​​With the Australian Public Service tackling the professionalisation of HR at a whole-of-system level, here’s how the Department of Finance’s CPO is ensuring her HR team is growing and stretching in the right direction.

Workforce planning used to mean filling vacancies and managing headcount. Now, it demands building agile, multiskilled teams capable of adapting to rapid change, navigating skills shortages and meeting evolving stakeholder expectations.

Work itself has fundamentally changed – and with it, the skills required to manage people and performance. As a profession, HR has had to pause and critically assess how our capabilities, frameworks and practices must mature to meet the demands of this new landscape.

‘Being good with people’ has never been enough, and in today’s environment, it’s a clear underestimation of what the role requires. Modern HR leaders must operate as strategic partners, commercial enablers and system-wide thinkers. 

We are business leaders – and that demands the full breadth of business acumen, underpinned by robust interpersonal and organisational insight.

As a Chief People Officer in the Australian Public Service (APS), I have seen professionalisation transform HR into a true partner and enabler for senior leadership. We operate as active participants in top-level conversations about strategy and business direction, highlighting problems or advising on appropriate approaches, all while ensuring that departmental goals are met as budgets get tighter.

The maturation of the HR function within the APS hasn’t happened overnight. It’s the result of sustained focus on capability building for business-critical HR skills. These efforts are helping future-proof our HR function and ensure we remain a resilient, strategic partner in a changing world of work.

A framework for HR impact

One of the greatest moments of my 20-year HR career has been watching the growth of strategic capabilities in my HR teams. They have learned to equip themselves with the skills and experiences necessary to meet the changing expectations of the workforce.

My recent approach to supporting this uplift with my current team was the development of a framework I’ve called ‘Having Impact in HR’.

This framework is designed to help our teams apply HR skills and mastery in their roles today, with a view of continuously building the future capability of our practitioners. Its focus is on impact – not just in delivering outputs (such as recruits onboarded or reports completed), but
in achieving outcomes that matter (like creating efficiencies or opportunities for knowledge sharing).

It provides a clear roadmap for each team member to locate themselves in their HR journey, sharpen their skills and deliver work that drives meaningful organisational change.

I use the acronym IMPACT to outline the key capabilities, which are:

Inquiry – Staying curious, seeking new perspectives and encouraging that same curiosity within teams. This fosters a culture of knowledge sharing, where past experiences are integrated with current realities to generate fresh, relevant insights.

Mastery – Strengthening technical and delivery skills while modelling best-practice HR and leading by example so that, in giving advice, HR can demonstrate the APS values in action and show the tangible impact of doing things well.

Practice – This is about perfecting the craft of HR. This means applying HR knowledge and practices with a clear understanding of intent, so advice is both contextually relevant and strategically sound – even when it’s not what the business wants to hear.

It’s about shifting from a directive function to a true partnership, working alongside leaders to navigate the complexity of people and organisational challenges.

Align – This is about helping my team see how their daily actions connect to the organisation’s broader strategic direction, and understand the rationale and sequencing behind HR activities

Contribute –  Contributing to the profession goes beyond delivering on a department’s goals. It’s about engaging in mentoring, coaching and broader initiatives that strengthen HR as a whole.

In the APS, the professional stream offers opportunities to collaborate, share challenges and shape practice across agencies, which I actively encourage my team to pursue.

Contribution is a two-way street: practitioners give their expertise, and in return gain fresh insights, skills and networks that enhance their experiences and capability.

Transform – This is about confidently leading the cultural and organisational shifts we know are needed, underpinned by strong partnerships with the business and the investment we’ve already made in capability. 

We no longer need to operate as a reactive workforce. With the contribution, mastery and curiosity we’ve built, we can be agile, take the lead and view transformation, whether large or small, as an opportunity rather than a burden.

Operationalising the framework

To operationalise this, I examined each element, selected priority objectives then developed a set of actions, activities and measures of success. It’s a ‘choose your own adventure’ framework that offers practical, immediate steps.

For example, in the inquiry stage, we have recently introduced a branch discussion unpacking our latest HR data and how it compares to industry trends. By analysing external data beyond day-to-day work, our HR teams can apply deeper insights. 

