Employment relationships

Transcription

1 Employment relationships Published 18 April 2016 Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) was set up in March 2011 to lead and coordinate the recovery of greater Christchurch after the devastating earthquake sequence that began in September CERA began as a small, agile organisation and grew over time in response to its expanding work programme. Throughout its existence, CERA used a mixture of secondments, contractors/consultants, temporary staff and fixed term employment agreements to meet its staffing requirements. Given the agency s five-year lifespan, no permanent offers of employment were made. The longest fixed-term employment agreements were put in place until 18 April 2016 when CERA ended. For the first 12 months, CERA relied heavily on temporary workers, secondees and contractors. As robust human resources processes and systems were developed, fixed term employment agreements became the norm. In the final six months, CERA s recruitment strategy was revised as short-term opportunities became less attractive for potential candidates. As in the early days, contractors, consultants, secondees and temporary workers plugged the gaps. 1

2 Secondments CERA s main source of secondments were government departments (particularly those with Christchurch-based staff) and local authorities. Secondees were brought in to provide specific skills like information technology, human resources and knowledge of local government. Some were redeployed when regional offices were shut down after the earthquakes. Inland Revenue Department case managers, for example, transferred their skills to managing property owners claims for CERA. Still others came for development or leadership opportunities. Most secondments lasted 6-12 months although some went on for years. Secondees were a good way to make things happen quickly in an uncertain environment. They brought experience, systems and ready-made networks without long-term responsibility. Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu (TRoNT) secondees, for example, were brought in to provide a connection to TRoNT and assist with enabling a local iwi viewpoint to be included in the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan and other planning initiatives. Secondments fostered relationships between both parties. It is important to recognise that a recovery authority may be not seen as liberators but as invaders by local government, non-government organisations, community organisations, other government departments. Secondments are useful ways to work collaboratively for the affected community, as well as break down barriers between organisations, bring in vital local knowledge, support knowledge transfer between all parties, and provide seconded staff with the opportunity to experience a change in work style and environment. However, while long secondments provided continuity and a foot in two camps, people could be restructured out of their original organisation or lose connection with it. This put unintentional responsibility on CERA to continue to employ them, regardless of their suitability for on-going work with CERA. Contractors/consultants Initially, much of CERA s work was done by an array of contractors and consultants, from engineers and demolition experts to legal, financial, planning, policy and media advisors. CERA s 2011/2012 Financial Review lists 39 pages of contracts, ranging from a few hundred dollars for communications advice or a traffic management plan to nearly $9m to Mainzeal Construction Ltd. 1 Consultants were usually based outside the organisation while contractors tended to be project-based or worked within CERA offices. Both groups provided specialist and technical expertise that could be brought in as required without the long-term investment or responsibility involved in employing someone. The Economic Recovery team turned to contractors when they couldn t find a suitable senior economist to join the team. We didn t want a text book economist who was going to use classical economic theory because we needed somebody pragmatic that had an action orientation. We ended up employing shortterm contractors because we could be buying the knowledge or expertise that we needed in smaller slices and for shorter periods of time. We found that more effective. On the other hand, the transience of contractors across CERA could impede the capture and storage of information. Sometimes processes and tools weren t adhered to or documents were saved on contractors own laptops and not in the CERA document management system. I don t know how many contractors cycled in and out, I often just felt like I ve got to start from scratch with somebody new. We didn t have a proper document management system early on, so 1 Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority 2011/12 Financial Review 2

3 a lot of stuff was in my head or in my inbox. I think there s value in continuity and it felt like it was just chance that I was someone who was there over that period of time. The money spent on contractors and consultants was also controversial, both inside and outside the organisation. Some consultant costs were high, despite being procured openly and in accordance with government rules of sourcing. The costs of these consultants needs to be carefully managed as project budgets cannot sustain high external costs for the entire lifecycle. Getting the balance right is critical. Some CERA staff defend the cost of contractors. We needed to pay architects at architects rates, we needed to pay accountants at accountants rates, we needed to pay specialists. But there was never an understanding of the level of expertise and what that would cost us and it was never that well-managed, so people were made to feel very uncomfortable being contractors in there for too long, which was quite sad. There were other dangers. To manage a consultant well, you need to have enough expertise in-house to commission the work properly and understand it, chief executive, John Ombler says. This was not always the case, making it difficult to manage contractors and oversee their work. 3

