Organisational Health and Capability
This section focuses on how our internal capability supports our work towards our six outcomes. It:
- describes our organisational development strategy and how it will help us to achieve our outcomes
- outlines our forecast capital expenditure.
Strong internal capability will help us deliver on our outcomes
To achieve its outcomes, the Ministry needs to have strong internal capability. Over the last five years, we have therefore invested in building an organisation capable of delivering on ambitious work programmes and responding to emerging demands. We know we must do this on a tight budget, and we maintain a strong focus on increasing productivity and delivering a good return on taxpayers' investment.
The Ministry's Organisational Development Strategy
Our organisational development strategy will help build internal capability
Achieving the outcomes outlined in this Statement of Intent drives our organisational development strategy. Our objective is to build a high-performing organisation that delivers value and uses its resources in an efficient and effective way.
Our strategy is centred on investing in the skills and expertise of our staff, on systems that ensure we focus on the most important areas, and on building effective relationships that will enable us to work in partnership with key economic players.
Our strategy supports the Development Goals for the State Services. We share the goal of building a system of world-class professional State Services serving the government of the day, and meeting the needs of New Zealanders.
Investing In Our People
We will be an employer of choice for talented and committed people
We aim to maintain a culture of excellence, enthusiasm, and mutual support and respect. We look to build personal career development opportunities that play to individuals' strengths, while building our collective strength.
The Ministry aims to recruit, retain service delivery, and develop talented people with skills in financial markets, business development, economics, law, research, corporate support, engineering, and other relevant disciplines – reflecting the depth and breadth of the Ministry's work. We seek to build an organisation of experienced, diverse, and capable individuals who understand economic development, and have the interpersonal skills to work effectively with others.
The current labour market is demanding. Our staff turnover rates have increased over the last few years. We need to continue to be attractive to new staff, while retaining and developing the talents of our current staff. This focus will support our commitment to the "Employer of Choice" Development Goal for the State Services.
To assist us in becoming an employer of choice, we will complete a Pay and Equity Employment Review over the coming year. This review will help us to identify and remedy barriers to employment equity where these might exist, and ensure that our remuneration framework and systems are free of any gender bias.
To make the most of our existing skills base, we will increasingly offer targeted development opportunities to staff, helping us to deliver on our strategy and outcomes. We will manage our work to allow staff to build a portfolio of skills and experiences for the mutual benefit of themselves and the Ministry. We will offer targeted management development programmes to equip managers with the skills needed to build the capability of our staff.
We will focus on career development for our staff...
We have implemented programmes for developing and retaining our people, and our higher-than-average proportion of internal appointees shows strong career opportunities for our staff.
This coming year, we will be rolling out the findings of a career development pilot run in 2007/08. This pilot has given us some valuable insight into how we can better support the careers of our people within the Ministry and wider public service. In conjunction with this rollout, we are working with the career development toolkits developed by the State Services Commission.
...and helping our managers become better leaders
Good people management is crucial to the performance of our staff and the organisation. We are trialling diagnostic tools that give our managers more specific feedback on how they are leading their people. This project supplements the significant investment the Ministry has made in the past few years in developing our managers as better people leaders. We will be continuing to refine how we support the development of our managers.
Focusing On Priorities
We aim to harness our combined expertise as an integrated organisation
The Ministry works across a range of portfolios to deliver on the Government's Economic Transformation agenda. To be effective, we need to focus on what matters most, and ensure all parts of our organisation work together to a common purpose.
We will therefore continue to align our internal structures, systems, and processes with our outcomes and strategic priorities. Alignment will mean that we are able to identify our priorities, focus on vital activities, and quickly redeploy resources to them. It also means that we develop the managerial skills and tools to mobilise resources, and deliver innovation and practical solutions.
We need to manage in a tight financial environment, and to demonstrate good value for money. We constantly strive to do things better and add value to the work of others so that we can deliver innovative, practical solutions to improve the business environment.
...by sharpening our focus...
We have invested significant effort in improving our planning, monitoring, and risk management systems. We recognise the importance of having effective systems and tools that ensure we allocate scarce resource to the most important areas. Our focus in the next few years will be making sure that these systems are better linked.
We will call on the expertise of the external members of our new Risk Management and Assurance Committee to help us ensure that we are realising the benefits of these investments in our systems. Within the Organisational Development and Support branch, we systematically review our core management systems – such as performance management and remuneration – to ensure they continue to meet the changing needs of our organisation.
...and taking a flexible team-based approach
New work projects inevitably arise during the year, requiring reallocation of staff and other resources. The challenge is to create flexibility within work teams so that they can respond to emerging priorities while ensuring that existing projects are completed – especially when some projects can stretch over several years, and the skills required can be very specific. This year, the Ministry will be piloting approaches to building a flexible team-based working approach, where some staff are appointed specifically as flexible resources, moving to support teams where extra resources are needed.
Building Stronger Internal And External Relationships
We aim to lead in partnership with the key economic players...