This creates evidence-based intelligence for executives, ensures we understand our position within the wider sector and prompts strategic questions, such as: Does this trend align with our environment? Do we need to pivot? Or are we ahead of the curve – in which case, can we scale or share our approach across the HR community?’

The aim is for my HR team to take away small but valuable insights, building their own HR mastery toolkit. It’s much more engaging than simply reading a document.

Another example is a CPO chat series I’m getting ready to launch. Each month, we’ll hear from a different CPO and ask them a consistent set of questions, exploring what matters most to them, what they’re focusing on and how they demonstrate mastery in their role (if you’re a CPO and are interested in being involved, please connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss).

The practice element is, for me, about creating stretch opportunities and enabling people to step beyond their functional area and contribute to cross-branch projects that draw on their full experience. 

It’s also about championing HR-led initiatives, where HR takes the lead to bring diverse perspectives and give employees the chance to practice and expand their skills. 

“HR practitioners are lifelong learners, continually building new skills to strengthen their impact.” – Catherine McLachlan FCPHR 

For the contribution pillar, I actively support my team to participate in AHRI State Councils and networking events. State Councils, in particular, thrive on the energy and engagement of attendees, making them a powerful avenue for reciprocal contribution. 

What you contribute to AHRI and the profession is returned in equal measure through shared knowledge and connections. We share these through our weekly ‘HR professionalisation pinboard’, which includes a range of knowledge-boosting facts.

And finally, for the transformation pillar, I’m excited about tackling long-term systemic challenges through a new ‘HR innovation lab’ concept, where activities that we are uplifting to modernise or transform will be explored by a team within the branch. 

The aim is to identify opportunities, align them to strategic priorities and create pathways to bring them to life. I used this approach when I transformed entry programs and again when building strategic workforce plans and branch strategies. It gives everyone the opportunity to be involved and connected to the future direction.

Becoming a future-fit business partner

While it’s still early days, by taking the time to embed this model in our team, I can see it evolving from a support function into a true partner in organisational leadership. 

The opportunity to work across the strategic intent of a business or agency is one that I think many HR practitioners still underestimate.

To deliver truly connected and effective HR advice, we must first understand the business and its broader strategic goals. This insight enables us to apply our professional expertise to solve critical challenges – whether in recruitment, capability development or workforce planning – in ways that are aligned with the organisation’s long-term direction.

Our priority is to deliver an integrated, seamless service where impact is the ultimate measure of success. We want clients to clearly see – and tell us – how things have changed as a result of our work. That means doing things differently to achieve different outcomes and being open and curious when they tell us it’s not working.

HR practitioners are lifelong learners, continually building new skills to strengthen their impact. In an environment defined by constant change and increasing complexity, this commitment is not just admirable – it’s essential.

The capabilities and behaviours in my IMPACT framework provide the foundation for strong HR practice, but we must also invest in external avenues to deepen credibility and capability – whether through the APS Professional Stream or organisations such as AHRI. 

I am a strong advocate for HR certification, not only to enhance individual careers, but to elevate the profession as a whole. Certification helps bridge the gap between strategy and delivery. It builds trust, sets clear expectations and signals that HR practitioners are both strategic and delivery experts.

I was in the APS pilot group for HR Certification in 2015-17, and it transformed my practice. The skills I gained were immediately applicable in my role, deeply connected to evidence-based theory and were supported by a powerful professional network, which I still lean on today.

I actively encourage my team to pursue qualifications, from diplomas to certification, and I deliberately invest in certification for HR leaders in my executive cohort because of the credibility, strategic insight and professional discipline they bring. The APS support for HR Certification at the team level reflects this – collective professionalisation creates a future-fit function, not just future-fit individuals.

Impact is at the heart of what drives me in HR. I want people to feel the difference we make through seamless, connected and integrated HR support. I’m proud to play my part in continuing the maturation of the HR profession. 

Catherine McLachlan FCPHR is the Chief People Office at the Department of Finance. This article was first published in the October/November 2025 edition of HRM Magazine.

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