Nearly 95% of staff at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities typically work from home at least one day a week, with more than 40% working away from the office between three and five days.
The data has been revealed by the Public Service Commission (PSC) as part of a first-of-its-kind survey of work-from-home arrangements across different departments and agencies.
The survey was commissioned by then-public services minister Nicola Willis, who in September said she wanted the PSC to collect the information to allow for easy comparison between agencies. The Government released guidance at the time, saying workers should be in the office unless they have specific agreements.
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said the data, collected from the survey carried out in October and November, gave “agencies and managers more visibility over working from home arrangements”.
“The data helps us to be more transparent and accountable. My expectation is that agencies will continue to monitor the arrangements against the updated guidance, which reflects the Government’s expectations.”
An overview of the data showed 55% of public servants do not typically work from home or only do so infrequently, while 33% work from home typically between one or two days a week. Averaged across all public servants, the number of days typically worked from home is 0.9 a week, with the most common day being Friday.
Digging into the data, the survey revealed 10.6% typically work from home one day a week, 22.2% do so two days a week, 6.9% three days a week, 1.6% four days a week, and 1.4% five days a week. There is 2.7% considered remote workers, while the rest work from home never or infrequently.
A breakdown by department is also provided, with the Ministry for Ethnic Communities having the highest percentage of workers who typically work from home between one and five days a week at 93.5%.
It’s followed by the Independent Child’s Monitor at 86.2%, the Serious Fraud Office at 81.8%, the Inland Revenue Department at 80.2% and the Cancer Control Agency at 79.7%.
The average number of work-from-home days for staff at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities is 2.2, followed by 1.8 at Land Information NZ, 1.7 at Statistics NZ, 1.7 at the Inland Revenue Department and 1.6 at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Looking specifically at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the data shows 6.5% of its workforce never works from home. About 19.4% of staff there work from home typically one a day week, 30.6% two days a week, 35.5% three days a week, 4.8% work from home four days a week, and 3.2% work from home five days a week.
Fleur Murray, deputy chief executive, corporate services at the ministry, said it was a small agency of 62 FTE employees. She noted that the 35% of staff working from home 3 days a week equated to 21 people.
“We are committed to delivering high-quality outcomes for the Government and New Zealand’s ethnic communities.
“Our working-from-home (WFH) data needs to be seen in the context of our scale and how we work with communities to achieve results.”
The nature of the ministry’s work, including attending community engagements and functions, also requires a flexible framework for employees, Murray said. A lot of this work happens in the weekend or in evenings.
“We consistently meet our performance targets. Our hybrid working conditions have worked well. It has enhanced our productivity and attracted calibre staff.
“We have always complied with the Public Service Commission guidelines. We are reviewing our practices to align with updated guidelines and will report on this as required.”
Statistics NZ has the lowest rate of workers who never work from home at 4.2%, but it has a large portion of “remote workers” at 24.7%.
Perhaps unsurprisingly due to the nature of its work, the Security Intelligence Service has the lowest rate of staff working from home. Just 10.3% of its staff work from home between one and five days a week.
The PSC itself has 62.2% of staff who work from home between one and five days a week. Just 29.3% of its staff never work from home.
The most common day for working from home is Friday (23%), followed by Monday (18.4%), Thursday (17.2%), Tuesday (16.1%), and then Wednesday (15.5%).
The Public Service Association — not to be confused with the PSC which released the data — said the survey showed working from home arrangements were not as big of a problem as had been made out.
“The Government’s appalling attack on public servants working from home has been exposed for what it really is — a flimsy attempt to deflect from its own decisions to axe thousands of workers,” acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said.
Last year, Willis and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the Government wanted to see more public servants back in their place of work and were setting the expectation that working from home arrangements were “not an entitlement” and should only be agreed where they didn’t compromise performance, and agencies should monitor their use.
The Herald, however, found the PSC’s guidance at the time was already that “hybrid work is not an entitlement” and wasn’t available to all public servants.
Willis told the Herald 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”.
Judith Collins has since been made the Public Service Minister.
The full data can be found here.
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.