Here's how Wairarapa Times-Age reporters have adapted to working from home.
Nicola Willis stated that working from home is not an entitlement and must align with performance.
The Public Service Commission’s guidance is being revised to ensure consistent application across agencies.
Duane Leo from the Public Service Association believes the minister’s expectations are based on assumptions.
Nicola Willis was advised public service guidance already made clear that working from home arrangements were “not an entitlement” prior to her and the Prime Minister’s edict that public servants should return to the office where they can.
The Public Services Minister told the Herald on Monday that while that guidance may have already been there “in theory”, having the Prime Minister “making that expectation clear often has more impact than something sitting in a guideline at the back of a government website”.
Willis and the Prime Minister last month held a press conference saying the Government wanted to see more public servants back in their place of work and that it had new expectations for the Public Service Commission (PSC) to communicate to chief executives.
The expectations were that working from home arrangements were “not an entitlement”, they should only be agreed where they didn’t compromise performance, and agencies should monitor their use.
However, advice received by Willis in August, and published on Monday, said the PSC’s current guidance already made clear “hybrid work is not an entitlement” and isn’t available to all employees.
“It is an agreement between the staff member and their employer and must align with delivery outcomes for the organisation, the team and the individual,” the advice said.
Asked why there was need for the new expectations when the guidance already existed, Willis told the Herald it was “perceived” there was “potentially a disconnect” between the guidance and what was being done in practice.
“We thought it was a good opportunity to refresh the approach by taking an active step to ensure the working from home policy was fit for purpose, but also making clear the Government’s expectations,” she said.
“We’re conscious of the fact that the Prime Minister making that expectation clear often has more impact than something sitting in a guideline at the back of a government website.”
Public Service Minister Nicola Willis. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The current hybrid working guidance, described as being “based on the latest international research”, was published in 2022 to move beyond “ad hoc and reactive approaches” developed during the Covid-19 response. Agencies aren’t required to develop a hybrid working policy, but, if they do, the policy is meant to be informed by the guidance.
Willis said that guidance and the separate flexible-by-default guidelines were being combined and clarified to be “really clear and simple” and so public agencies are “consistently applying” them.
“It’s one thing to have guidelines in theory, it’s another thing to have them being followed in practice,” she said.
The PSC is currently drafting that new guidance, which the minister will see before the end of the year. It’s expected to be published early next year along with new data about the prevalence of working-from-home arrangements.
The advice received by Willis also listed a “number of benefits” of working from home, including regarding individual productivity and workplace savings from needing less office space.
It referenced a 2024 University of Sydney study which found employees and employers reported working from home arrangements “had improved productivity rather than made it worse”.
“One in five workers reported working from home made them ‘a lot more productive’, with only one in 30 saying it had made them ‘a lot less productive’. And, when employers were asked the same question about whether their workers who were working from home were more or less productive, the answers were about the same.”
Willis said on Monday she had always been clear there “were many sensible reasons why public servants work from home” and “our new expectations would not prevent that from happening”.
“Some commentators wrote it up as we are going to be chaining people to their desks, that was never the case.”
She said the Government was, however, “concerned” about inconsistencies in how public agencies approached working from home and a lack of central oversight about how prevalent the practice was.
“By reissuing our expectations, having the Public Service Commission revising the guidelines, and doing that piece of data collection, and we can make sure everyone’s on the same page.”
The report didn’t include a specific section on any disadvantages of working from home, despite ministers voicing concerns that working from home was potentially impacting productivity.
Asked if she got any official advice on any disadvantages of the arrangements, Willis said the Government had observed domestic and international cases of employers reviewing their working-from-home policies and “thought it was appropriate” to do the same.
But Duane Leo, national secretary at the Public Service Association (PSA), said the minister was “out of touch”.
“It seems that the minister had a view and didn’t want to let her ministry’s advice get in the way of it,” he said.
“The minister’s new expectations seem like they’ve been based on anecdotes and assumptions rather than a real understanding of the work public servants do or the value of working from home.”
He said the use of the word “entitlement” in this context wasn’t helpful, as people were entitled to request their employer to change their working arrangements, like place of work.
The PSC’s report provided a number of options for Willis to consider. She expressed interest in reviewing and refreshing the current approach to align with the Government’s Workplace Policy Statement expectation that “there is active management of workforce productivity regardless of work location(s)”.
“This option would provide an opportunity to ensure all benefits of hybrid working could be achieved and that the system settings are tight enough in current fiscal environment.
“It also provides an opportunity for the commission to check-in with chief executives and for new agency policies to be drafted if working in the office more is their preference. It could also provide a further opportunity for the commission to establish a stronger monitoring role across the system.”
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
