Quality of management information
These findings report on known property data quality issues, limitations of the indicator set in providing insight into property management performance, and opportunities for improvement. The Context chapter includes common quality of management information findings across all functions that are not repeated in this chapter.
The quality of the data underlying the metrics is generally of a high standard, and information can be meaningfully compared. Office space performance can be understood using a small number of recognised metrics that can be calculated with accurate data. The three primary metrics are property cost per FTE, cost per m2, and m2 per FTE, and the data required to calculate these metrics can be readily obtained from tenancy agreements and basic human resources reports.
This report provides a limited snapshot of office property management. For the purposes of this report, property is defined as head office accommodation where the purpose of the property is to accommodate head office or administrative staff. This definition excludes buildings where there is a substantial interface with the public, which means that office space on regional and service delivery properties are excluded from this report.
There is better measurement of property costs this reporting period with stronger adherence to the definition of "head office accommodation." This means that a few agencies have reduced the properties they included this year e.g. removing customer contact centres. While these types of changes have a negative impact on time series analysis, greater consistency across agencies is an improvement in measurement and supports comparability among agencies and external comparators.
While results are broadly comparable, results need to be understood within the context of each organisation.Different agencies have different property needs. For example, Wellington based office operations, especially where there is a case for a CBD location, will be more costly than operations dispersed in less expensive locations around the country.
The impact of the Christchurch Earthquake on property has been removed. The impact of the Christchurch earthquake on property costs has been removed by those agencies affected. Agencies have included either their original property costs before the earthquakes or their new alternate property costs.
The PMCoE has established a property management database which will contain much more detailed property information across government, as well as producing a NZ State of the Estate report. This database will allow the Treasury, PMCoE, and property practitioners to explore improvements to the property metric set for FY 2011/12.
