Our progress and our plan for 2021-2022

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Our aim for the 2021-22 Action Plan is to continue to build on progress already made in previous years, with a specific focus on longer-term solutions that begin to address vertical and occupational segregation for our Māori, Pacific and Asian employees, especially Māori, Pacific and Asian female employees.

Our focus areas continue to be:

In previous years, we have included an extra focus area on ‘Reporting and communication’, however, we have chosen this year to instead weave actions that relate to reporting and communication into all five focus areas above.

Equal pay

What we want to achieve	We will ensure all employees are recognised and rewarded fairly regardless of gender, age or ethnicity. We will be open and transparent about our progress and seek feedback and ideas from our diverse workforce.
What we achieved in 2020-21	Our agency-wide GPG reduced from 12.2% at 30 June 2020 to 9.9% at 30 June 2021. In the quarter to 31 December 2020, MSD completed a review of remuneration for all employees to ensure gender was not a factor in salaries for similar roles. As a result, 25 of 8,638 employees reviewed received an adjustment, representing less than 0.3% of our workforce. Work continued during 2020/21 on the design, planning and transition to a new pay and progression framework for staff roles in MSD. Implemented on 10 June 2021, the new framework has been designed to ensure gender and ethnicity are not factors in salaries for similar roles. Following the publication in April 2021 of Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commision guidance on measuring Māori and ethnic pay gaps, we started investigating the combination of ethnic and gender pay gaps. We started Tamaita’i Toa in partnership with Te Kawa Mataaho, an initiative that aims to improve equity for Pacific women in MSD by providing insights on pay equity, experiences and aspirations of Pacific women, and recommendations in relation to these insights. We engaged with over 100 of our Pacific women at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch fono and will use the high-level themes to identify further areas of work. We provided quarterly updates to MSD’s Organisational Health Committee on our gender and ethnic pay gap progress. We updated and enhanced the information on our intranet regarding the gender pay gap and our remuneration approach to help increase our people’s understanding. We provided regular updates to the PSA and our Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group on gender pay gap actions.
Our plan for 2021-22	We will monitor and review progress toward reducing our gender and ethnic pay gaps and addressing the drivers. We will widen the scope of our 2022-23 Gender and Ethnic Pay Gap Action Plan to include the MELAA, Other Ethnic Group, and European ethnic groupings. We will widen the scope of our starting salary monitoring to look at demographics such as ethnicity and disability cumulatively from 1 July 2021, reporting on this on a quarterly basis, identifying actions to address any pay gaps that may arise. We will implement starting salary guidance by October 2021. We will review Higher and Special Duties Allowance guidance, and other remuneration guidance, by October 2021. We will develop a new fit-for-purpose pay and progression framework for Managers and Senior Specialists. We will work with MSD’s Procurement team, to include a statement of expectation in supplier contracts showing their commitment to achieving a working environment free from gender and ethnic based inequalities. We will review and assess the impact and flow on effects of pay equity claim outcomes. We will continue to provide quarterly updates to the Organisational Health Committee on our gender and ethnic pay gaps through the People Quarterly Report. We will continue to provide regular updates to the PSA and Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group about gender and ethnic pay gap actions.

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Flexible work

What we want to achieve	We will continue to support flexible working options that work for MSD, the team and individuals as a key enabler of employee attraction, retention, engagement, career development, productivity and business continuity planning. Within MSD, flexible working options include different work hours, leave patterns, location of work or flexibility within a role. Flexible working enables people to continue working while also caring for family.
What we achieved in 2020-21	We defined what flexible looks like at MSD and the options available for different roles, operating environments, and those with different needs. We identified and implemented tools and practices to support flexible working. We released our Flexible Working Policy and supporting Guidelines for managers and employees in December 2020, aligned to Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission flexible-work-by-default guidance. Guidance included options around flexi-time, flexi-leave, flexi-place and flexi-role/career, giving clarity to managers and employees around meeting the operational needs of the organisation, the team and individuals’ needs. We released our Remote Working Policy and supporting Manager’s Guide and Employee Guide in December 2020, to support employees with long-term arrangements working at a location other than an MSD-site. We engaged with managers and employees to build awareness and understanding of flexible working options and how to support these to be successful. We implemented system changes to record flexible working arrangements in myHR. We supported the implementation of different flexible working practices in various teams.
Our plan for 2021-22	We will continue to monitor the uptake of flexible working at MSD. We will identify opportunities for improvement, such as further learning and support to leaders around managing performance and wellbeing when working flexibly. We will continue to build awareness and understanding about the different types of flexible working and the benefits of working flexibly for our people and the organisation.

