Department of Labour - Immigration

Overview

Immigration New Zealand is part of the Department of Labour (DoL). The Contact Centre supports the Department's role in granting visas and permits by providing quality advice on New Zealand's immigration policies and procedures, and supplying prospective migrants with the information they require to make informed decisions. Underpinning the Contact Centre's activity is the desire to provide the best possible service to the public and to demonstrate honesty, fairness, confidentiality and respect in all their dealings. The Contact Centre has a Branch Manager, Team Managers and Customer Service Officers. Sixty percent of the Contact Centre staff are members of the Public Service Association.

Productivity Challenge

In previous years the Immigration Contact Centre has had high staff turnover due to low morale, resulting in low productivity and poor service delivery. Career pathways were limited and a lack of support for high workloads made staff feel undervalued. Poor communication meant there were inconsistent workplace practices and a high level of mistrust between management and staff and there was little understanding of the vision and purpose of the Contact Centre. As a result service was not as effective or productive as it could have been due to the difficulty in recruiting and retaining quality staff.

The Productivity Achievement

The results have been worthwhile and have contributed to increasing the public value and delivery of DoL's services to the public and also to act as an Employer of Choice for recruiting and retaining staff. Both staff and management appreciate the new approach in their workplace: to better training, increased dialogue and improved relationships, and have celebrated their success and shared key lessons and experiences with all those involved.

Key Lessons:

• Engage staff in workplace projects to ensure buy-in
• Encourage dialogue and communication to identify potential productivity improvements
• Be flexible in objectives and the direction of an initiative as this can change through the life of a project
• Jointly develop a clear set of shared values
• Union engagement can be useful in building strategies and as a source for identifying issues
• Develop strong relationships between managers and staff to build trust
• Celebrate success

The full Department of Labour Immigration productivity case study is available as HTML and PDF

• The Department of Labour Immigration productivity case study [HTML]
• The Department of Labour Immigration productivity case study [PDF, 2 Pages, 309kB].

For further information on Department of Labour, please visit their website www.dol.govt.nz