”).
I’m particularly interested in the potential to articulate policy archetypes (deep data expert, ministerial advisor, engagement specialist, etc.) and how these different policy personas come together to create a high-performing policy team. After all, policy is a team sport, not an individual pursuit.
Create enabling environments to enhance performance
Policy leaders need to think about the makeup of their teams and organisations. In managing their people, policy leaders and managers need to think about how to enable staff. This means offering staff opportunities to stretch and grow their skills and experience (most learning is done on the job), clarity about where decision rights sit and avoiding overly hierarchical authorisation regimes (a handbrake on efficiency and a staff demotivator). Fair work allocation and maintaining balance across a team or organisation, ensuring the policy “stars” avoid burnout and less experienced staff get a crack at working on challenging, rewarding and skills-enhancing policy projects is also important. It helps if more senior staff take responsibility for guiding, coaching and mentoring less experienced team members.
Enhancing the skills of policy professionals and the teams, organisations and systems they work in requires some key things:
- Setting expectations about what policy professionals need to know and be able to do, and providing support for building policy muscle (especially on the job)
- Moving beyond a focus on individuals and career progression to think about collective expertise and how and by whom demands for policy work will be met now and in future
- Building people capability as part of wider initiatives or policy infrastructure to connect people development to the supporting models, frameworks and toolkits that guide good policy processes to improve overall policy performance.
Highly skilled policy professionals working in high-performing teams in enabling organisations are an essential ingredient for a modern policy advisory system that supports good government decision-making.
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(Image credit: Pexels)
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