Organisational Health and Capability

Strengthening our capability

The Treasury actively seeks to meet the State Sector Development Goals. It is important that central agency leadership of these initiatives is underpinned by strong performance by the central agencies in these areas. In 2007, in pursuit of improving our capability to deliver better and value-for-money services to Government, we started with "Stepping Up", a strategic change programme at the Treasury. This involved a fundamental look at our roles, outcomes and strategic direction, how we organise ourselves, how we operate, and the systems and processes we need to deliver on that strategic direction.

It was driven by a desire to move from being an organisation focused at varying levels of effort on a full range of economic and fiscal issues, to one which focuses its resources more intensely – and on issues of the highest priority. To pursue this capability development direction, we now report against Results Plans for our activities and are implementing the four Strategic Results Areas for the medium-term, three to five years.

The aim of our efforts to strengthen our capability is to improve the quality of advice and service the Government gets from the Treasury. When we have a "Stepped Up" Treasury, Ministers can expect advice that is more strategic, analytically rigorous and customer focused. This means advice that is more focused on the future, that anticipates issues before they loom large and there is a limited time or set of options to respond, and, whilst grounded in the highest standards of analytical rigour, is translated into real options for Ministers, informed by a greater understanding of key stakeholder interests and concerns.

We have identified a number of drivers where we need to lift our performance to achieve this goal for government. Our last year's Statement of Intent described these in some detail. Over the next two to five years, we will continue to focus on improving our results focus and our customer focus; the quality of our policy advice and other important functions; management and leadership; external engagement; behaviours; decision-making; and organisational performance.

While our own management and reporting frameworks will help us measure our success, the real value of our efforts will only be revealed by how well served Ministers feel in anticipating and managing issues of economic and fiscal significance for New Zealand.

The Treasury's plan to be carbon neutral by 2012

The Treasury is also one of six departments with a plan towards being carbon neutral by 2012. We have already achieved significant reductions in the carbon emissions from our energy consumption and waste through a number of targeted programmes and initiatives since 2004. Our plan to reduce carbon emissions going forward includes introducing further energy-saving practices and using more efficient equipment in our office. We will undertake a travel planning process during 2008 to investigate ways to reduce the emissions that arise from our business travel.

Equal Employment Opportunities

The Treasury will embrace the new equal employment opportunities policy for the public service, Equality and Diversity, which took effect in April 2008. We will continue our commitment to the four EEO groups – Māori, ethnic or minority groups, women, and people with disabilities, and to appointments on merit.

We will analyse our biannual employee survey findings by age, gender and ethnicity which will support capability planning to ensure the Treasury is meeting the needs of our diverse workforce.

We collect data on gender and ethnicity distribution, including the proportion of male/female staff in each tier of management. The trends will be monitored and reported on, and action taken where necessary.

During the period the Treasury is committed to progressing its Pay and Employment Equity Response Plan.