Agency / Sector Workforce Strategies
Workforce Strategies are strategic documents showing alignment between an agency's (or sector's) workforce planning and its Four-year Budget Plan, operating model and business strategies.
UPDATE: Workforce strategies are due from a number of first tranche agencies in January 2012, alongside their Four-year Budget Plans. Workforce Strategy Guidance has now been released to help these (and all subsequent) agencies develop appropriate strategies. For the Workforce Strategy Guidance and other resources, go to the Related Resources section at the bottom of this page.
Overview
Workforce Strategy development will add value for individual agencies as well as the State Sector as a whole. The aim is to help agencies plan for the workforce they need to deliver better results, now and in ths future, for New Zealanders and the Government of the day.
Workforce strategies will build on the business strategy and planning work most agencies already have carried out to reflect their thinking about new and better ways to deliver public services. The intent is to ensure agencies have considered the workforce implications arising out of these strategies and that existing workforce related strategies are consolidated and key drivers highlighted.
Workforce Strategy timeframes may vary across agencies but will cover a minimum of four years and align with Four-year Budget Plans. Workforce Strategies should support delivery of better, smarter, sustainable public services and reflect best practice public management.
An illustration of how strategy, planning and Budget documents relate to each other can be seen in Annex 1 of Treasury Circular 2011/11, Responding to the Policy Expenditure Review: Guidance on Requirements for Policy Work Programmes and Reporting to Ministers, attached here. (See the full Circular at www.treasury.govt.nz/statesector/policyexpenditurereview)
Support
The State Services Commission (SSC) has led the development of guidance to help agencies develop their Workforce Strategies, including a variety of tools that can be used during the process. Most of these resources can be found on this page. The SSC Workforce Strategy team is available to assist agencies with the guidance, and to provide advice on Workforce Strategies as these are developed.
When Workforce Strategies are submitted, SSC will work with agencies to identify and respond to cross-sector and whole of system workforce issues. There is also potential for improving the overall workforce capability of the system, through brokering links between agencies with complementary skill sets. This work aligns with the Performance Improvement Framework (PIF) lines of enquiry and the two processes are intended to be mutually reinforcing.
If you have any further questions please contact the SSC Workforce Strategy team at workforcestrategies@ssc.govt.nz.