4 Temporary staff To meet urgent demands in the early days, CERA employed a number of temporary workers, particularly in communications and administration. Enlisting the help of recruitment agencies to secure temporary staff was an effective way of engaging resource quickly and gave managers time to determine which positions should be longer-term. Employing temporary staff to service CERA s call centre was a good, quick solution. However, for some it went on for too long. After I d been there for six months, I was beginning to think why am I still temporary? Obviously, they like me and I m doing a job that they re thinking is okay. Staff on short fixed-term contracts that were rolled over a number of times expressed similar concerns. Initially, agency fees made temporary staff an expensive option. Different pay rates for staff doing the same work from different agencies also created some tensions within teams. This changed when all-of-government recruitment providers were chosen and rates became more consistent in Overall, however CERA s use of temporary staff was low, increasing from three to 13 in the 2011/2012 financial year. 2 Fixed term employment agreements As CERA became clearer about its work, roles and responsibilities, the number of fixed-term employment agreements increased. This provided greater stability for the organisation and more certainty for staff. It was also more cost-effective than consultants and contractors. CERA generally paid well to attract skilled staff at short notice who were prepared to work and live in a city badly affected by earthquakes and aftershocks. It had to compensate them to leave secure, permanent roles for limited fixed term contracts. Competing for staff in the private sector, which traditionally pays better than the public sector, also drove salaries upwards in some cases. According to the 2014 SSC survey of state services 3, the average salary paid at CERA was over $100,000, $32,000 higher than the average public service salary, placing it sixth on a list of 28 public sector agencies. A year later, CERA s average salary had risen to almost $110,000 a year, placing it fourth among public sector agencies, behind the State Services Commission, Treasury and the Serious Fraud Office. 4 On the other hand, chief executive Roger Sutton took a $200,000 pay cut (from $700,000 to $500,000) in 2011 when he left the private sector to work for CERA. CERA s culture and engagement survey shows that in 2013, 75 per cent of staff believed the pay and benefits they received were fair, declining to 67 per cent in However, only a minority believed the organisation rewarded outstanding performance. 2 Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority 2011/12 Financial Review 3 SSC Human Resource Capability Survey in the New Zealand State Services SSC Human Resource Capability Survey in the New Zealand State Services

5 CERA S EMPLOYMENT RELATONSHIPS CERA offered a variety of employment relationships, including secondments, contractors and consultants, temporary staff and fixed-term employment agreements. Below are the pros and cons of each. Employment relationship Pros Cons Secondments Instant experience, systems and support, especially from central and local government Flexibility without long-term responsibility Fostered relationships between CERA and other government and community organisations Contractors/consultants Essential specialist and technical expertise Flexibility without long-term investment Fostered relationships with private sector Disruptive if too many people coming and going Potential lack of long-term commitment to CERA Divided loyalties Possible loss of connection to home organisation Responsibility to employ secondee if their position was disestablished at their home organisation Expensive Disruptive if too many people coming and going Potential lack of long-term commitment to CERA Possible private sector ignorance of, or resistance to, public sector processes Require skilled contract management Potential loss of intellectual property Temporary staff Enabled outside agencies to assist with recruitment Quick solution for short-term, urgent support functions Gave breathing space to determine long-term roles Lack of job certainty Lack of commitment to CERA Temporary staff receiving different rates of pay for doing the same work, depending on which agency employed them Fixed-term employment agreements Stability for CERA Certainty for staff Long-term commitment More cost-effective Obligation to adhere to employment legislation when restructuring Responsibility to employ staff for set period, regardless of need 5

