Workforce Management Statistics (WMS)

The Workforce Management Statistics (WMS) is an Excel worksheet designed to collect information about employee movements, including appointments, promotions, resignations, and parental leave.

You must complete one WMS worksheet per employing ABN in your submission.

What data do I need to provide?

The Workforce Management Statistics requires numerical data relating to an employer’s employee movements during the 12-month reporting period – 1 April to 31 March

An employer will need to report how many employees in this 12-month period (for each employing ABN in the submission):

  • were promoted
  • were appointed, internally and externally
  • voluntarily resigned
  • were on parental leave (primary and secondary), paid or unpaid
  • returned to work from parental leave

Each employee entered is categorised using their gender and manager or non-manager category status, by employment and contract type. This enables WGEA to conduct meaningful data analysis of employee movements across Australian workplaces.

Adding industry information

When first opening the file to populate data, the first two digits of your organisation’s industry code (ANZSIC code) will need to be added to the top of the file using the drop-down list, this is known as the industry sub-division.  

Cell B1 of the excel sheet asks you to select the first two digits of your industry code

For example - an employer using the industry class ‘0121 – Mushroom growing’ will select the first two digits ’01 – Agriculture’ from the dropdown list at the top of the file.

Cell B1 of the file drops down to list every industry subdivision

If you do not select the industry which matches what you have confirmed in the Portal, you will receive an error when the file is uploaded. You will need to fix this and then reupload your file.  

You can refer to the Confirm Details tile on the program home page to check which ANZSIC Industry code/s you confirmed for the submission.

Reporting only one industry

You will use one industry code for your entire submission group. This means:

  • Only one industry code is used throughout your entire submission.
  • In the Workplace Profile - every employee will use the same industry code in the 'Industry' column.
  • In the Workforce Management Statistics - every uploaded file will use the same industry subdivision.

Reporting multiple industries - same subdivisions

If you confirm multiple industry codes with the same subdivision, you must ensure they are all used throughout your submission. 

  • The subdivision is the first two digits of an industry code.
  • For example, if you confirm '4110 - Supermarket and Grocery Stores' and '4122 - Fruit and Vegetable Retailing' they share the same first two digits '41'.

This means:

  • You will use up to a maximum of three industry codes for this submission, all with the same first two digits of the ANZSIC code (the industry subdivision).
  • In the Workplace Profile - you must ensure that all industry codes you have confirmed are used in your file, if you upload more than one you should do so using the batch upload option.
  • In the Workforce Management Statistics - every uploaded file will use the same industry subdivision.

Reporting multiple industries - different subdivisions

Reporting multiple industry codes with different subdivisions is not recommended.

  • The subdivision is the first two digits of an industry code
  • For example, if you confirm '4110 - Supermarket and Grocery Stores' and '7320 - Packaging Services' they do not share the same subdivision.

If you wish to continue you must take note of the guidance below to avoid receiving industry errors on your uploaded files. This means:

  • You will use up to a maximum of three industry codes for this submission, the first two digits (the subdivision) of one or two will be different to the primary industry you have confirmed.
  • In the Workplace Profile - you must ensure that all industry codes you have confirmed for the submission are used on your worksheet(s).
  • In the Workforce Management Statistics for single ABN employers - you must ensure your file that you upload has multiple Industry tabs for each unique subdivision you have confirmed.
  • In the Workforce Management Statistics for multiple ABN employers – you must ensure that each unique subdivision is used at least once on the files you upload.

If you confirm multiple industry codes for a submission with a single organisation, you will need to duplicate the upload tab of the worksheet for each unique subdivision for that ABN.

Note - If you copy a tab that has been completed, please ensure that you remove the data on the copied tab so that it is not double or triple counted.  To do this, you need to:

  1. Open your Workforce Management Statistics file
  2. Right click on the ‘Industry Sheet’ tab and select ‘Move or Copy’
  3. Create as many duplicate sheets as you have confirmed unique industry sub-divisions (up to three tabs total for the file)
  4. Select the respective industry subdivision codes from the drop-down menu in the blue cell at the top of each sheet
  5. Enter your data by industry sub-division, if there is no data to report for an additional tab please enter a '0' in one of the cells of any question.
A pop-up box displays in Excel allowing a user to select the option 'create a copy' of the Industry Sheet

Definitions

Refer to the definitions below to assist you complete this file for each employing ABN in the corporate structure.

