Integrating diversity and inclusion is a key ingredient for our organisational success - it helps DPMC improve our services to the government and people of New Zealand, and to attract and retain talented employees.
Formats
Context#
- DPMC is a small to medium organisation (285 headcount 30 September 2023 – 216 permanent, 52 fixed term [FT], 17 secondees in) supporting the Prime Minister, the Governor-General and Cabinet as well as the work of our other portfolio ministers.
- We experience significant variation in the size and make-up of our workforce as new functions such as the COVID-19 Response Group and the Health Transition Unit stand up within the department and then wind down and exit.
- Our small size and flexible operating model impacts our Gender Pay Gap (GPG), where changes in staffing can cause gender pay volatility. In recent years this has been exacerbated by the impact of FT staff moving in and out.
- For this reason, in this report we have looked at permanent and FT data so we can better understand the trends and actions we need to take. Outside of remuneration and recruitment actions, our focus in this plan is on actions for the retention and development of our permanent staff.
What does our gender pay data tell us?#
- Our data shows our GPG (permanent and FT staff) moved around between June 2021 and September 2023.The rapid fluctuation of staff, with 126 employees onboarded and 158 offboarded in the 12 months to 30 June 2023, contributed to our GPG movement.
- GPG June 2021: 14.6%
- GPG June 2022: 12.7% | Sep 2022: 10.4%
- GPG June 2023: 15.3% | Sep 2023: 14.8%
- Our gender pay gap increased by over 5% over the last quarter in 2022 due to the number of senior women in fixed term roles transitioning to other agencies as part of the wind down of COVID-19 response work. The GPG is slowly improving again.
- DPMC’s unadjusted pay gap is driven by the over-representation of women in lower pay grades rather than inequality within grades. While there have been slightly more women than men recruited into the higher grades in 2022/23, this was countered by the high number of women engaged in all roles below senior adviser. This bodes well for a strong pipeline, however, negatively impacts GPG.
- The ‘horizontal’ GPG for permanent staff, within grades and occupational groups, have a positive GPG or a gap below 3.4% (with differences explainable). The exception is in our business support function occupational group, which spans 3 grades, where the positive GPG is 4.5%.
- GPG for permanent new starters remains high, although this has dropped from 21% to 18% in the last year. This result relates to more women being recruited in lower grades and more men in the higher ones. Grades 13-17 show a small positive GPG. The higher bands have a smaller number of new starters, of whom three-quarters are male, and some grades have no female new starters.
- Slow improvement of staff identifying as a non-dominant ethnicity. We use more channels and tools to support more diverse appointment processes and outcomes.
Note: This is the third year DPMC and NEMA data is reported separately, all data is in Total Remuneration.
DPMC Data Summary as at 30 September 2023#
GPG Mean: 14.8%
GPG Median: 25%
DPMC Demographics
GPG by employee type
| Employee Type | Mean Total REM | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Female $ | Male $ | % Gap | |
| Permanent | 122,057 | 144,111 | 15.3 |
| Fixed Term | 144,601 | 174,045 | 16.9 |
| Total | 124,558 | 146,166 | 14.8 |
Mean total remuneration by pay grade
(Permanent only)
Of the 10 pay bands below Tier 2 (T2) roles, 6 have a GPG positive to women and 2 have a GPG of 2%, with the highest 3.4%.
Gender balanced leadership
Women occupied 54% of all people leader roles (24 of 44) and 53% of T2 and T3 roles.
Ethnicity pay data#
Improving ethnic representation in our workforce and in leadership has been a focus in recent years and will continue to be so. Attracting appropriate candidates and growing the skillsets internally will be key to making this shift.
There is slow improvement with the number of staff identifying as a non-dominant ethnicity. We use more channels and tools to support more diverse appointment processes and outcomes. Attraction of ethnically diverse applicants has been slightly more successful, although our data shows that this does not always flow through to hire. There are continuing questions as to whether we are attracting appropriate applicants or whether there are biases in the recruitment processes. Understanding and addressing this is an area of focus in 2024.
