Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd wants to make it easier for public sector bosses to sack slack staff who get “stuck in the system for years”.

Mr Lloyd is looking at making sweeping reforms to kill needless bureaucracy in the federal public service, reviving his former role as Victoria's red tape commissioner.

Reports say he will do this by increasing the number of temporary employees and cutting time-hungry protocols for recruiting new staff.

Mr Lloyd said his department was working on “options” to deal with under-performers.

“You owe it to the good performers not to leave [under-performance] in abeyance,” he told Fairfax reporters.

“There seems to be a lot of people who are stuck in the system – who are not performing or are not able to attend work consistently for an extended period of time.

“Sometimes this goes on for many months, even years.

“We are examining the avenues of appeal and review in the [Australian public service] to make sure we have the balance right.

“Our society has significant protections for all workers in Australia.

“So it is a matter of understanding whether the additional rights of review available to public servants are warranted.

“The commission will also review our termination of employment rules to ensure they are consistent with community standards.

“Procedures which are over-engineered have the capacity to harm both the employee and employer interests.”

Mr Lloyd recently told the Institute of Internal Auditors conference that public sector recruitment processes take too long.

“The best people aren't going to wait 12 weeks,” Mr Lloyd said.

“Our agencies should have the ability to mirror some better and more competitive employment practices in the private sector.

“The public service needs to be able to attract and retain the best and brightest.

“To do this we require contemporary recruitment processes which are effective in attracting and selecting good people.

“You will have a greater capacity to recruit the people you need in a timely manner.”

He said current public service's arrangements, which often employ people on a non-ongoing basis, were “highly prescriptive and inflexible”.

“There are a whole range of areas in the public service that require less fettered access to flexible, temporary, casual, term and contract employment,” he said.

“That said, I understand the need for a strong APS with a stable base of experienced employees.”

He also said he wanted to increase mobility between the private and public sectors, so that future public servants would be able to give policy advice that “has due regard to the operational imperatives of business” and “likewise private companies would gain a deeper understanding of the challenges facing government”.

Mr Lloyd also flagged the return of an “integrity group” within the public service to focus on corruption.