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People practices

What we want to achieve	We will address and mitigate bias or discrimination in remuneration systems and human resources practices to ensure there is no bias in recruitment, remuneration and employment practices contributing to gender and ethnic pay gaps.
What we achieved in 2020-21	We refreshed our recruitment policy to minimise potential for bias, including guidance for hiring managers to ensure recruitment panels demonstrate diversity of thinking, gender, ethnicity and our commitment to Māori. We added a statement in our recruitment advertisements showing our commitment to being a diverse and inclusive organisation. We engaged with the GPG Taskforce guidance on remuneration in designing our new Pay and Progression framework for staff, implemented on 10 June 2021. We worked with the PSA to develop policies, procedures and guidance to support our new Pay and Progression framework. Through the new Pay and Progression framework, we now ensure people who take parental leave are eligible for an annual progression regardless of whether they were at work within the previous 12 months. We began work to develop a new Manager and Senior Specialist pay and progression framework. We delivered unconscious bias e-learning to MSD leaders and staff and over 90% of managers and 80% of staff completed the modules.
Our plan for 2021-22	We will review and identify actions to ensure that our HR policies and practices are in line with Taskforce guidance on remuneration, recruitment and career breaks, progression, and leave. We will develop a new fit-for-purpose pay and progression framework for Managers and Senior Specialists. We will work with the PSA to develop supporting policies, procedures and guidance for the Managers and Senior Specialists pay and progression framework in line with the Taskforce guidance on remuneration. We will investigate options to publish salary ranges by default in recruitment advertisements. We will continue to promote unconscious bias learning to all staff and leaders, including those who join MSD. We will continue to build manager’s capability in recruitment practices.

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Balanced leadership

What we want to achieve	We will maintain at least 50% women in leadership in our top three tiers and achieve greater ethnic representation in leadership through targeted development. This is important because our pay gaps are largely due to vertical and occupational segregation, such that our employees who are women, Māori, Pacific and Asian are more highly represented in lower paid roles and less represented in higher paid roles.
What we achieved in 2020-21	We maintained 50% female leadership in our top three tiers. We implemented the MSD Mentoring Programme in partnership with MSD’s Women’s Network and Leo Tanoa, an Auckland-based Pacific network. We designed a marae-based leadership programme incorporating Te Ao Māori at its core. We made the application processes for development awards and programmes more accessible to employees from under-represented communities by actively promoting them to our employee-led networks, Māori Leaders Forum, and Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group. We implemented Te ara piki, a new capability and development framework designed to empower our people to focus on their development pathways, focusing on the skills they want to develop and grow. We updated talent and succession guidelines, tools, and resources to support development and career conversations in line with Te ara piki. We supported senior leadership teams to identify their critical roles and critical talent and develop deliberate succession and development plans for these roles and people.
Our plan for 2021-22	We will expand the MSD Mentoring Programme through targeted partnering with a Māori employee-led network (Whitireira) and testing with the existing Policy graduate programme. We will create and offer e-learning modules for mentors and mentees showcasing interviews with participants from the first phase of the mentoring programme, focusing on Pacific employees’ and women’s voices. We will offer the MSD Mentoring Programme agency-wide in 2022, working with a further group of interested parties including regions, employee-led networks and workstreams, and creating a toolkit for groups and networks to access. We will deliver group-based coaching and reflective practice with employee-led networks and targeted cohorts of employees and leaders. We will establish communities of practice across MSD for leaders, mentors/mentees and other groups, to support each other and share experiences. We will implement our marae-based leadership programme within a selected region, engaging with local marae and providers. We will continue to work proactively with our employee-led networks, to encourage more gender and ethnic representation on our leadership development, scholarship and awards programmes. We will support our senior leadership teams to actively develop diverse talent pipelines and potential senior leadership successors.

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Diversity and inclusion

What we want to achieve	We will be a trusted and proactive organisation that demonstrates manaaki for clients and employees in a way that reflects, understands, values and enables people, their whānau and communities. Having a diverse and inclusive workplace will help meet the needs and aspirations of all our people, so they can thrive and meet the needs of our clients and communities.
What we achieved in 2020-21	We published a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan aligning actions to the Papa Pounamu Public Service diversity and inclusion priorities. We consulted regularly with our Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group on programmes and initiatives to drive the understanding and acceptance of the benefits of creating a diverse and inclusive working environment. We invited representatives from our employee-led networks to join our Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group to raise network visibility and to ensure the voices of our networks are heard. We ran a series of engagement sessions with leaders across sites about our approach to diversity and inclusion including gender and ethnic pay gaps. We developed and implemented a Reasonable Accommodation in Employment Policy and associated guidance to support equal participation in the workplace. We established an Accessibility Management Team led by the DCE People and Capability made up of senior leaders from Service Delivery (digital), Communications and Engagement, People Group, Property, IT, Information Group and Health Safety and Security to champion building accessibility into initiatives from the start, so that accessibility becomes business as usual. We partnered with Carers NZ to become a CareWise agency providing information and resources to our employees with carer responsibilities, committing to be a ‘carer friendly’ organisation. We made a financial investment in our employee-led networks through our wellbeing programme Pā Harakeke, recognising their importance for employee wellbeing. We engaged in talanoa with over 100 of our Pacific women at our bi-annual Pacific fono in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, acknowledging the wealth of talent, influence and experience these women wield outside of MSD, drawing out their moemoeā (dream, vision) for Pacific women, and discussing solutions, enablers and barriers to their vision.
Our plan for 2021-22	We will provide inclusive leadership and cultural capability learning and resources to our leaders and staff to build capability and confidence in working respectfully with people from different cultures and communities. We will make recommendations based on the voices of our Pacific women through talanoa for the Tamaita’i Toa initiative and will develop a plan to implement approved recommendations. We will continue to partner with our existing employee-led networks and support new networks to emerge. We will encourage our employees to update their personal identity details in myHR. We will include gender diverse people in HR reporting and gender pay gap figures going forward, where possible. We will develop gender transitioning-at-work guidance using existing resources and appropriate expertise. We will continue to consult regularly with our Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group.