Candidate Ethnicity – 12 months to September 2023
| Ethnicity Type | Applications | Shortlisted/ Interviewed | Offered/ Hired |
|---|---|---|---|
| NZ European | 60% | 68% | 78% |
| Asian | 15% | 8% | 5% |
| Pacific | 3% | 3% | 3% |
| Māori | 12% | 15% | 8% |
| MELAA* | 4% | 2% | 1% |
Average pay by ethnicity
The ethnic groups other than European have smaller identified numbers with several senior roles impacting on the average remuneration, this is the case for Pacific, MELAA* and Other. Asian and Māori are similar size. More employees identifying as Asian are in the lower and middle grades, with no leaders identifying as Asian.
Non-dominant ethnic groups have a low representation in DPMC with average salaries for some ethnic groups being less than others. The numbers are too small to create robust measures of ethnic pay gaps for each group. We have instead calculated a pay gap between all Māori, Pacific, Asian and MELAA employees and European employees, which sits at 14.4%. This is largely driven by grade distribution, with only a small number of our ethnic employees being in higher grades.
Of note, people leaders identifying with ethnicities other than European are proportionately less than their representation in the workforce. This will continue to be an area of focus.
*MELAA: Middle Eastern, Latin American and African.
Kia Toipoto actions in 2024#
Our work follows the requirements set by Public Service Commission for all agencies. In 2024 we are focusing efforts on key areas to make the most difference to gender and ethnic representation and pay gaps. These efforts also align with the feedback from our people through our Kōrero Mai staff survey. This plan gives detail on our ongoing activities in all six Kia Toipoto areas.
| Topic and milestones | 2024 actions |
|---|---|
Te whai kanohi i ngā taumata katoa | Leadership and representation By the end of April 2023 agencies/entities have plans and targets to improve gender and ethnic representation in their workforce and leadership. By the end of 2024 the Public Service workforce and leadership are substantially more representative of society. | Focus for 2024
Ongoing activity
|
Te Whakawhanaketanga i te Aramahi | Effective career and leadership development By mid-2023 agencies/entities have career pathways and equitable progression opportunities that support women, Māori, Pacific and ethnic employees to achieve their career aspirations. | Focus for 2024
Ongoing activity
|
Ngā Hua Tōkeke mō te Utu | Equitable pay outcomes By the end of 2022 entities ensure that starting salaries and salaries for the same or similar roles are not influenced by bias. Agencies monitor starting salaries and salaries for the same or similar roles to ensure gender and ethnic pay gaps do not reopen. | Ongoing activity
|
Te Taunoa o te Mahi Pīngore | Flexible-work-by-default By the end of 2024 agencies and entities offer equitable access to flexible-by-default working and ensure it does not undermine career progression or pay. | Ongoing activity
|
Te whakakore i te katoa o ngā momo whakatoihara, haukume anō hoki | Eliminating all forms of bias and discrimination By the end of 2023 entities have remuneration and HR systems, policies and practices designed to remove all forms of bias and discrimination. Agencies/entities ensure leaders and employees learn about and demonstrate cultural competence. | Ongoing activity
|
Te Pono | Transparency Agencies and entities publish annual actions plans based on gender and ethnicity data and union/employee feedback. Agencies and entities ensure easy access to HR and remuneration policies, including salary bands. | Ongoing activity
|
The Kia Toipoto plan needs to be read in conjunction with our diversity and inclusion plan (which aligns to Papa Pounamu), our Whāinga Amorangi plan, and te reo Māori plan.
Kia Toipoto progress in 2023#
Our work in 2023 made progress towards reducing gender and ethnic pay gaps and increasing representation. It was done alongside activities across the organisation being led from the diversity and inclusion action plan and te ao Māori capability activities.
Achievements
- Shared stories of success with our staff using people from within our workforce and externally, including through our employee-led networks, to build awareness, knowledge and inspiration.
- New development guidance completed and shared, supporting equitable identification and access to development opportunities.
- Further improvements made to the progression process and its transparency, with an updated progression and promotion process. The 2023 round progressed eight people – seven were women and two were from non-dominant ethnic backgrounds.
- All people policies meet Public Service Commission guidance.
- Guidance and support given to people leaders on improving commissioning and delegation of work.
- Development of people leaders and facilitated discussions on inclusive leadership skills.
- Delivered on actions in our plans for diversity and inclusion and te ao Māori capability.
- Ongoing engagement with our five employee-led networks, with a new one being established (for parents).