Mapping a Regulator's Roles to ILS and SFIA 9

Client Overview

An Australian Government regulator with a workforce spanning regulatory operations, assessment, policy, complaints, digital and corporate functions.

The Challenge

The agency needed a defensible, standards-based view of what its roles require. Two separate reference points mattered: the APS Integrated Leadership System (ILS), which sets the leadership expectations every APS role is held to, and SFIA, which provides the levelled skills language for professional and technical work.

Neither had been mapped to the agency's job architecture. Without that, capability and learning evaluation had no consistent reference to work against, and comparisons across roles relied on judgement rather than a standard.

The Solution

Ben carried out two connected pieces of mapping work.

The ILS mapping involved:

• Aligning the Integrated Leadership System to the agency's existing job architecture.
• Mapping ILS expectations to classification levels so leadership requirements were consistent and defensible across roles.

The SFIA 9 mapping involved:

• Mapping every job role in the agency to the SFIA 9 framework, identifying the relevant skills and the level at which each is required.
• Applying SFIA levels consistently on the basis of responsibility, autonomy, complexity and influence rather than seniority or title.
• Being explicit about where SFIA was the wrong instrument for a role rather than forcing a fit.

Results

• Delivered a complete SFIA 9 mapping of all job roles.
• Aligned ILS expectations to the agency's job architecture and classification structure.
• Gave the capability and learning evaluation function a consistent, external standard to assess and plan against.