Our Commissioner, Peter Mersi, co-leads Papa Pounamu, the wider Public Service programme for diversity and inclusiveness. Here's an overview of how we're progressing the 5 areas that Papa Pounamu focuses on.
- 706 of our people engaged in learning through Mana Āki this year. 194 people have completed training.
- 897 of our people engaged in learning through Mana Āki in the previous 2 years. 28% completed training.
- 301 of our people engaged in learning to address unconscious bias this year.
- 93% of our workforce has now engaged in unconscious bias learning.
- 228 of our people have engaged with new online learning about rainbow communities.
- 94% of our leaders have completed learning to address unconscious bias.
Employee or people-led networks play a significant role in creating inclusive workplaces. They provide a sense of belonging for our people and often contribute to the attraction and retention of diverse talent.
Inland Revenue has a long history of our people creating networks. We provide central support, including an executive sponsor and funding, for 6 networks through our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
Our people-led networks include:
- Ngā Tūhononga Māori Networks
- Tagata Pasifika Network
- He Toa Takitini Rainbow Network
- Wāhine Tūhono Women's Network
- Diversability Network
- Multicultural Network.
Our networks promote and support the goals and needs of the people they represent—they're often a voice for our people and customers. Across all the networks there is regular communication of language weeks and other cultural celebrations, with real-life stories, to help build everyone's understanding of the different cultures and identities that make up Inland Revenue.
Some examples of the mahi our networks have been leading include:
- Wāhine Tūhono has been hosting a series of speakers on financial wellbeing and literacy.
- He Toa Takitini ran a campaign to increase awareness of the diversity of the Rainbow community and educate our people on how they could be inclusive of the community in the workplace.
- Our Diversability Network is providing critical input and advice into redesigns of our workplaces.
- Employee Led Networks | Te Puna Huihuinga Kaimahi.
- We Enable Us.
- Cross Agency Rainbow NetworkLead Toolkit For Employing Disabled People.
- Government Women's Network Te Aka Wāhine o Aotearoa.
- Government Regulatory Practice Initiative.
Our approach to building Māori cultural capability is through our organisation-wide programme, Māhutonga, which you can read about.
Te whatu i ngā kanoi o te Tiriti o Waitangi me te ao Māori i te Tari Taake
Since May 2021, we've offered the Mana Āki online learning to our teams. It supports learners to reflect on the ways we think about and interact with people from different cultures, either with each other or with our customers.
This year, we've supported leaders to help drive cultural competency learning with their teams and practice basic cultural elements regularly. We'll continue to review and add to our cultural capability learning over time.
"It's not about knowing everything about every culture. It's about having an awareness and opening your mind to different perspectives, asking questions and being able to understand and adapt.
" - Comment from a people leader who did Mana Āki's unconscious bias training with their team this year.
Unconscious bias refers to assumptions in favour of, or against, a thing, person or group when compared to another, which can influence our interactions and decisions.
Inland Revenue recognises that unconscious bias can impact us all and acknowledges the importance of our people understanding it, recognising it and knowing how to address it.
More than 93% of our people and 94% of our leaders have completed online training to build awareness and mitigate unconscious bias. Training is now a mandatory part of induction for new starters, with guidance for leaders to embed the learning into how we work.
We promote inclusive leadership throughout our people practices. This involves addressing bias and building inclusion into equitable pay, career development and progression opportunities.
We provide tools and guidance for leaders to develop their inclusive leadership capability. Leaders either have completed, or are being required to complete, training in areas such as mental health and addressing unconscious bias.
This year, we've also refreshed our recruitment systems and processes to minimise bias for leaders who are hiring.
A key way in which we build and maintain positive relationships is through Whanake, our performance approach. Whanake centres around quality conversations between people and their leaders so that leaders can recognise and understand the unique strengths that people bring to their role.
Our people are regularly invited to share their work experience with their leader - including their experience of wellbeing, what they value from an employer, feelings of inclusion and development needs. This provides valuable insight for people and leaders to use to understand the whole person and strengthen feelings of connection and belonging.