Australian Public Service Commissioner Peter Woolcott has announced Australia’s new Head of Human Resources Profession.

Jacqui Curtis will take on the role in addition to her day job as chief operating officer of the Australian Taxation Office.

The creation of the HR position mirrors similar systems in place in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Singapore.

Mr Woolcott indicated more professional streams for areas like digital and procurement are in the works too.

A recent report recommended the “professions model”, which will see senior officers appointed to lead each profession and create career pathways to retain public service talent.

“Several reviews of the APS over recent years have highlighted capability gaps across a number of professions, including strategic human resources management,” Mr Woolcott said.

“A formalised professions model has the advantage of being able to help define and support career paths for both generalists and specialists, providing opportunities that value expertise and management capability.”

The new strategy involves setting up a HR professional network, a HR mobility program, a workforce strategy for HR professionals and measures to improve the recruitment of HR specialists to the public service.

“It's about having a strategic vision of your organisation, how you're recruiting in a competitive market, but particularly how you develop that talent,” Mr Woolcott said

“It's about developing that capability, having a vision of what the organisation needs and the people it needs to meet the outcomes the government and the APS leadership want from that organisation.”

There will also be a streamlined HR graduate recruitment process, allowing agencies to recruit graduates wanting to specialise in HR together.

Mr Woolcott said the Public Service Commission is also working to develop a model to centralise graduate recruitment for the whole public sector, giving departments control over who they hire, but theoretically widening the talent pool.