This article is written by Kerri Fergusson, Investigation & Review Manager for Te Kāhui Tātari Ture | Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), New Zealand.

  • The problem: Diversity and equity in the workplace is often talked about in organisations, but many find it hard to develop sustainable goals to be guided by. Diversity and equity is often confused with gender pay, but it is not only about pay.
  • Why it matters: Having a diverse and equitable workplace enhances the employee experience and ensures you are known as a fair and reputable employer, leading to staff retention and higher performance, enhanced wellbeing and individual career success.
  • The solution: To be a champion of diversity and equity, a simple step to success is to start with a plan and be authentic. Including all staff in some way with the process will go a long way to it being a success; if the creation of a plan is a consultative and inclusive experience, it is more likely to be embedded as normal practice in the workplace and be adopted and championed by all.

The primary function of the CCRC — Criminal Cases Review Commission — in New Zealand is to investigate and review convictions and/or sentences (as to whether there has been a miscarriage of justice) and decide whether to refer them to an appeal court. We are only one of four CCRCs in the world and commenced in July 2020. We had our indigenous name (Te Kāhui Tātari Ture) gifted to us by a local tribe from where the office is based in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Kia Toipoto is the New Zealand public service's plan to close gender, Māori, Pacific peoples and ethnic pay gaps. The plan also focuses on accelerating progress for women (Māori and Pacific), along with women from ethnic communities and creating fairer workplaces for all, including people with disabilities and members of the Rainbow community.

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These are areas of the community who have been negatively reflected in workplace statistics across the globe and New Zealand has made a conscious decision to ensure government agencies make significant changes to strengthen workplace diversity, inclusion and cultural competency.

Actioning Kia Toipoto in the CCRC

At the CCRC we developed our own action plan which was linked to the government strategy. We included staff in the consultation and development of the plan, which aims to achieve and embed each of the milestones set within Kia Toipoto and to enable us to track our progress.

As a small organisation, we hope to be leaders in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion in New Zealand and we happily share our success with others in the government sector whenever we can.

As is outlined in the government strategy, diversity and equality is not just about pay and our plan is reflective of this. It's about valuing work that women, Māori and Pasifika (ethnic groups in New Zealand) do. It is about the impact of career breaks, removing bias on those who work flexibly or part time, as well as development and leadership representation.

As a result, we do not have a significant gender or ethnicity pay gap and we have great Māori and female representation in our senior leadership team and across the organisation.

However, with each of the Kia Toipoto milestones, there are still goals we can reach as an organisation and ideas and good practice that need to be embedded into our policies and guidance.

There is still work to be done on some of these, but the main actions taken from a consultation at a staff planning day include:

  • Implementing a talent programme to ensure career pathways and development are clear for all staff.
  • Supporting our staff through flexible working and hybrid working setups as well as investing in training for remote management.
  • Publishing salary bands and reviewing our people policy to ensure it meets the needs of our people, particularly ensuring te au Māori values and principles are reflected.

Designing our own set of values

Further to this plan, we developed and co-designed our own set of values that all employees of the organisation champion daily. These are important for us as they are central to our organisation and our people. They set the scene to lead our daily decisions, how we interact with others, our behaviours and actions. For the global audience, our values also reflect our culture by being written in our indigenous language in New Zealand, te reo. Our values are:

  • Manaakitanga: We care for and acknowledge the equal mana of all.
  • Aroha: We are respectful and compassionate.
  • Kaitiakitanga: We are stewards and consciously aware of the intergenerational consequences and impacts of our advice, actions and decisions.
  • Te Tika me Te Pono: We are committed to doing the right thing with transparency, honesty and integrity.
  • Kotahitanga: We work collectively and are united in our shared purpose to operate as an independent body to investigate and review criminal convictions or sentences or both and decide whether there has been a wrongful conviction.
  • Hiranga: We consistently strive for excellence and leadership within our sector.

These values are intertwined in our daily work and work life. We include them as part of our training, induction and onboarding, we refer to them when discussing our personal and organisational performance, when assessing change and in continuous improvement initiatives.

Having these values as a guiding framework led to us being nominated for the Diversity Awards, where we received a “Highly Commended” award. The investment in our people through providing support and upskilling staff, maintaining a focus that fosters workplace inclusion and ensuring a cohesive working environment that enables people to bring their best selves to work is something the Chief Executive — Parekawhia McLean — wants to ensure is normal practice for the CCRC. She believes these are essential markers of our journey as an organisation.

The CCRC has about 25 full-time employees. As a small organisation, we hope to be leaders in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion in New Zealand and we happily share our success with others in the government sector whenever we can.

Done reading? Make sure to share your ideas for values to close the gap for diversity and equity in your organisation by leaving a comment below ⬇️

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