Ōritetanga me te Whai Wāhitanga Diversity, equity, and inclusion plan 2024 and 2025: Progress Report 30 June 2024

Why diversity equity, and inclusion matters

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is about reflecting and valuing the communities that Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission is here to serve, to build trust and confidence and improve services and outcomes for New Zealanders.

When we attract, retain, recognise, value, and develop the skills and experiences of people across all dimensions of diversity (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, rainbow, age), there are multiple benefits, including:

• Diversity of thought to better reflect, understand and contribute to policy, services and outcomes for New Zealand communities
• Being better equipped to engage with stakeholders, iwi leaders, civil society and community leaders to reflect their perspectives into our work and advice
• More diverse and inclusive leadership for better quality decision-making, exercising influence and leadership of the public sector, and strengthening organisational performance
• A good employer and work environment which is fair, equitable and inclusive and enables our people to thrive and perform at their best
• Lower gender and ethnic pay gaps

Our approach

During Phase 1 we built a solid foundation, while Phase 2 of the DEI plan built on our learning and achievements to further consolidate and progress our DEI aspirations. 

Throughout 2024 we have continued to:

• Support our leaders to develop inclusive practice and build overall DEI capability
• Work with others across the system to meet the wider system priorities
• Improve data collection and transparent, regular reporting and analysis
• Engage with people regularly and listen to feedback along the way
• Review regularly and evolve our plans based on quality data, lessons learned and people’s feedback

Our challenges

• With increased delivery demands across the Leadership group and the People & Culture team during 2024, we chose to reprioritise our People plan and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan activities to create capacity to support the delivery of our Fiscal Sustainability Programme
• Our targets for increasing ethnic representation are challenging, particularly at leadership level, given our organisation is small and our workforce is Wellington based. Following our re-organisation we now have a reduced number of leadership positions at tiers 2 and 3 which will require us to keep a continued focus on our targets
• Enhancing data collection across a wider range of diversity dimensions, including Rainbow and disability dimensions, is a priority action in our DEI Plan, however privacy considerations mean the confidentiality provided by Te Taunaki the Public Service Census remains the best method of data collection at this time. Actions resulting from information gathered through Te Taunaki the Public Service Census will be scheduled once results are available (expected to be in May 2025) which may require targeted activities to be beyond the current 2024-25 DEI plan

Our plan is to become more:

Diverse: A more diverse workforce and leadership that reflects, values and understands New Zealand society

Equitable: A fairer workplace with equitable pay and people practices

Inclusive: A workplace culture where everyone feels included, valued and comfortable being themselves at work

There are several internal and system-wide DEI goals and commitments for us to track and meet. Our DEI plan brings together all our DEI activities and commitments into one easy-to-follow plan, for everyone to see and track.

This plan reflects and reinforces

• The Public Service Act 2020 (specifically sections 73 and 75), which covers promoting diversity and inclusiveness and good employer requirements
• Our vision of a leading edge, unified Public Service that serves Aotearoa New Zealand and its people
• Mahere Tāngata | People Plan 2022-25 for Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission, which has a focus area to promote diversity, equity and inclusiveness
• Te Angitū, our Māori Capability Strategy for the Commission
• Papa Pounamu, the work programme that brings together diversity and inclusion initatives across the Public Service
• Kia Toipoto, the Public Service pay gaps action plan 

Inputs to this plan 

• Achievements and learning from our 2023-24 DEI Plan activities
• Information from across employee-led Networks (ELNs) and ELN lead workshops
• Information from other data sources e.g., workforce data
• Looking to 2025, we will continue to engage with and listen to our employees, ELNs and union representatives to ensure we are providing an inclusive workplace, to understand what are seen as priorities for our people, and to remedy any gaps that may be identified through Te Taunaki Public Service Census or other feedback.  

During 2023 and 2024, we: 

• Reduced our pay gaps (at 30 June 2024) for:
  • Pacific employees from 10.5 percent to 4.3 percent
  • Asian employees from 25.5 percent to 17.6 percent
• Maintained no pay gap for Māori employees
• Increased the percentage of Māori leaders in tiers 1 to 3 from 21 percent to 25 percent at 30 June 2024
• Matured and strengthened our Leaders’ Community of Practice (LCoP) with workshops and resources on Leading Change, Workload Management, Enabling High Performance, and Facilitation
• Engaged employees in the refresh of our internal policies, applying best practice guidance to remove bias
• Supported our internal-facing employee-led networks (ELNs) to continue to mature and flourish. Along with our ALAAME (Asian, Latin American, African, Middle Eastern), Oceans (Pacific), Rainbow, Women’s and New Professionals networks, we now have a network for employees who identify as neurodiverse which has provided education on how we can make the Commission a more inclusive place for our neurodiverse colleagues  
• Continued to enhance relationships and connections through celebrations such as Matariki, Mental Health Awareness Week and language weeks, which strengthen and invigorate organisational culture and wellbeing
• Celebrated Zero Discrimination Day for the first time, holding a workshop on eliminating discrimination in all its forms to promote and foster a positive workplace culture
• Held celebrations for Non-Binary People’s Day, with the sharing of personal stories to build understanding and respect
• Achieved Rainbow Tick re-accreditation, demonstrating our commitment to creating a safe and inclusive workplace for employees who identify as part of Rainbow communities
• Provided Active Allyship training for the first time, exploring practical strategies for fostering an inclusive workplace culture
• Saw the growth of intersectionality among our ELNs with celebrations for Pink Shirt Day and support for Sweat for Pride, led by the New Professionals and Women’s networks in support of our Rainbow colleagues