Payroll - it touches every military and civilian person in the Defence Force. So a project to streamline payroll administration - currently delivered by some 200 part time staff, in 34 units, spread across 11 locations - by establishing a national payroll unit, is a seismic shift in the way Defence does business.
Where previously payroll relied on a large amount of face-to-face contact with administrators, as a result of this new project Defence employees will be empowered to do more for themselves online, with telephone support from a national payroll centre.
The aim is to deliver simpler, more consistent payroll processes across Navy, Army, Air Force and the Defence Force as a whole, and reduce the number of military staff performing payroll activities, freeing them up to focus on core military tasks instead. All this, while still providing excellent levels of user support.
This is one of the first cabs off the rank in the NZDF’s ambitious Defence Transformation Programme (DTP). The DTP is a self-mandated change programme focused on three areas: human resources; logistics; and the headquarters. Phase one, which runs through to January 2010, is focused on kicking off projects that are high benefit, or, like the payroll example, that will be critical longer-term enablers.
The DTP is looking to create sustainable savings of between $50m and $100m annually.
The Executive Leadership Team has directed a bold agenda for change, and each member is involved in driving the DTP to succeed. Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral Tony Parr, is the sponsor of the human resources change stream, Chief of Army, Major General Rhys Jones, is the sponsor of the logistics stream, and Chief of Air Force, Air Vice Marshall Graham Lintott, is the sponsor of the headquarters programme.
With involvement from NZDF personnel and external expertise, DTP has set out to fundamentally reengineer many NZDF support functions, to allow the organisation to transform into a simpler and better Defence Force. The Defence Transformation Programme has already saved $45m through delivering tactical “quick win” projects, and is now implementing transformational change.
Much of this change is driven through reducing duplication and creating functionally-aligned branches wherever possible. In the area of education and training, for example, 80% of IT training is common across the three Services, so consolidating that training into one will potentially create significant and ongoing savings. In logistics, the appointment of a Commander of Logistics to head the new consolidated logistics organisation was another important step forward for DTP. Within headquarters, the aim is to streamline structures and processes to better support the outputs of the NZDF, in particular support to the Chief of Defence Force and the three Service Chiefs. The first functions to be looked at are policy, planning, finance and development, and the team expects to have the new arrangements in place before Christmas.
The NZDF is a large and complex organisation, and there is significant scope to look at its major processes to deliver more efficient support services through DTP. At the same time, the Defence Assessment for Review 09 is currently underway, and in 2010 the Government will produce a White Paper on Defence focused on the military capabilities that New Zealand needs and how best to deliver them. The DTP team is working with the Review 09 team, and the more effective support functions created through DTP will enhance any direction given through the Defence White Paper. The Secretary of Defence, who is leading the Defence Assessment, has confirmed that the DTP must continue.
The DTP will create a leaner, functionally aligned organisation, an empowered workforce, with simpler and better support functions – to preserve military capability. While the NZDF will maintain its core culture and values to deliver operations, the Defence Transformation Programme will have assisted in fundamentally changing the NZDF perspective on support functions and how they are delivered.
Transformation Roadmap
| Early Gains |
Setup For Success |
Realising Benefits |
Embedding Change |
| Jul 09 – Jan 10 |
Jan 10 – Jun 10 |
Jul 10 – Jun 11 |
July 11 – 2015 |
| Do-able, high benefit projects and enablers |
Complete design, enablers in place, main structure changes begin |
Personnel changes, IT systems, shared service becoming the norm |
Follow up benefits delivery, mature technology enablement, ongoing continuous improvement |
More People Joining NZDF, More Choosing to Stay
There is a well known Maori proverb: He aha te mea nui - what is the most important thing? He Tangata, he tangata, he tangata! It is people, it is people, it is people!
So it is significant that the New Zealand Defence Force has made real progress solving the people number worries that have dominated its performance in recent years.
Our latest Annual Report shows that as at 30 June 2009, NZDF’s Regular Force numbers were at a 10-year high, while attrition – the rate at which people are leaving the organisation – was at a 10-year low.
At the end of the reporting period there were a total of 14,612 Regular force, reservists and civilians in the Defence Force — up by 723 on 2008. Regular Force numbers were at 9,702, up by 424.
The Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae says recruitment and retention have been critical issues for the NZDF as it has sustained overseas deployments and prepared for future operations
“With the tighter economic conditions in New Zealand, combined with innovative recruitment and retention strategies the NZDF has implemented, growing the NZDF is looking more promising,” LTGEN Mateparae says.
“Fewer people are choosing to leave the NZDF. This assists us in addressing relative inexperience levels, which remain low in certain operational and technical trades, and it is recognised that it will take time before these levels can be fully restored.”
Total personnel numbers have increased in all three Services (Navy, Army and Air Force). Initiatives have included the introduction of the new military remuneration system in 2008 that linked military pay to equivalent professions in the wider community, use of reserves, lateral recruitment and reviewing trade structures.