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Assessing Organisational Health and Capability


Statement of Intent 2009-2012

[ Last Updated 12 May 2009 ]


Within this section…

This section shows how work on our internal capability will help us to deliver the Government's priorities.

What we are seeking to achieve

Our overall aim is to continue to develop high levels of internal capability so that we can deliver on these priorities as effectively and efficiently as possible.

We will therefore continue to work towards ensuring that:

  • our staff are committed, capable, and flexible
  • our work is well focused on Government priorities
  • we deliver value for money and reduce costs wherever possible
  • we build working relationships with key agencies, organisations, and individuals that help us do our jobs more effectively
  • we have reliable technology and management systems that enable us to work productively.

What we will do to achieve this

We will focus on increasing staff engagement and commitment…

illustration 10Promoting staff engagement remains a priority. Given tighter fiscal constraints, we will recognise performance and maintain high levels of staff motivation and productivity in ways that do not rely solely on increases to remuneration. This gives us a real opportunity to innovate further in the way we develop our staff.

… by supporting career development and building leadership capability

One way we will do this is through a continued focus on personal and career development. We will ensure that managers and staff have quality development discussions and these are translated into appropriate on-the-job opportunities.

We will also focus on continuing to develop managers' skills to maintain and build staff motivation and productivity, particularly in times of change.3

We will ensure our work is well focused and delivers the intended results…

Strong planning, monitoring, and risk management systems ensure our work focuses on the right things, delivers the expected results, and provides value for money. This will be particularly critical in the next few years of tight fiscal constraint.

We will continue to enhance our ability to flexibly allocate resources to address changing circumstances. We will do this by building an accurate picture of the skills of all our staff, more actively promoting opportunities internally, and identifying those staff able to move across the Ministry to support teams where extra resources are needed. In addition, we will continue to assess whether our current structure remains the most optimal way to organise ourselves as priorities change.

… while doing more with less

We will make savings by stopping or doing less work in lower priority areas, working more flexibly, and doing things more efficiently. We will continue our drive to reduce our discretionary spend, for example, on travel.

In addition, we will continue to work with Ministers and our Crown entities to find savings throughout the non-departmental components of our various Votes.4

We will work closely with other agencies to make best use of joint resources…

Working closely with other departments helps us use resources more flexibly and minimises duplication and waste. We will maintain strong working relationships so that we can quickly identify critical issues and work effectively to deliver results. Where possible, we will work with other agencies on initiatives such as seconding staff to high priority work areas across government, sharing best practice, and undertaking joint procurement of goods and services.5

… and help us understand the impact our work is having

To be effective, we also need to understand the impact our advice and services are having on New Zealand business and consumers and, where appropriate, to involve them in creating policy solutions. We will continue to undertake client surveys in our service delivery areas, both to improve the ways we interact with stakeholders and to support the Government's desire for prompt and pragmatic action.6

illustration 11Our IT systems will help us work flexibly and efficiently, and deliver excellent services

Robust, reliable IT systems can help us to manage costs, use our resources more flexibly, and make things easier for our clients. Our IT Governance Committee oversees a three-to-five-year programme of work that focuses on effective service delivery from our technology providers, investment in critical activity, and ensuring we maximise the return from this investment.7

How we will demonstrate success

We will know we are making progress if:

  • we see an increase in positive responses across all the critical engagement questions of our staff survey
  • we maintain and improve our Ministers' views of our performance, as reflected in six-monthly Ministerial ratings of the Ministry's performance.
  • More specifically, we will know we are achieving our intended results when:
  • the average length of service of our staff increases more than in similar public sector organisations
  • we achieve a ten percent reduction in the Ministry's departmental costs for 2009/10, without any decline in our other performance measures
  • feedback from stakeholders demonstrates that we are in touch with key issues and responding appropriately
  • independent benchmarking continues to indicate that the Ministry's core IT systems are delivering good value and above-average performance.

Capital intentions

We review capital expenditure requirements each year to ensure that we are maintaining and developing the Ministry's capability. Our latest forecast is in Table 1.

Table 1: Forecast capital expenditure

2008/09
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
Budget
$000
Estimated
Actual
$000
Forecast
$000
Estimated
$000
Estimated
$000
Leasehold fit-outs
300
750
505
300
300
Information technology
14,850
7,248
18,206
4,400
4,000
Vehicles
400
500
470
200
200
Other assets
300
400
425
500
500
Total capital
15,850
8,898
19,606
5,400
5,000

The increases in 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.
  • 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 medium- to long-term objectives
  • develop strategies well in advance to address forecast capital requirements
  • integrate effective capital planning into Ministry-wide strategies.

3 This work contributes to the "Employer of Choice" State Services Development Goal.

4 This work contributes to the "Value-for-Money" State Services Development Goal.

5 This work contributes to the "Coordinated State Agencies" Development Goal.

6 This work contributes to the "Accessible and Trusted State Services" Development Goals.

7 This work contributes to the "Networked State Agencies" Development Goal.


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