Inclusion and belonging
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We value our people and strive to reflect the communities we serve. Our inclusion and belonging strategy, Nō Konei–Belong, focuses on having inclusivity at the heart of our work/mahi, creating a sense of belonging and meeting public sector-wide diversity, inclusion and equity objectives.
To understand the experiences of diverse population groups within MBIE, we use human-centred design principles to run focused engagement exercises. These allow us to hear directly from our diverse communities about their experiences and perspectives of working at MBIE, what does and doesn’t work for them, what matters most, and what we need to prioritise to make changes that would have a positive and sustainable impact.
To date, we have engaged with our Tangata Whenua, Pasifika, Asian and Rainbow employees. We have also engaged with those who identify as being neurodivergent or having medical, physical or mental illnesses, disabilities, impairments, conditions or disorders, including caregivers and support people. We are working to embed the recommendations from these sprints to better support and enable these communities to belong and thrive at MBIE.
As part of our commitment to equal employment opportunities, our programmes on diversity, equity and inclusion and Māori–Crown relations outline MBIE’s commitment to identifying and eliminating policies, procedures and other institutional barriers that cause or perpetuate inequality. In addition, we are committed to the Accessibility Charter and continue to make sure our public information is accessible.
We assess our websites, to make sure they comply with the New Zealand Government Web Accessibility Standards, and reasonably accommodate the needs of people with disabilities and support their health and wellbeing.
Papa Pounamu, led through Te Kawa Mataaho – Public Service Commission, sets the diversity and inclusion work programme for the wider public service. For more information about our inclusion and belonging work programme, see appendix 8 of the PDF version of the Annual Report.
Kia Toipoto: Closing gender, Māori, Pacific and ethnic pay gaps
MBIE’s gender pay gap has trended down in recent years but was 14.2% as of 30 June 2024 (a slight increase from 12.9% the previous year). Two factors influencing our pay gaps over the financial year are the implementation of the Public Service Pay Adjustments for employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements and the voluntary redundancies within our recent change process, designed to make sure we are operating efficiently and effectively, and within budget.
The pay gap for Māori was 4.2% (a 2.2% decrease from the previous year).
Efforts to close the pay gaps have focused on:
- introducing career and pay progression
- continuing to remove unconscious bias in career and pay-related processes
- undertaking line-by-line pay reviews (like-for-like roles)
- developing tools to support pay decisions. For example, recruitment guidelines, pay restraint guidelines and a remuneration comparator tool have been introduced to help people leaders make more informed decisions around pay and the implications for pay equity.
For more information about what we are doing to close gender and ethnic pay gaps, see appendix 8 of the PDF version of the Annual Report
MBIE’s Kia Toipoto – Pay Gaps Action Plan and Diversity and Inclusion Plan will be posted on its website by 15 November 2024.