Attracting, retaining and developing a diverse Public Service workforce to reflect and meet the needs of New Zealanders

• The Public Service workforce is becoming more ethnically diverse.
• 55.9 percent of Public Service senior leaders are women and Māori representation in leadership is almost in line with Māori representation in the Public Service workforce overall.
• Work to address bias, in recruitment and career progression policies and practices is having positive effects.
• Some organisations are building stronger relationships with external partners, for example Māori providers, iwi and hapū.
• Graduate and internship programmes are being used to help increase diverse representation across the Public Service.
• Some organisations require a greater focus on building cultural competence. to engage with members of specific communities, as a priority.

The 2022 ‘State of the Public Service(PDF, 8.4 MB)’ report sets out the Commissioner’s expectations, that the Public Service system would see increased diversity of the workforce at all levels including leadership, to reflect the full diversity of the communities it serves.

Progress towards achieving these expectations is visible in workforce data, which shows that the Public Service workforce is becoming more diverse at all levels including leadership. There are also tangible examples of this increased diversity improving the ability for the Public Service to design and deliver fit-for-purpose services, that meet the needs of New Zealand, particularly in times of crisis.

In early 2023, during the response to, and recovery from, Cyclone Gabrielle, the ability to mobilise public servants to where they were most needed, was supported by the geographic spread of public services, the public service’s understanding of local communities around the country and its ability to coordinate alongside local groups.

Representation of female, Māori, Pacific, Asian and Middle Eastern, Latin American and African (MELAA) communities has increased, including in leadership roles. This is partly driven by a specific focus on addressing bias in recruitment processes over the last five years.

Progress towards the ethnic diversity of the Public Service workforce can be seen in current workforce data:

• Māori representation in the Public Service workforce is 16.8 percent, increasing year on year and at a higher proportional level than Māori representation, in the overall New Zealand population as at the 2018 Census.
• Pacific representation is also increasing year on year and is now 10.7 percent, compared with 9.1 percent in 2018 and is also greater representation than overall population ratios.
• Asian representation has grown faster than other groups, from 10.1 percent in 2018 to 14.5 percent in 2023.
• MELAA representation, is up from 1.5 percent in 2018 to 2.2 percent currently, again achieving slightly higher representation than overall population ratios.

Graduate and internship programmes are being used to help recruit people from different backgrounds into the Public Service. In 2023, indications are that about 85 percent of graduate programmes and 40 percent of intern programmes, specifically targeted an occupational area or ethnicity. While about 40 percent of programmes don’t target any specific qualifications, of the programmes that do target qualifications, several target very broadly, i.e. 10 or more qualifications. Keeping a broader focus increases the talent pool and the chance of attracting diverse candidates.

The New Zealand Rainbow Excellence Awards, celebrates the achievements of organisations committed to rainbow diversity and inclusion. The awards are a collaboration between the Rainbow Tick (the organisation that developed and leads the Rainbow Tick Certification system) and South Pacific Pride Ltd (the organisation behind Winter Pride and the Pride Pledge). In 2023 the New Zealand Defence Force won The All-Accor Progress Award and the Partners Life Supreme Award in recognition of “their commitment to staying the course and remaining steadfast on their commitments for being a force for all New Zealanders.”

The Public Service has achieved and maintained gender diversity in chief executive and leadership roles. Women are also substantially more highly represented in the Public Service in each ethnic group, than in the population overall. As at 30 June 2023, the percentage of women in the top three tiers of leadership sat at 55.9 percent, up from 55.8 percent in 2022 and 48.8 percent in 2018. The gender pay gap among senior Public Service leaders has also halved in the last five years.

Māori now hold 16 percent of the top three tiers of leadership roles, while the actual number has almost doubled since 2016. In the Public Service, 15 percent of chief executives identify as Māori, compared with 14.7 percent of the overall working population in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

In September 2022 the Leadership Development Centre published the fellowship report of Serena Curtis (Ministry of Social Development) titled ‘Leadership in our Aotearoa Pacific village: practicing values and unlocking strengths: Practical lessons for each Public Service leader from the COVID-19 Pacific welfare response’.

The report analysed the partnership response between government and Pacific communities through COVID-19. Some of the results found that Pacific communities and government achieved great outcomes because government listened, trusted and changed its practices, and these outcomes were led by Pacific peoples – demonstrating true cultural competence. The report also sets out practical actions Public Service leaders can take to embed the values of the people they serve in the systems and processes of government.

As part of building cultural competence (one of the five Papa Pounamu priority areas), over the past year agencies have shown a particular focus on improving Māori Crown Relations capability through achieving the goals set out in their Whāinga Amorangi plans and building Māori cultural capability overall.

The Public Service Census in 2021, gave an early view of the impact of this effort, with 65 percent of public servants feeling encouraged and supported to use te reo Māori at their workplaces and ensure Māori views and perspectives are considered in their work.

Agencies are tailoring their cultural competency efforts to fit the specific communities and recipients of their services. This means some agencies have focused entirely on te ao Māori capability, including wider ranges or levels of learning and development opportunities, while others have a broader focus on competence to engage with any cultural group, alongside specific efforts for te ao Māori capability. In their annual reporting, some agencies conflated building cultural competence with developing staff from historically under-represented groups. This was evident in agencies that reported on members of staff involved in development programmes tailored for Māori and Pacific under the building cultural competence Papa Pounamu priority area.

Organisations with learning management systems (LMS) appear to have more cohesive and well evaluated approaches to building cultural competence. This may speak to the size and resourcing available to those organisations and could be an area where greater collaboration across the system could create efficiencies and avoid the need to duplicate effort.

We need to ensure the Public Service workforce, is well placed for succession planning. We are focused on achieving this through building a pipeline of potential leaders with diverse backgrounds that will also include different perspectives for sectors such as business and community.

To support this, the new Papa Pounamu priority area of fostering diverse leadership focuses on growing future leaders and proactively creating pathways to senior leadership, for people from historically under-represented groups.

Fostering diverse leadership is about developing future leaders from communities who have been traditionally under-represented within Public Service leadership. It is about Public Service organisations taking active steps to ensure their leadership reflects and understands the communities they serve.