This Information Protocol and Privacy Statement provides information about the type and purpose of the unit record data that was collected through Talent Exchange until 30 June 2023, and through the Digital Platform and the Leadership, Development and Recruitment team at the Public Service Commission from 1 July 2023. 

First published in June 2016, this information protocol and privacy statement was last amended in August 2026. Key changes briefly: 

  • Talent Exchange was decommissioned on 30 June 2023. 
  • Data is now being stored in the Public Service Commission’s Data Warehouse and Digital Platform. Data previously held in Talent Exchange has been transferred to the Digital Platform.  
  • Privileged users from the Leadership Development Centre (LDC) have access to this data. 
  • Development Boards concluded in late 2024. 
  • The Executive Talent programme began in July 2025. 
  • At this stage, neither you nor your agency can directly access your information on the Digital Platform. 

The Public Service Commission holds three types of data in the Digital Platform: 

  • Limited data on Public Service Leaders Group (PSLG) positions in each agency and the leaders appointed or seconded into those positions. Leader data requested from agencies includes demographic information such as gender and ethnicity, if disclosed. 
  • Talent profile data for leaders previously nominated for Development Board (before their conclusion in late 2024) assistance or system opportunities (e.g. Sprint Teams) and/or leaders put forward by their agency for the Executive Talent programme. This covers the skills and experience you offer, areas for development, and the opportunities you are seeking. Nominees for the Executive Talent programme are required to provide this information through forms supplied by the Public Service Commission. 
  • Details of development and opportunities provided through LDC, the Brokering Service, Development Boards, and the Executive Talent programme. 

You can request a copy of your talent-related information and make any corrections by contacting us at leadershipandtalent@publicservice.govt.nz

If, since May 2026 (when the Information Privacy Principle 3A of the Privacy Act 2020 on the indirect collection of personal data came into effect) you have been appointed to a PSLG position for the first time or been put forward for the Executive Talent programme, you will be notified of any personal data that your agency shares with the Public Service Commission e.g. gender and ethnicity.  

Te pūtake o te kawa nei me te tauākī tūmataiti Purpose of the Information Protocol and Privacy Statement

Talent management information is collected and held centrally by the Public Service Commission to support: 

  • Te Pae Turuki | Public Service Leaders Group: understanding the makeup of this group, including capability and diversity, in line with the Leadership Strategy for New Zealand’s Public Service and enabling communications and engagement with members. 
  • Visibility of top executive talent (as nominated by agencies) across the Public Service, to enable deployment of leaders for system needs and/or the individual’s development based on an understanding of leader strengths, experience, development needs, and aspirations. 
  • Succession planning for senior leadership positions across the Public Service overall and for specific roles, by understanding the capability of those identified as possible successors and/or who have aspirations for more senior roles more generally. 
  • Statistical analysis and research to help understand current capability and build future capability of the Public Service senior leadership. 

This Information Protocol and Privacy Statement covers privacy, security, and access to this information. 

Review of this Statement

The Public Service Commission will review the Information Protocol and Privacy Statement at regular intervals to ensure it reflects appropriate standards for collecting and using personal information.

What information is collected?

The information collected is at a unit level which means there is a separate record for each individual. This record contains information that will identify you. The information covered by this Information Protocol and Privacy Statement will be collected at various times as required and may include any or all of: 

  • Talent Profile information
    • Contact information 
    • A photo 
    • Diversity and inclusion information, such as gender, date of birth, and ethnicity (where disclosed) 
    • Your career history and other relevant experience 
    • Career aspirations and preferences 
    • Qualifications and professional memberships 
    •  Certifications and accreditations 
    •  Geographic regions you are prepared to work in 
    •  Specialist skills 
    •  Previous development 
    •  Experience of challenging roles or projects, including their complexity, scope and size 
    •  Other talent related information 

  • Assessment information
    • Prior assessment information
    • Data from the Leadership Insight programme and subsequent reassessments
    • Data from other agencies’ assessments, including assessments for recruitment purposes
    • Feedback and evaluative comments from your immediate manager and/or Chief Executive, including a Dynamic Talent Map (9-Box Grid) rating
    • Any related information

  • Development information
    • Participation in development programmes and experience of coaching and/or mentoring
    • Development plans including learning objectives and strategies/actions for addressing these
    • Progress made against development plans
    • Any related information

    Details of your development plans may be recorded and used for individual development planning and at a more general level, anonymised reporting of development themes and priorities across the Public Service.

  • Supplementary information

    In addition, the following information may be requested from your agency: 

    • role/position information: including job title, job location, job size, span of control, level of complexity, person currently appointed to the position (you) and the manager to whom it reports 
    • specific characteristics of the role, including whether this is a PSLG position or a priority for the agency’s succession planning 
    • agency view of the impact on the agency should the position become vacant in the next 3 to 6 months. 

    Salary information is not collected. 

  • Where information is sourced from

    Information is sourced in three ways:

    • From you directly: we collect information directly from you through Talent Profile forms, updates (e.g. coaching conversations), or participation in Public Service Commission talent-related conversations and processes.
    • From your agency: we request and update the personal and position information specified above from your agency (i.e. your agency HR team, your manager and/or your Chief Executive) for two related purposes: maintaining Public Service Leaders Group (PSLG) information, and supporting the Executive Talent programme, including talent identification, brokering of development opportunities, succession planning and reporting.
    • From third-party leadership assessment providers: we may receive information about you from leadership assessment providers that we upload to your profile information in the Digital Platform, for example, summary assessment data, and development objectives.

