Concern high number of police ambivalent about their jobs

The findings of the NZ Police Workplace Survey 2015 have been released. Photo / File

The number of New Zealand Police feeling "meh" about their jobs is alarming, says an employment expert.

Published today, the findings of the NZ Police Workplace Survey 2015 showed nearly three quarters of the police force were either "disengaged" or "ambivalent" towards their job.

However, Police Deputy Chief Executive of People Fiona Michel said the report showed police performed well against the state sector benchmark and work was underway to improve "how we value people's contributions".

The sixth annual survey showed 15.3 per cent of police employees were disengaged with their jobs and 58.3 per cent were ambivalent - up from 14.1 per cent disengaged in 2014 and on par with the 58.4 per cent who were ambivalent last year.

Employment specialist Tom O'Neil, of cv.co.nz, said that was an extremely high number and should be a concern for the sector.

"Almost 60 percent are just ambivalent about their role and for me that's a really sad indictment - if I am ambivalent, I am not engaged.

"As New Zealanders we tend to be very proud of our police overall - they are very well respected in New Zealand and it's just a real shame that there is such a high level of the force that are kind of 'meh' about their jobs.

"These people change lives for the good every single day, without them as a country we'd be stuffed so I was quite surprised because these people are really making life-changing decisions every single day."

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said the results showed how a stagnant police budget was putting pressure on staff.

"With resourcing, people are working much harder and those constrictions are starting to show.

"My experience with police officers is they think they are doing a job for public and they tend to be engaged if they think they are doing a good job, so it just goes to show the effect it has when you get to work and aren't able to do the job you want to do."

Mr O'Neil said the police scored better than other state sectors, but there obvious issues that needed to be addressed.

For example, high satisfaction amongst younger staff dropped off after two years of service, from 44.8 per cent engaged to 24.4 per cent, and was not buoyed again until 20 years of service, where it was 28.3 per cent.

"What has happened that's changed how they feel? [Police] should be asking, 'What are we giving them, are we supporting them, is there a culture issue?"'

Ms Michel said: "It is not unusual for there to be a wide spread of results amongst a large workforce in a complex organisation such as police and overall [the results] show a picture of a high performing organisation."

She said new staff losing enthusiasm applied "in any large organisation after four years, not just police".

"The low turnover of staff compared with other state sector agencies tells us that the overwhelming majority of staff enjoy their work."

Pockets of high satisfaction in Auckland City and Counties Manukau were promising, as was the high levels amongst Maori and Pasifika employees, said Mr O'Neil.

Mr O'Connor said satisfaction was higher in those areas because they had received more staffing than other regions.

The survey had a response rate of 69.1 per cent, or 8361 staff members, down from 73 per cent in 2014.