In $2011,$ the New Zealand Customs Service $($Customs$),$ along with a number of other government agencies, was asked to prepare a Workforce Strategy.$$

The Workforce Strategy needed to provide confidence to government that the Service could deliver on its Statement of Intent, within the fiscal constraints of the Four$-$year Budget Plan. The challenge for Customs was to deliver a Workforce Strategy within $12$ weeks.$$

This case study provides an insight into how Customs overcame this challenge and went on to develop a Workforce Strategy that was commended by the State Services Commission. Customs hopes that in sharing its story, other organisations can learn and benefit from its experience.$$

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The New Zealand Customs Service$$

Customs delivers high$-$quality services to facilitate trade valued at over $$100$ billion, to process more than $10$ million travellers per year, and to collect $$14$ billion of Crown revenue forecast in $2015/16,$ enabled by targeted risk management.$$

The organisation has approximately $1200$ staff based in $14$ locations across New Zealand, with a small contingent of people overseas. The majority of staff $(83$ percent$)$ are customs officers including intelligence and other specialists who provide critical support to Customs' operations, and staff who provide input to domestic and international policy settings. The remaining $17$ percent of staff develop business systems and provide corporate support to the frontline and senior management. Customs currently has unplanned staff turnover of around $7\%$ which is below the public$-$sector average.$$

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The operating context for delivery of Customs' core functions is one of increasing expectations from Government and the NZ public for better services in an environment of ongoing fiscal constraint together with growing and more complex service demand. Customs' work programme has a strong modernisation agenda and includes initiatives to enable a more flexible workforce that is able to meet changing service demands and risks.$$

Customs strives for an organisational culture that supports high integrity, innovation, service, high performance, and security.$$

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Workforce Strategy formulation and sign$-$off$$

The approach to developing the Workforce Strategy was geared towards producing a worthwhile and credible result within a relatively short timeframe. The project team followed a $6-$step process to develop the Workforce Strategy as follows: Form a dedicated team, develop a plan, agree on a format, do an environmental scan, draft the plan and communicate the plan widely throughout the organisation.$$

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What we learned$$

The experience of developing a Workforce Strategy has been valuable for Customs. The process of thinking and connecting key strategies with the key people involved has been useful, drawing the strands of business change, technology and financial performance together into a cohesive whole to provide a 'one$-$document' visibility to the workforce. More specifically:$$

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Developing the Workforce Strategy involved a tightly led project management approach supported by strong leadership from the Chief Executive and the senior leadership team, engagement with key stakeholders within Customs, and integration with the Four$-$Year Business Planning process.$$

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Undertaking a deep analysis of the workforce was critical for determining what trends, if any needed to influence the Workforce Strategy.$$

The Workforce Strategy has helped to develop a common view and understanding of the organisation. It connects: people, financial and business change strategies into a single unified organisational picture.$$

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The Workforce Strategy has informed the content of and priorities for Customs' Human Resource $($HR$)$ work programme. As a result of Customs' experience developing the Workforce Strategy it has a new set of HR metrics that will support more effective monitoring of the progress and provide a better information base for the future.$$

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The Customs' Workforce Strategy is an important enabling strategy for the future. Having now completed the first Workforce Strategy, Customs believes that the real value will be in what happens going forward as they implement and further refine the Workforce Strategy and continue to develop their workforce capability and flexibility.$$

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Questions$$

$1.$What are the five key challenges faced in the development of a workforce strategy for New Zealand Customs; for example, future staffing numbers and skills, service quality, financial aspects?$$

$2.$Critique the process adopted $-$ both positive and negative aspects. What other components might have been included?

$3.$What problems might NZ Costoms face in implementing and evaluating the plan?