Tō mātou whakahaere | Our organisation

On 30 June 2023, MSD had 9,213 employees, with 9,077 permanent and fixed-term full-time equivalent (FTE). The organisation is arranged into an Office of the Chief Executive and seven business groups:

• Service Delivery
• Māori, Communities and Partnerships
• Transformation
• Policy
• People and Capability
• Organisational Assurance and Communication
• Strategy and Insights.

Each business group is led by a Deputy Chief Executive (DCE) who is a member of our Leadership Team.

We have offices and service centres throughout New Zealand. Some services are also provided by phone and digital channels (such as our MyMSD online self-service portal). We also provide our services through Heartland sites in rural and isolated communities.

Governance and risk management

Our Leadership Team is responsible for the overall governance and management of MSD. Governance responsibilities include making sound investment decisions that support the long-term social and economic development of New Zealanders, managing risk and ensuring compliance.

The Organisational Health Committee ensures the high-level design and health of our key corporate services, systems, capabilities and infrastructure are aligned, and supports optimal functioning and performance.

The Transformation and Investment Committee ensures MSD’s investments are robust, strategic and effective, and that organisational transformation and performance supports delivery of our strategic objectives, purpose and outcomes. The committee also provides governance of the Te Pae Tawhiti Transformation Programme through the Te Pae Tawhiti Transformation and Investment Committee. External advisory roles on this Committee provide independent thought and challenge.

Figure 5: MSD governance framework

Our Chief Executive is supported by our Leadership Team.

Our Leadership Team is supported by the:

• Organisational Health Committee, and
• Transformation and Investment Committee.

Our Chief Executive is supported by three independent advisory groups:

• Māori Reference Group – providing oversight of Te Pae Tata, our Māori Strategy and Action Plan, and advice on the design and implementation of social strategies and policies that impact Māori
• Pacific Reference Group – ensuring the actions and initiatives recommended in Pacific Prosperity: Our Pacific Strategy and Action Plan are effective for Pacific peoples
• Risk and Audit Committee – providing independent advice on risk, assurance and auditing requirements for MSD.

Risk management policy

Our business risk management policy has been reviewed to ensure it is fit for purpose, accessible and supports MSD staff to apply risk management to their day-to-day activities.

Our people

He Korowai Manaaki (Our People Strategy)

He Korowai Manaaki sets out the people-related actions we will take to achieve our key organisational strategies – Te Pae Tawhiti, Te Pae Tata and Pacific Prosperity. The four components of He Korowai Manaaki outline what we need to do to be successful in an ever-changing environment, how we can work in new and different ways, and how we want our people to experience working and leading others at MSD. This includes:

• client and whānau centred – we design our work, roles and organisation to deliver for our clients and whānau
• capability building – we have the capability to perform to our potential now and in the future
• leading for performance – our leaders develop and nurture people and teams to deliver high levels of performance
• positive experience – our people have an experience at work that enables them to reach their potential and feel included, safe and well.

Workplace relations

Our relationship with our union partners continues to be positive and constructive at both the operational and strategic levels. The Public Service Association (PSA) is the main union that represents our employees. We engage with over 400 of their delegates at local and national levels, including Ngā Kaitūhono representatives (our Māori PSA members) and PSA convenors. We also work constructively with the Work and Income Northland Staff (WINS) union, which has around 100 members based in Northland.

Pay and progression for our people

Managers and Senior Specialists (MSS) pay and progression

This year we agreed the new pay and progression framework for MSS. This, along with a realignment of remuneration bands to market levels, has enabled us to take steps to address recruitment and retention issues for this cohort of employees.

Bargaining

In 2022/23, due to the Public Sector Pay Adjustment (PSPA), we negotiated and settled MSD’s four collective agreements (Service Delivery, National Office/MYD, WINS, MSS) and led the bargaining work for Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People.

We were able to deliver PSPA, including remuneration increases, to all our employees. We also made changes to bring more consistency to our agreements and implemented a new pay and progression framework for our MSS employees. We also committed to work together on items that were not able to be resolved during the bargaining process.

MSD continues to be the subject of two pay equity claims. One covers administration and clerical employees and is part of the wider Public Service claim. The other is for customer service and contact centre employees and covers around 3,000 MSD people. Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission leads the ongoing work to resolve these.