Te Taunaki Public Service Census is a survey of employees of departments and departmental agencies run by Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission (the Commission). The survey contains a wide range of demographic questions that are not captured in normal data held by an agency about their employee. It also asks about the experiences of employees.
Information that is collected through the survey will be used for statistical or research purposes and will not be reported in a form that could reasonably be expected to identify the individual concerned.
Processes and practices
The Commission has procured a New Zealand-based research provider to deliver the survey online. The research provider will collect responses from public servants within participating agencies. The provider has security policies and practices in place to ensure they meet their requirements identified in the New Zealand Information Security Manual.
Using administrative information about employees
To conduct the survey, agencies supply the Commission with information about their staff before the survey starts. This information is temporarily combined with a unique identifier by the Commission. This ensures that no one inside the agency or inside the Commission can identify who has completed the survey and who has not.
Some variables are more accurate when sourced directly from agency systems and removing them as questions keeps the survey shorter reducing burden on participants. Therefore, the following information is linked to survey responses:
- Business unit (for units with a minimum of 100 people)
- Management level (tier)
- Region
- Contract term (permanent/fixed term)
- Full time equivalent (proportion of full-time hours worked)
- Occupational group
- Start date (employment start date in organisation)- this is used to calculate tenure in organisation
- Salary
This process was consulted with privacy officers in all participating agencies, the office of the Government Chief Privacy Officer, and with external experts through the Data Ethics Advisory Group managed by StatsNZ.
Reporting
All reporting uses a quality assured dataset where personally identifying information has been removed. Agency and demographic breakdowns protect privacy through small count suppression, requiring a minimum number of responses, see Appendix for more details. The Commission uses its internal data management and release protocols and guidelines to ensure reporting is accurate and that no confidential or potentially identifying information is reported.
Access to Census information for research purposes
In addition to the public reporting on agency and system results, anyone can request summary reporting through the Official Information Act process.
Email a request to enquiries@publicservice.govt.nz
Communicating results
The Commission publishes results for the survey at the agency and system level on our website. Agencies are to communicate the results of the survey to their staff in summary form and engage with staff about how they will use the results.
Appendix
Public Service Commission Data Release Rules
|
Counts (e.g. Headcount, FTEs) |
Magnitudes (e.g. Salary) |
Likerts* |
|---|---|---|
|
Suppress cells with counts below ‘4’ (this takes the possibility of collusion into account). Make them appear like cells with zero counts (i.e. either with a zero or by leaving blank). Totals and percentages should be calculated using supressed and rounded numbers. Additional rule if needed Apply random rounding to base 3, if suppressed values can be determined by looking across tables or a highly sensitive variable is involved (e.g. income). Note any use of random rounding. |
Suppress cells with counts below ‘4’ (this takes the possibility of collusion into account). Make them appear like cells with zero counts (i.e. either with a zero or by leaving blank).
Additional rule if needed Suppress cells with counts below ‘10’ in the following circumstances: The use of multiple variables (e.g. occupation by department) or detailed variables (e, g. occupation at very detailed levels) means the risk of identifying an individual’s data is high and the value is highly sensitive (e.g. income). |
Results for questions with counts of less than 10 are suppressed with a ‘s’. This rule is applied at the question (denominator) level, not the response (numerator) level. This is the approach taken for Likert questions in the Australian Public Service Census. Additional rule if needed Additionally apply the below ‘4’ rule to individual responses or random rounding to base 3 if the suppressed values can be determined by looking across tables |
* A likert question is one where someone is asked to rate their view on topic on scale (e.g. 5-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree). Typically, it is not possible to identify people from their response to a likert question (e.g. whether they were satisfied with their work-life balance). If it is possible (e.g. how much te reo they use at work, then suppress cells with counts below ‘4’ as well.