Building stronger stakeholder relationships is central to us achieving our outcomes and strategic priorities. We have responsibility for leading the whole-of-government effort on the Government's Economic Transformation programme, and we will continue to deepen our capability to influence and assist other agencies to align their work with this agenda. This role supports our contribution to the State Services Development Goal of "Coordinated State Agencies" to ensure that the total contribution of government agencies is greater than the sum of its parts.
Working in partnership with others requires us to be good listeners, responsive to the needs of business, local communities, and local government. We must be able to build and maintain effective ongoing working relationships where both parties value and understand the significance of the connections.
Our understanding of the strategic issues underpinning our advice to the Government will be informed by the dialogue we have with a range of stakeholders. We will continue to test our understanding of the drivers of economic development. To take leadership of the Government's Economic Transformation agenda requires our managers and staff to be articulate and influential with others, both internally and in the wider community. Training and support will assist them to be effective in this role.
...and establish an environment of open communication
As a knowledge-based organisation seeking to deliver innovative solutions, we also need to communicate well internally. An environment of open communication will ensure the organisation acts in a coordinated, efficient way, and that the best ideas are shared and implemented. The Ministry will be undertaking a dialogue project, piloting different approaches to communication and how we work with stakeholders to achieve outcomes.
Enhancing Productivity Through Technology
We will continue to provide high-quality IT systems...
As noted above, the Ministry's work is knowledge-based, with a high need for sophisticated and specialised information technology – from the secure online registry run by the Companies Office, to the mapping software used in managing the Crown's mineral estate. Significant investment has been made in IT platforms in the last four years, and independent benchmarking has recently found the Ministry's core IT systems are delivering good value and above-average performance.
The security and stability of systems is an ongoing priority, with the 2008/09 IT work programme expected to deliver enhanced levels of preparedness and flexibility.
...to help us work flexibly, connect with stakeholders, and deliver excellent services
In shaping our IT strategy we envisage a work programme that will provide investment in smart desktop, personal devices and telephony systems that allow people to be more mobile and productive, particularly by accessing core information in more efficient and integrated ways. We envisage a workforce able to connect more effectively with clients and each other through enhanced video-conferencing facilities and other web-based technologies.
In the service delivery area, the Ministry's electronic systems continue to provide outstanding levels of service. Innovation continues to deliver productivity and service gains in this area, with application development activity planned for the Companies Office and Intellectual Property Service to support the Ministry's outcome of "Ease of doing business". In these services, we contribute to the "Networked State Services" Development Goal and the use of technology to transform the provision of services to New Zealanders.
Taking Responsibility For The Environment
We will reduce the Ministry's carbon footprint
The Ministry has a Carbon Emissions Reduction Plan that outlines the steps we will be undertaking as one of the six public sector agencies tasked by Cabinet with leading the way on public service carbon neutrality by 2012. The Ministry has worked with the Ministry for the Environment and the other five agencies to develop our Emissions Reduction Plan. The actions in the plan are based on the results of our Emissions Inventory. To reduce the Ministry's carbon emissions, we will be focusing on the areas of energy, transport, and waste management. We will be monitoring progress against this plan on a six-monthly basis.
Measuring Our Progress
We will focus on measurement of our performance
Becoming better at measuring our own performance is a priority for the Ministry over the next three years. The Ministry has increased its investment in this area, with resource dedicated to measuring organisational performance. This focus on effective evaluation is also being applied to the organisational development strategy projects, with each project being judged against qualitative and quantitative success indicators, from staff and stakeholder survey results to human resources statistics.
Departmental Capital Intentions
Our forecast capital expenditure is set out in Table 2. It reflects the replacement or upgrade of existing assets, including the further development of registry databases, to maintain and develop the Ministry's capability to deliver its programme of work.
Table 2: Forecast Capital Expenditure
|
2007/08 |
2007/08 |
2008/09 |
2009/10 |
2010/11 |
|
Budget $000 |
Estimated Actual $000 |
Forecast $000 |
Estimated $000 |
Estimated $000 |
| Leasehold fitouts |
133 |
133 |
300 |
300 |
300 |
| Information technology |
9,115 |
6,592 |
14,850 |
11,500 |
6,900 |
| Vehicles |
480 |
280 |
400 |
400 |
200 |
| Other assets |
792 |
502 |
300 |
300 |
500 |
| Total capital |
10,420 |
7,507 |
15,850 |
12,500 |
7,900 |
The increases in 2008/09 and 2009/10 mainly reflect further investment in:
- the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme Register
- a new register for all financial service providers
- a wholly electronic core registry system replacing the Companies register and the remaining 17 manual registries for other corporate entities
- increased functionality for the intellectual property registry system both for the intellectual property right holder and the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand, which grants IP rights
- changes to the way technology can support the International Visitor Survey and Domestic Travel Survey.
The Ministry will continue to:
- ensure capital is directed to the highest priorities across the Ministry and we gain benefits from rationalisation where possible
- ensure capital is invested in areas that meet the medium- to long-term objectives associated with building a learning organisation
- develop strategies well in advance to address forecast capital requirements
- integrate effective capital planning into Ministry-wide strategies.
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