People Matters leadership programs
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What is People Matters?
People Matters is a development program specially designed for aspiring, recently appointed and experienced Queensland public sector leaders.
The program gives participants foundational knowledge and skills to lead and manage people effectively, and is delivered in partnership with the Institute of Managers and Leaders Australia and New Zealand (IML National).
Through the People Matters program, you will:
- grow your leadership confidence
- develop skills to build high performing, capable teams
- effectively manage employee performance
- develop a deeper self-awareness of behaviour and leadership styles
- develop the foundations for improving supervisory working relationships and team dynamics.
Available to Queensland Government employees, People Matters can be accessed through:
- free and discounted IML National benefits at any time
- paid training modules that are publicly available workshops
- paid in-house training sessions using the Queensland Government Buyer’s Guide to procure services under a standard offer arrangement (SOA) (PSC-02-2022).
Free and discounted IML National benefits
Corporate membership — free and discounted offerings
As part of the SOA, all Queensland public sector organisations receive corporate membership with IML regardless of whether they participate in a paid course or not.
This enables all public sector entities and agencies to immediately access a wide range of courses, events, and resources, including:
- free and discounted offers
- complementary registrations for development days and webinars
- discount on IML’s publicly available programs and short courses
- complementary 360-degree survey tool and further discounts on people analytic tools
- 50% discount on training room hire at IML’s headquarters in the Brisbane CBD
- access to IML’s online learning hub and monthly People Matters newsletter.
Free alumni and stakeholder events
Free for members, individuals can come together to connect with other People Matters alumni while refreshing on the program content and leadership models.
Find out more or register here.
Free webinars and replays
Explore development day on-demand, IML’s library of one-hour long webinar sessions, with content that keeps you ahead of leadership and management trends.
Find out more about upcoming events or register here.
Free learning and development resources
Get yourself and your team on the front foot, with high-quality resources to tackle common leadership pain points, created using content and insights from IML’s leadership programs:
- Decision making checklist
- Change management timeline
- Delegation checklist
- Job clarity tool
- Time management action plan
- Map to the motivated mindset.
Access the resources here.
Sign up to the IML newsletter to keep in touch with new resources and information.
Contact peoplematters@managersandleaders.com.au for any further queries on free learning and development resources.
People Matters workshops and in-house training
Who it’s for
New and aspiring leaders, levels AO6, AO7 and AO8 or equivalent.
What you'll learn
- Develop a deeper understanding of the responsibilities of a Queensland public sector leader.
- Gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to successfully manage people, performance and change.
- Learn the skills to become a more effective communicator across a range of mediums and situations.
- Increase self-awareness around your behavioural styles and the styles of those around you.
- Develop the confidence to lead with compassion and purpose.
Course duration
Three days of training, delivered in-person or virtually
Application process
Agency coordinators can find more details on how to support your employees to apply.
Performance Conversations builds upon your knowledge and skills to confidently manage people and employee performance. Gain the tools and confidence to create a positive team culture.
Who’s it for
Team and program leaders, executives and individual contributors in the Queensland public sector.
What you’ll learn
- A deeper understanding of the responsibilities of a Queensland public sector leader
- Skills to apply a strength-based approach to conducting performance conversations
- Confidence to manage and have challenging conversations
- Practical tools to lead with compassion and purpose
- The ability to collaboratively set goals and understand the performance improvement process.
Course duration
One day, in-person or virtually
Application process
Agency coordinators can find more details on how to support your employees to apply.
Recent changes to the Public Sector Act 2022 and the Recruitment and Selection Directive (07/23) (the directive) mean hiring managers now appoint the eligible person best suited for the position, rather than focusing on merit alone.
Learn the knowledge, skills and confidence to carry out a recruitment and selection process by understanding of the directive and how it is applied in practice to select the eligible person best suited to a position.
Who’s it for
Team and program leaders, HR team, hiring managers, panel chairs and members.
What you’ll learn
- An understanding of how to determine eligibility and suitability.
- An understanding of how to conduct a fair and transparent recruitment and selection process.
- Direction on how to apply the principles of equity, diversity, respect and inclusion to recruitment and selection.
- Dnsights on how to integrate culturally safe practices across all steps of a recruitment and selection process.
- How to apply workforce planning to inform role design, description and evaluation.
- An understanding of how to best to attract and advertise vacancies to ensure the widest applicant pool.
- A perspective on how to select assessment methods best suited to the role and applicant pool.
- The ability to make and record selection decisions that are fair, transparent, and defensible.
Course duration
One day, in-person or virtually
Application process
Agency coordinators can find more details on how to support your employees to apply.
Agency coordinator information
Are you part of learning and development at a Queensland Government agency? Promote People Matters to employees in your workforce using our promotional toolkit.
This promotional toolkit has been developed to enable each public sector entity and agency to promote the People Matters program amongst their own workforce, along with other corporate member benefits available under the SOA.
Find out more
For additional information on the People Matters program, contact:
Institute of Managers and Leaders (IML)
Email: peoplematters@managersandleaders.com.au
Phone: 1300 661 061
PSC’s Leadership and Learning team
Email: development@psc.qld.gov.au
A Standing Offer Arrangement (SOA) (PSC-02-2022) with the Institute of Managers and Leaders has been extended to 30 November 2027.
The SOA enables agencies to enrol participants into public programs directly from the IML website. Groups will be mixed cohorts from different government agencies.
Agencies can also contextualise the program for specific cohorts or development of additional content, and/or engage IML to deliver in-house coaching to People Matters participants.
Agencies with larger volume requirements can book in-house delivery of the program for cohorts from a single agency. You will need to sign a SOA order form. Contact peoplematters@managersandleaders.com.au to enquire about dates and trainer availability .
Search the Queensland Government Arrangements Directory for ‘provision of the people matters program IML’ to find out more about the SOA.
Agency coordinators can read our Buyer’s Guide 272.1 KB) to better understand how to engage in workshops or purchase in-house training sessions.
Pricing under the SOA
Please note, prices include GST and are current as at April 2026.
| Program (virtual or in-person) | Individual participants | In-house programs (up to 20 participants) |
|---|---|---|
| 3-day People Matters program | $990pp | $15,070 |
| 1-day Performance Conversations extension module | $380pp | $3,685 |
| 1-day Recruitment and Selection extension module | $380pp | $3,685 |
Optional services
- Contextualisation of the programs for specific cohorts (daily rate – 8hrs): $2,750
- Coaching session (1 hour): $495
- Diagnostics debrief (1 hour): $495.
Post workshop group coaching day
All People Matters programs can be supplemented by a one-day small group coaching session run two weeks after completion. In these coaching sessions participants return with their peers to discuss the practical application of the learnings since taking their course.
Additional benefits
IML Professional Membership
Each People Matters program participant can apply to receive a complementary 12-month IML Professional Membership by emailing peoplematters@managersandleaders.com.au.
Membership allows your team to:
- consolidate their learning
- expand their networks
- continue their professional journey as public sector leaders
- gain access to an award-winning mentoring program (Mentorloop Most Impactful Mentoring Programs Award 2022 and 2023) for further support.