Te Rā Ratonga Tūmatanui Public Service Day Awards

Kia ora. My name is Emma Smart. Thanks for watching this presentation on Te Rā Ratonga Tūmatanui | Public Service Day Awards.

In this video, I’ll give you a quick overview of the awards, who is eligible, key dates to be aware of and some key points about nominating your people for these awards.

Firstly, a little background.

The first Public Service Act was passed on 7 November 1912, so each year on that day, we celebrate Public Service Day.

In 2018, the Public Service Leadership Team established the Public Service Day Awards, and every year we hold the Awards ceremony on or around that date to present recipients with their awards.

There are two types of Awards: the Public Service Commissioner’s Commendation for Excellence; and the New Zealand Public Service Medal.

Here you see a selection of photos from award ceremonies over previous years.

An important point about Public Service Day Awards – these are awarded to individuals.

This is different to the Spirit of Service Awards, which are mostly in recognition of initiatives.

So, who is eligible for these awards?

Public servants who are currently employed in public service departments, departmental agencies and Crown agents.

That is, agencies listed in the top middle box of this diagram you see.

Please note this eligibility is different to the Spirit of Service Awards, which apply to the broader public sector shown in the diagram.

Typically, the Awards are for current public servants, however, exceptions have been made   for posthumous or recently retired people.

Both Public Service Day Awards are for people who demonstrate an exceptional spirit of service in what they do.

The Public Service Commissioner’s Commendation for Excellence and those considered to have the attributes listed here. ​

Essentially it is awarded for outstanding ‘spirit of service’ shown by a public servant. Nominees for this commendation deliver across a diverse range of roles, such as frontline, operational, legal, policy, corporate, technical or specialist roles.

These people are responsible for the delivery of work rather than its management.​

The New Zealand Public Service Medal was established by Royal Warrant in 2018 and is part of the New Zealand Royal Honours system.

It is awarded to public servants who have given significant service that’s worthy of merit.

The attributes we look for are quite similar, but the main difference is the criteria ‘people who bring significant benefit to New Zealand or the Public Service’.

Let’s have a look at the key dates throughout the year.

Please note that you can submit a nomination for these Awards at any time, but there is a deadline for when nominations are due if you would like them to be considered in any given year.

This is updated on the website each year.

It’s important to have conversations early in the year, about which people your agency might like to nominate, as your chief executive or board chair needs to support and endorse the nomination.

Each agency might run this internal process a little bit differently – sometimes it’s run by a Comms team, or Chief of Staff, or Organisational Development, or People team.

We are happy to help talk through your process if you need any tips.

We recommend submitting no more than two nominations per agency per year.

There are no more than 10 recipients per award each year, although there have been years with exceptional circumstances in the past, e.g. during COVID, when there were more recipients.

In approximately September, the selection panel will meet to choose recipients.

The selection panel consists of six members and includes a representative from the Honours Unit and other senior public servants, usually chief executives or tier 2s.

We notify outcomes to all chief executives or board chairs and agency key contacts soon after the selection panel meeting.

Recipients are also notified then.

Finally, the Awards ceremony is held each year on or around 7 November – Public Service Day – and the ceremony is held in Wellington.

Let’s have a look at the nomination form.

You will find the nomination form on our website as well as some guidance about submitting a nomination.

There is one nomination form for both Public Service Day Awards. The selection panel makes the decision determining which award to recommend for which recipients.

The prompts on the nomination form are short and succinct.

The first question is really about what the person does and it’s important to read the award criteria and speak to that.

The second question is about how the person demonstrates a ‘spirit of service’ and the descriptors are listed to prompt you on this.

Please note that the nomination should be confidential and should not be shared with the nominee.

A key tip for this stage is to consider involving someone from your Comms team, to tell the story of this person as well as possible.

You also need to source at least two letters of support.

The selection panel really do look carefully at the letters of support, and they can often affect the outcome of the nomination.

I highly recommend that you avoid a ‘copy and paste’ approach from the letters into the nomination form and vice versa.

If the nomination is successful, the words in the nomination form and letters of support are used later as a basis for the citations and speaking points for the awards ceremony.

You want the nomination to really highlight why this person stands out and why they should be selected.

The selection panel usually don’t know the nominees, so they need to be convinced of why they should select one person over another.

Once recipients accept the award, there are a number of steps to be taken before the Awards ceremony.

There’s a lot of back and forth on our part and theirs at this stage.

If you are a key contact at your agency, support you can provide at this stage, could be taking a suitable photo, helping with the citation, or helping to arrange transport to the ceremony.

Typically, recipients can bring two guests to the ceremony.

Chief executives of agencies with recipients are also invited to attend the ceremony.

That brings us to the end of this information video.

Thank you for watching.

If you have any questions at all, my main piece of advice is to get in touch with us at any stage of the process.

We would love to help you to recognise those outstanding people who really deserve to be celebrated.

Kia ora