6 How were staff recruited? By late 2011, CERA s human resources team had set up a website to advertise and manage all vacancies. This made it easier to track applications, interact with candidates, handle the recruitment process and collect statistics. Vacancies were advertised on the CERA jobs website, the Government Jobs website, and New Zealand s top employment site, SEEK. Linked In, a professional networking service, was also used. Most applicants came from within New Zealand. A few were from overseas: Kiwis drawn home by the desire to help and foreigners lured by the unique opportunity to work in disaster recovery. Shoulder-tapping As well as advertising through conventional channels, shoulder-tapping was common. New managers often brought staff over from their former organisations. Specialists scanned their existing networks for suitable people. When the Significant Buildings Unit was set up in 2011, the lead engineer and a colleague handpicked their team. The majority were out of town because the local engineers were tied up with their own personal issues, had their own businesses and their own clients. Through our own contacts mine in Wellington and the other lead engineer, who also had various connections, both national and international, with the company that he was contracted in from we were able to pick engineers that had the relevant skills and experience in multi-storey buildings of various construction types that we wanted. Shoulder-tapping sometimes produced mixed results. In 2011, an information services professional was shoulder-tapped by a CERA contractor to assist with defining and establishing the information services function, as were others in the interim team. There have been times when they created additional workload for me in terms of picking up work that wasn t quite done the way that you would expect a typical business analyst or project manager to do. If you were assessing them against the market you probably wouldn t have selected them. Conversely we had some really good people come in who we ve had come back and come back because they are really good at their job. Employee referral scheme Following CERA s July 2013 restructure which required an intensive recruitment drive for 189 new positions, CERA formalised shoulder-tapping in a scheme that rewarded existing employees who successfully referred new staff. The employee referral scheme was active from September 2013 to September Existing employees were encouraged to refer external candidates for advertised fixed term or secondment roles of six months or more. Applying candidates would note on their online application that they were referred by a current CERA staff member. CERA employees were also offered cards with details of CERA s recruitment process to hand out to interested individuals. The scheme was promoted by announcing successful referrals, placing information on the staff intranet, and encouraging managers to remind staff about it. We didn t have a lot of time to go out and tap into talent pools proactively, so it was a way to get our own staff who were engaged with the work in the organisation to go and do that for us. Rather than having three recruiters, we had 100 or 200 recruiters out there doing that for us. At the end of the day it s a far cheaper option utilising your employees in that way rather than a recruitment agency that could be costing you five to ten thousand dollars per placement. It s a better way, and those people know more about the organisation, how it ticks, than a recruitment agency. 6

7 If the referred candidate was successful, the referring CERA employee could choose a reward, such as one month s free car parking, a $100 gift card or lunch with the chief executive. In implementing the scheme, CERA was careful to manage potential conflicts of interest. Hiring managers were not permitted to refer a potential candidate for their team, and reward values were limited to $100 or less. Referred candidates were subject to the same appointment process as those who applied independently. As with any candidate, potential conflicts of interest had to be declared and entered into a conflict of interest register. Throughout CERA s life, 69 new staff indicated on their application form that they had been referred by existing staff. However, most of this number were employed outside the formal scheme time period. This suggests that staff were already motivated to refer people they thought were suitable to work in the agency and that informal referrals, without a reward system, were equally effective in recruiting staff. Lessons identified CERA recommends that a disaster recovery organisation: Sets up a dedicated jobs website as soon as possible to advertise vacancies, and continues to use external websites. Considers short-term contracts with the ability for extension while roles are being formalised but notes that this may compromise staff commitment. Shoulder-taps people to bring in essential skills quickly, but is aware that, without robust recruitment processes, they may not be a good fit for the job. Asks existing employees to refer suitable applicants during major recruitment drives. Ensure normal recruitment processes are followed for all applicants and conflicts of interest are avoided. Consider rewarding successful referrals with small gifts that stand up to scrutiny. Staff are likely to refer people they know, regardless of personal rewards. NOTE: This report includes quotes from some of the more than 130 CERA staff interviewed as part of CERA s recovery lessons and legacy project. Quotes are intended to capture personal perspectives and insights. However, they have been chosen because they reflect the views of a number of staff or provide specialist knowledge about different aspects of the agency. All individuals named and quoted have given their approval. 7