Work matters people count

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Our stake in the ground

Work Matters, People Count is our vision. It guides everything that we do to achieve our priorities. We know, across Work and Income, that if we are true to our vision, we are on the right track.

Our values

Our people and the people we work with can rely on our values every working day:

• we put people first
• we team up with others to make a bigger difference
• we act with courage and respect
• we empower others to act
• we create new solutions
• we are ‘can do’, and we deliver
• we honour achievement.

Above all, we do the right thing for New Zealanders.

What we stand for

We respect the expertise of our people, whose clear focus is to make a difference in the lives of New Zealanders. We respect the people we work with and their ability to decide what is best for them. We want people to get a job that lasts. If this is not possible, we want everyone to actively engage in their own community.

What success looks like

We are friendly, efficient, and easy to deal with and everyone has their chance to work or play a part in their community. People like to come to our place – to work or for assistance.

Everything we do is of value for New Zealanders and the Government.

We have simple systems, we use simple language and everyone knows what is going on. Our smart partnerships with employers and Non-Government Organisations mean we work well together and we all achieve. We encourage our staff to be the best they can be. Our people have the skill, capability and energy to deliver. We challenge ourselves to be the best we can be, every day.

Our bottom line

We get people jobs and we pay people income support.

Our strengths

Since 1998, we have shown that change has brought better service for the people we work with and growth for us as an organisation. By embracing change, we have developed resilience. Our strengths are our:

• great people – who work here because they are passionate about the difference they make to the lives of New Zealanders
• integration of employment and income support – we have a strong model which can meet both the income and employment needs of people from entry to exit
• Job Search Service – a 13 week service providing work-focused services and opportunities based on individual need. It is flexible and can respond to the changing economy to ensure that we can retain people in their current job, rapidly return them to work, or ensure they have the best chance to secure a job with a future
• local leadership, relationships and responsiveness – we have strong leaders in 11 regions with sound relationships, as well as the money and the mandate to create local solutions
• distributed network – we are in most towns and our staff are part of every community in New Zealand
• ability to work with all employers – we link employers and jobseekers end to end and we have a workforce focused on working with every size of employer
• agility – we can adapt and deliver, fast. This includes implementing two of the largest social policy projects of our time, achieving the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD and mobilising urgent responses to community shocks
• programmes that get people into jobs – we have been able to quantify the effectiveness of our programmes, particularly:
  • Work for You – a Work for You seminar provides information on the local labour market as well as benefit eligibility and responsibilities
  • Straight to Work – provides employers with employees who are specifically trained to their entry-level requirements to get and keep jobs that turn into careers
  • Enterprise Allowance – is both a subsidy and a grant to help overcome financial hurdles associated with moving into self employment
  • Skill Investment Subsidy – wage subsidy that invests in a job seeker by making a temporary contribution to their wages and training to enable them to access and maintain employment
  • Taskforce Green – is a subsidy that allows participation in project-based work and the development of work habits and general on-the-job skills. This assists with the completion of community or environmental projects that would not otherwise be done
  • Working for Families – is a package designed to help make it easier for people to work and raise a family. It pays extra money to many New Zealanders, including tax credits and childcare costs.

Our outlook for 2012

While we face many challenges over the next four years, we have many strengths. We want to move from good to great, both in what we do and how we do it.

We know that we need to think and deliver differently in today’s environment to meet the needs of the people we work with in tomorrow’s environment.

Our challenge is to:

• meet the needs of New Zealanders in changing times
• transform the qualify of our service
• drive up the efficiency of our delivery

Looking to our future, our areas of strategic focus help us drive our change and they will lead our work. Our focus areas will allow us to retain what we do well while delivering differently to achieve more. They are a mix of longer term effort to transform our business and drive efficiency and shorter term effort to serve people most in need and cope with economic change.