Statement of Intent 2008-11: Part three - Strategic overview
Continually invest in our people and the tools to deliver our future outcomes
To improve voluntary compliance our people need to be engaged, professional, responsive and adaptable in delivering services. They also need the right tools and infrastructure. Over time this will help us to become a flexible, technologically smart and effective organisation.
Investing in our people
We operate in a competitive market for technical and professional skills and we need to focus on developing these skills in our people.
Building an engaged workforce will help our people meet the needs of our customers and improve voluntary compliance. In our third Gallup engagement survey (conducted in December 2007) we recorded an improved score of 3.83 out of 5 (2006: 3.75). This result was achieved while Inland Revenue was undergoing organisational change and dealing with increased demand for services. Our aim is to be in the top 25% of all organisations using the engagement survey.
To be effective and efficient in delivering services to our customers and to promote compliance, our people need to have:
- the necessary technical, managerial and professional skills
- strong leadership.
To help us achieve these, we are continuing to develop our learning and development framework, refreshing our tax technical training framework and improving our performance management practices. We are also developing our leadership focus and capability through our leadership framework. This framework integrates performance management, development opportunities, succession planning and career management.
One approach to changing business needs is planning for our future workforce. Last year, we successfully piloted a new workforce planning methodology in the Office of the Chief Tax Counsel. The new methodology will enable us to better understand and plan for future workforce demands across Inland Revenue.
Pay and employment equity review
In 2006-07 we completed our pay and employment equity review. Our report and response plan were delivered to the State Services Commission and the Department of Labour at the end of October 2007. We are about to start implementing the response plan recommendations.
We have established a monitoring group with Public Service Association and Taxpro representatives to give feedback and monitor progress against the response plan recommendations. We are also preparing briefs for each of the four projects established to address these recommendations. We expect to complete the four projects by June 2009. We have also committed to reviewing progress and commencing our second pay and employment equity review in June 2010.
Investing in our tools and infrastructure
To build an agile organisation our people need to be equipped with the right tools to do their work. This includes having easy access to information and efficient and effective systems and processes. Our ability to achieve these relies on having the right technology platform and supporting infrastructure.
Our most significant infrastructure challenge is the need to modernise our ageing core processing platform (FIRST) into an easy-to-use, flexible and open technology platform. This will enable us to implement new programmes quickly, support the promotion and development of e-services and improve the cost-effectiveness of our IT infrastructure.
Our technology systems are the foundation for our processing and e-service delivery capability. They manage and support:
- tax and social policy administration (including student loan and KiwiSaver systems)
- our bulk processing functions (return and payment processing)
- delivery of e-services, making it easy and convenient for customers to interact with us.
We also need to plan for our future accommodation needs. Our new Christchurch building is now in use and the building of a new office block, which will accommodate most of our Wellington staff in one location, is under way. Design and fitout work will follow in 2008-09 to prepare for occupation in 2010-11.
Departmental capital intentions
Our planning methodology incorporates ways of identifying and aligning future capital intentions with our need to invest in tools and infrastructure. We have recognised three key components of these future capital intentions:
- maintaining our current asset base-we will continue to reinvest in our current asset base. This includes replacements and enhancements to our IT systems, leasehold improvements, computers, motor vehicles, furniture and equipment.
- investing for the future-as part of our strategic planning processes we are developing future capital investment strategies under a portfolio approach. Our key area of focus will be investigating options for significant investment in the tax system and related business processes, including options for the FIRST platform. A mixture of internal funding and significant government investment will be required to deliver these initiatives. Business cases will be developed under the government's capital asset management framework.
- delivering government initiatives-many of the initiatives Inland Revenue delivers for the government, such as KiwiSaver, require investment in technology and systems. Some of these investments enhance FIRST (see above), and others require new developments or customisation of third party software. In 2008-09 we will continue system changes associated with KiwiSaver and the Business Tax Review.
Date published: 30 Jun 2008
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