29 August 2023

To help support the stewardship responsibilities of the Commissioner and the Public Service Leadership Team the Public Service should use common workforce standards.

The Commissioner and the wider Public Service Leadership Team have stewardship responsibilities to develop a highly capable Public Service workforce that reflects the diversity of the society it serves and to ensure fair and equitable employment.

High quality workforce data is important to meet these responsibilities. It provides evidence that the public service provides value for money and deploys resources to the most important areas. This evidence is critical to maintaining trust and confidence in the public service, by providing an understanding to the Commissioner, public service leaders, Ministers, and the public about the composition of the workforce. This helps to ensure that there is the right mix of knowledge and skills to meet Government priorities, provide trusted and responsive services, and deliver the best outcomes possible. Workforce data is also important for agencies to be able to recruit, develop and deploy the people they need to serve New Zealand and deliver Government priorities. It enables them to better understand the make-up, diversity and needs of their workforce and develop workforce-related policies.

The Standards of Workforce Data and the accompanying guidance, which were first published in November 2018, make it easier to collect and report consistent high quality workforce data across the Public Service. We also provide guidance for ethnic pay gaps and supporting information.

Standards of Workforce Data(PDF, 221 KB)

Pay gaps and pay equity

As part of system diversity and inclusion work, we developed guidance on collecting disability information on the Public Service workforce guidance in consultation with disabled people, Public Service organisations and the Heads of HR Working Group.

Workforce Data - supporting documentation