Te Hāpai Hapori Spirit of Service Awards

Kia ora, my name is Emma Smart and thank you for taking the time to listen to this short presentation about Te Hāpai Hapori | Spirit of Service Awards. Hopefully this video gives you all the information you need to understand these awards and to prepare to enter them. Spirit of Service is identified in the Public Service Act 2020 as the fundamental characteristic of the public service. The Act requires public service leaders to preserve, protect and nurture the spirit of service to the community that all public servants bring to their work. Recognition is really important and it's a powerful way to show people that their work is valued. These awards are all about showcasing excellence and helping to motivate others to deliver better for New Zealand. 

In this little presentation, I'm going to cover off what the awards are and what the categories are that you can enter. We'll look at which agencies are eligible to enter the awards, then things to think about when you are preparing your entries, and finally, I'll talk a bit about what to expect if you are selected as a finalist. 

First up, a little bit about the awards. These photos are a snapshot of the event which is a very special evening. These awards evolved from the IPANZ Public Sector Excellence Awards in 2019 and they became Te Hāpai Hapori | Spirit of Service Awards. They have been run and administered by Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission since then. 

So, let's take a look at the different categories you can enter. First up are the awards for initiatives. These are listed here and the names for each award give you a pretty good indication of what the award is for. All the criteria are listed on our website for more specific detail of each award. There is just one entry form for the initiatives, so when you're entering, you just select the category you think is the best fit. Te Tohu a Te Pirimia, the Prime Minister's Award, is selected from these initiatives as the overall winner each year. You can't enter for this award, I'm afraid. There are also three awards for individuals. Young Leader is celebrating outstanding public servants aged 35 or under. The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates someone who has made an exceptional contribution to New Zealand or their community over their career in the public sector, and a new award for 2025 celebrates a public sector director who shows an outstanding commitment to public sector governance and leadership as a director. Again, for specific criteria for each award, see our website. 

Looking at eligibility, you can see from the list of agencies here that there is broad eligibility for these awards across the public sector. Many of the entries are cross-agency collaborations, including public/private sector collaboration. One of our previous award winners was a collaboration between 17 different agencies and we needed to factor in extra time on the run sheet that night just to read out the list of all the agencies. Equally successful and impactful are some of the smaller, single agency or community-led initiatives. So don't be put off if you think a programme or initiative isn't big enough. 

These are the key dates to be aware of throughout the year if you are preparing to enter these awards. Firstly, early in the year as preparation time. Agencies all have different ways of pulling together entries. It might be led by your internal comms team, by the chief executive's office or the senior leadership team. At the end of the day, any entry needs to be endorsed by the chief executive, so it's really important to get their backing early on. We highly recommend you get in touch with us to talk your ideas through. We can give you advice on how to focus your entry, whether it's the right time to enter or potentially too early in the piece, which category to consider, et cetera. The deadline for entries in 2025 is Friday the 23rd of May. The co-chairs of the judging panels will shortlist the finalists soon after this date, and in early June we notified chief executives and agency contacts of the outcomes. Judging is planned for the last week of July. Finally, the event will be held in Wellington on the evening of Thursday the 4th of September. 

Let's move to how to enter. You will find all of the entry forms on the Spirit of Service Awards page on our website and a step by step guide on the process that looks like what you can see on the slide here. Once you download the correct entry form, it will look something like…  

this. This shows you what to expect on the entry form. Pictured here is the form for Young Leader of the Year award. All of the entry forms look quite similar. The nominator is the key person we would be liaising with about the entry. The three main questions you'll need to answer are shown here and are basically the same across all forms, regardless of whether it's an initiative or an individual. Why should this initiative or person be chosen for the award? How does the entry exemplify the criteria? How does the entry exemplify a spirit of service? It can be an idea to involve your comms team at this stage, who can probably tell the story of your entry the best. Finally, the chief executive or board chair needs to endorse the entry. For cross agency initiatives, that means all chief executives involved. This can be just an e-mail endorsement or a signature on the form, whichever is easiest for you. 

A little bit about the judging presentations. We notify all outcomes in early June. Finalists are then asked to prepare to present to a judging panel. This photo gives you a sense of what the setup looks like for judging. The judging panels meet at the end of July, early August. The judging presentations are held at Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission in Wellington. Each group comes in for approximately an hour, which includes time to test out any slides, a short Mihi Whakatau, a 10 minute presentation which is filmed, and a 15 minute Q&A with the judging panel which is not filmed. The filmed section is used in any winner’s videos for the night. Something to consider if one of your entries is chosen as a finalist is picking the best people to be in the room who can tell the story of this entry best. If it's a cross-agency collaboration, consider who would represent each part of the entry best. Individual finalists should consider who they would like to bring to support them during the presentation. Their support people have an opportunity to speak during the Q&A, which can provide helpful additional perspective about the individual and their impact. 

These are some examples of finalists and winners from previous years. This shows the breadth of types of entries from large complex multi-agency initiatives including private sector collaboration to smaller, single agency initiatives. Regardless of the size of the programme or initiative, the important thing is to tell the story of the impact it is having, what it is achieving and how it is delivering for New Zealand or New Zealanders. 

Thank you for listening in and hopefully this gives you some ideas about how you might consider recognising the incredible work that public servants do day in, day out and how we showcase excellence across the public sector. My main piece of advice is if you have any questions at all, please get in touch with us and we are happy to help. Kia ora.