Digital Capability: A Guide for Agencies

For agency leaders this guide can help you:

• gain a greater understanding of the range of digital skills and competencies that exist
• identify the digital capability strengths and gaps in your agency, guiding workforce planning to meet the needs of your digital strategy
• identify training requirements leading to more targeted learning and development activities
• improve attraction of skilled applicants through clearer position descriptions
• develop career paths to ensure talented staff are retained and improve succession planning.

For managers this guide can help you:

• improve position descriptions and advertisements for vacancies
• establish a shared terminology with your agency’s human resources staff
• map your team’s skills and capabilities, identifying gaps and development opportunities
• inform career conversations with your team
• highlight feeder roles for vacancies in your team to build a pipeline of talent
• guide your team’s development and inform workforce planning to build a capable high performing team that meets the needs of your agency.

For individuals this guide can help you:

• identify possible career paths to broaden your experience
• understand the capabilities you need to develop to move to a different role
• create a plan to inform your overall career and development, and guide career conversations with your manager.

The skills listed for each role in the matrix are separated into recommended skills and skills for consideration to accommodate different roles in different sized agencies. Each skill is also associated with one or more SFIA levels which relate to the level of responsibility or competency expected at that level. 

This guide is to help public sector agencies build their digital capabilities. It replaces the ICT Capability Framework.

The guide uses the latest version of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is the globally accepted language for skills and capabilities of ICT workers with over 200 countries adopting it.

Agencies can use the framework in all workforce development activities including position description creation, performance management and as basis for professional development and training.

Having a greater understanding of what digital capabilities are required at all levels in the public sector ensures a workforce with the right knowledge and skills to deliver on the business of government

The Public Sector Commission is currently developing a new framework to replace the existing capability profiles. Further consultation in early 2020 will include exploring how existing technical capabilities, such as those in this guide, can be integrated with this new framework.

The table below suggests how agencies may use SFIA to align to public sector classification levels. 

Step 1. Identify capability needs

Managers and HR teams can use the matrix to identify the skills needed at either a whole of agency level or a team level.

The matrix is pre-populated with key roles and associated skills. For any roles not listed, agencies can use resources on the SFIA website to determine the required SFIA skills.

If the role is listed, select four to eight skills that apply to a role. These skills, alongside other standard or agency specific work-related requirements, form the required capability set. The image below shows the matrix entry for an ICT Manager role which lists three recommended skills and a further seven skills for consideration.

Step 2. Map current capability to identify gaps

Manager and HR teams can use the matrix to assess and map existing skills of a team or agency.

This can be done by either reviewing the position description forms of the equivalent existing roles or by assessing the skills of individual staff.

These can then be compared with the required capabilities to identify any gaps.

Step 3. Take action to acquire required capability

Where capability gaps are identified, agencies have options to:

• re-organise staff so each role has the required skills
• build staff capability through targeted training and development
• recruit new staff with the required capabilities, using the matrix to inform work related requirements.

Madeline manages a team of six digital staff in a medium sized agency. After reviewing its strategic and operational plans, the agency has identified the need for workforce planning to deliver on its changing goals.

Using the matrix, Madeline works with her agency’s human resources team to map her team’s capabilities, identifying the SFIA skills applicable to each role. For example, for the Senior Database Administrator role, Madeline selects one level 6 and three level 5 SFIA skills which describe the technical needs of the role and meet the agency-specific requirements. 

Having identified the capabilities of each digital role, Madeline then maps the capabilities of her team against each role’s capability set.

In relation to the Senior Database Administrator position, Madeline assesses that the current occupant of the role does not possess all of the skills required for the role in the future. 

Madeline discusses the gaps with the occupant of the position and determines that they should be provided with additional training to meet the mapped role requirements. 

The rest of the team members also review their own capabilities against their roles to help them identify development needs and plan potential career pathways.
 

When should SFIA be used in a position description form?

SFIA should be used when:

• an agency is updating its workforce management plan to support implementation of its digital strategy
• work clearly requires specialised digital knowledge, skills and/or ability
• specialised digital work occupies a large part of the role
• the job title is strongly associated with the profession, e.g. Systems Administrator, Enterprise Architect
• the form indicates (through its primary purpose, key accountabilities or key challenges) a need for digital capabilities for successful performance of the role.

At what levels does SFIA apply?

SFIA skills can apply to any role and at any level.

Does SFIA describe other role requirements?

SFIA describes behaviours not qualifications. If a qualification, professional membership or certification for a particular product or technology is an essential requirement for the role, this should be reflected as an essential requirement in the position description form. 

Does the guide and matrix change over time?

Yes. As revisions to SFIA are made, the matrix and associated tools and supporting resources change.

Does the matrix mean more training?

Possibly. The matrix is intended to be used as part of workforce planning, recruitment and selection, skills assessment, development planning, and succession management. Managers may identify that training is required to build competencies in a specific area.

Do agencies need to develop any agency specific/technical capabilities?

Very unlikely. SFIA is very comprehensive and should have capabilities that cover any and all roles in agencies. If not, agencies can create their own technical capabilities.  

An existing position description seems to include some behaviours/SFIA skills identified for levels above. Does this mean the current role is not correctly classified?

No. An agency’s location, size and context can all affect a role’s complexity and responsibilities. Roles in small agencies often have a broader impact than similar roles in larger agencies. SFIA skills should not be used as a classification tool.

Does the matrix affect the recruitment process?

No. The matrix identifies a number of skills required to perform different roles across the sector. Including SFIA skills in the content of the position description does not change how a role is evaluated. It just provides a more consistent way of describing the role’s digital requirements.