Appointment

Appointments are the act of placing a person in a job or position. They include employees who were:

  • appointed to another role in the organisation
  • reappointed to the same role after a new recruitment process for that role
  • employed in multiple roles and received a new contract for each
  • on secondment
  • appointed after completing an apprenticeship with the organisation

Appointments do not include employees who were:

  • absorbed in an acquisition
  • promoted to a new role in the organisation (this should be recorded in the 'promotions' section instead)
  • changing their employment status, such as from part-time to full-time 
  • temporarily filling a position and expected to return to their previous position, such as 'acting in a higher role'.

Note. Placing a casual or temporary employee multiple times does not count as separate appointments unless multiple new contracts were issued.

Non-binary

'Non-binary’ refers to people whose gender identity is neither female nor male. It is a term for any number of gender identities that sit within, outside of, across or between the spectrum of female - male binary. A non-binary person might identify as gender fluid, trans-masculine, trans-feminine, agender, or bigender.

Numerical data

All data entered in the file must be positive, numeric values. That is, the cell must have whole numbers of ‘0’ or greater.

  • The cell can also be left blank if no data is required.
  • Fractions or text-based responses cannot be entered into the cells.

Keep this in mind if copying and pasting data from another source.

Parental leave terms

When answering question 5-7 relating to parental leave, please include:

  • all employees on parental leave during the reporting period, regardless of when their leave began (by headcount, not the full-time equivalent).
  • all employees who have taken government paid parental leave, employer funded paid parental leave and unpaid parental leave.

Primary and secondary carers are recorded in separate tables in the Workforce Management Statistics file. 

  • primary carer is the person who most meets the child's needs, including feeding, dressing, bathing and otherwise supervising the child in an age-appropriate manner. For a baby particularly, this role normally requires intensive physical involvement on an ongoing basis.
  • secondary carer is generally the current partner of the primary carer, the other legal parent of the child or the current partner of the other legal parent of the child. Both women and men must be given the opportunity to identify as the secondary carer

Some workplaces have developed parental leave policies that no longer use the primary/secondary carer definition and provide equal entitlements to any eligible employee.

  • Equally shared parental leave policies offer the same type, length and conditions to employees of all genders, who require parental leave, with no distinction between primary and secondary carers

For workplaces with equally shared parental leave policies (no primary/secondary definition):

  • please allocate any employee that received employer funded leave (without primary/secondary definitions) under the primary carers (Question 5)
  • leave the secondary carers (Question 6) blank, unless the employee only received government funded secondary carers leave.

Promotion

A promotion is a permanent change when an employee:

  • advances or rises to a higher office or rank on an ongoing basis or fixed-term contract
  • is promoted from one managerial role to another
  • does not return to their previous role.

A temporary change is not a promotion. For example, when an employee:

  • transfers to a position of equal rank, even if their duties increase
  • relocates to a higher role in an overseas office
  • is appointed to a higher role but is meant to return to their previous role
  • earns a salary raise.

Voluntary resignation

A voluntary resignation is when an employee gives up their employment voluntarily or ends their contract earlier than the contracted date. A voluntary resignation is not employer-initiated terminations or redundancies or retirement.

A voluntary resignation is when an employee:

  • gives up their employment voluntarily to move on to another employer 
  • is on a fixed-term contract and ends their contract earlier than the agreed end date
  • is employed in multiple roles and resigns from one or more, count each resignation separately.

For labour hire organisation, educational institutions, or other employers with casual or temporary employee pools, a voluntary resignation is when an employee:

  • gives their employer a resignation notice
  • informs their employer that they cannot accept any placements.

The following are not counted as voluntary resignations:

  • Retirement
  • Employer-initiated terminations or redundancies 

Please note: If redundancies are offered on a voluntary basis (e.g., a voluntary redundancy program) and an employee chooses to take up this offer, this is still considered an employer-initiated redundancy and should not be counted as a voluntary resignation.

Parental leave without using primary/secondary definitions

Some employers have developed parental leave policies that no longer use the primary/secondary carer definition and provide equal entitlements to any eligible employee.

When answering the questions on the employees who took parental leave in the Workforce Management Statistics:

  • please allocate any employee that received employer funded leave (without primary/secondary definitions) under the primary carers (Question 5)
  • leave the secondary carers (Question 6) blank, unless the employee only received government funded secondary carers leave.