People and culture

Our people

A People and Culture strategy and roadmap has been developed. This describes key shifts we need to make through 2024–2027. Four areas of focus have been identified: strengthening our foundations, leadership, being an employer of choice, and influencing across the public service. The work programmes that sit within each area of focus will help us work together differently to achieve our purpose and create a productive and engaging environment for our people at the Ministry.

As of 30 June 2024, the Ministry had 258 employees who represent the following:

Disability:

42 percent of our kaimahi/staff self-identified as disabled.

To calculate this percentage, we take those who self-identify with a disability status/(total employees less unknown disability status).

Gender:

75 percent female
25 percent male
1 percent other.

Acknowledging intersectionality, our employees have identified as members of the following communities:

80 percent as European
15 percent as Māori
10 percent as Asian
7 percent as Pacific peoples
3 percent as Middle Eastern/Latin American/African
1 percent as other.

Ethnicity percentage is based on employees who reported an ethnicity as a proportion of all employees who self-disclosed an ethnicity. People who report more than one ethnic group are counted in each group they identify with. As a result, the number of employees across the ethnic groups may add up to more than the total number of employees (or more than 100 percent).

Public sector Disability Four-Point plan

The Ministry is the lead agency championing Te Kairangi Tūrama Muri, the Disability Four-Point plan to increase opportunities for disabled people in the public service. It sits alongside Papa Pounamu and works to these outcomes:

Increasing the visibility of disabled public servants – identify better collection of data across the public service.
Recruiting and promoting more disabled people and tāngata whaikaha to positions in the public service.
Improving accessibility for disabled people in the public service.
Identifying and closing inequities disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori face that others don’t ( for example, pay gaps, career progression).

The Ministry is finding ways to improve our inclusive and equitable recruitment and retention practices. The experiential learnings from these initiatives will help shape best practice that can be shared with agencies. For example, during the year we:

Worked with Kindred, a Human Resource consultancy partnered with the NZ Down Syndrome Association, to learn first-hand what transition and support in employment looks like for disabled people with intellectual impairment.
Appointed a Programme Lead, Employment Pathways role that will help to develop inclusive and equitable pathways to hiring, growing and retaining disabled people in the public service.
Tried new approaches to our attraction and recruitment process to make it more inclusive and accessible. As a result, a high number of new hires identify as disabled people.
Began work on a new approach to reasonable accommodation that supports better outcomes for employees.

Terms of settlement

The Ministry’s establishment process brought together teams from MoH and MSD. These employees transitioned into the Ministry on their existing terms and conditions, including pay. This meant that, at the time of establishment, six remuneration frameworks with 19 pay ranges were brought into the operating environment, and there are currently 17 employment agreement types.

The inaugural Whaikaha Collective Employment Agreement (CEA) was ratified in April 2023. Due to the timing requirements associated with the Public Sector Pay Adjustment, the bargaining team were unable to address inconsistencies associated with the transition of kaimahi/staff to the Ministry.

It was agreed as part of the Terms of Settlement to the inaugural CEA that a joint work programme would look at aligning terms and conditions that the Ministry can implement in the next bargaining round. The joint work initiatives are to:

establish a common remuneration framework
identify consistent hours of work, overtime and leave provisions
ensure support for health, safety and wellbeing.

Pay equity

As of 30 June 2024, the Ministry had an average gender pay gap of 6.9 percent. This is a reduction of 5.4 percent since the Ministry reported an average gender pay gap of 12.3 percent points on 30 June 2023.

The Ministry is continuing to better understand the drivers of its pay gaps and working to address them in accordance with the Kia Toipoto – Public Service Pay Gaps Action Plan.