  • Accuracy of data

    The Public Service Commission relies on agencies, assessment providers and individuals to ensure, as far as possible, that the data they provide to us for entry into the Digital Platform is accurate:

    • Agencies provide regular updates on the Public Service Leadership Group positions in their agency and details of leaders appointed, acting, and seconded in those positions.
    • Assessment providers ensure accuracy of the assessment summary information supplied to designated privileged users to enter into the Digital Platform.
    • You, the individual, can request a copy of your current information and advise of any changes by contacting leadershipandtalent@publicservice.govt.nz. When your information is to be used e.g. in a summary talent profile being put forward for an opportunity, you will, wherever possible, be provided the opportunity to validate your information.

    Privileged users who have access to unit level data, are able to validate, update and/or correct the information. If they suspect or are advised that your information may be out-of-date, incomplete or inaccurate, they will take all reasonable steps to address this with the individual and/or other data source before it is used.

  • Obligation to provide information

    We collect demographic data to monitor progress towards a senior leadership that reflects the communities we serve. You are not obliged to provide and can withhold this demographic information if you choose. If you wish to withhold this information, please discuss this with your agency Human Resources team in the first instance. 

    Talent Profile information is a requirement for acceptance into the Executive Talent programme and will be requested as part of the onboarding process. 

    You can request a copy of your current information and advise of any changes by contacting leadershipandtalent@publicservice.govt.nz. 

  • Confidentiality

    Some of the information provided by you to third-party assessment providers will be held confidentially by the provider and will not be provided to the Public Service Commission. This includes prior assessment results, and Leadership Insight information such as responses to online leadership questionnaires, immediate manager’s view, the interview discussion and your debriefing discussion with the provider’s psychologist. 

    Other Leadership Insight information, such as the assessment registration information, capability scores, potential, readiness and aspiration scores and scope of possible development objectives and development strategies will be collected from the assessment providers and held by the Public Service Commission. 

    Personal information is stored securely by the Public Service Commission. The Public Service Commission will not disclose any information held on you other than in accordance with these Terms and Conditions, unless required and authorised by you or by law. 

  • Access to information in the Digital Platform

    Your individual information can be accessed by: 

    • You the individual: can request a copy of your information and request any changes to this by emailing leadershipandtalent@publicservice.govt.nz. If any of your information needs to be corrected or updated these changes will be made on your behalf by a designated Public Service Commission employee with privileged user status. 
    • Executive Talent programme: Privileged users who support the Executive Talent programme can access, edit, and extract cohort member information into summary talent profiles. As part of the programme, this talent information may be shared with leaders providing development support to the programme. These are typically Chief Executives or Deputy Chief Executives from Public Service agencies different to the cohort member’s agency.  They provide support through such things as mentoring a cohort member. 
    • Designated Public Service Opportunity Brokers: These privileged users within the Public Service Commission have a role in matching leaders with relevant potential opportunities as these arise within the broader Public Service. They have access to all entries in the Digital Platform and can search for those leaders with targeted experiences and aspirations. Your profile may be shared with the manager of appropriate opportunities and details of the opportunity will be discussed with you, either by that manager or the “broker” before you will be more formally considered. 
    • Chief Executives: can request summary talent profiles (including assessment summary information) of any currently active PSLG leaders or member of the Executive Talent programme cohort within their or other member agencies, to identify leaders with experience relevant for roles driving system or agency initiatives that the Chief Executive is accountable for. 
    • Managers: can request summary talent profiles of any leaders who report to them, either directly or indirectly. Access to their more detailed assessment documents for development purposes will need to be through the third-party provider (i.e. an external psychometric assessment provider). 
    • Public Service Commission: Privileged user access is provided to the Public Service Commissioner and designated Public Service Commission employees/ contractors/ secondees, for legitimate purposes. These purposes include development and deployment support, statistical analysis and research, and support for Chief Executive succession planning and development. 
    • External recruitment agencies: to support agency and Chief Executive merit-based recruitment processes (only with further consent from the individual). 
    • Academia and researchers: For research purposes (anonymised data only) and subject to their ethics application, which is required before academic research can begin collecting data involving human participants. 

  • Use of Information

    The information provided will be used for the following purposes:

    • Career planning: Identifying suitable development opportunities to support the achievement of your career aspirations. 
    • Deployments: Identifying potential candidates for flexible deployment of senior leaders across the public service in response to system need in line with sections 61 to 64 of the Public Service Act 2020. 
    • Development: Informing development discussions and investment decisions. 
    • Succession planning: The identification of talent pools of potential candidates for critical leadership roles and/or Key Positions as per section 55A of the Public Service Act 2020. 
    • Workforce planning: Understanding the capability and capacity of the leadership pipeline now and in the future. 
    • Talent analytics: Including trend analysis, statistical analysis and research. Reports using this data may form part of advice to the Public Service Commissioner or may be intended for publication. These reports and analysis may contain a mixture of public sector-wide information.  All reports and analytics published outside the Public Service Commission will be anonymised. 
    • Recruitment: The information may be used to identify possible talent to apply for leadership roles through a merit-based recruitment process in line with the Public Service Act 2020. 

  • Participation

    If you leave your role and are no longer in a participating public sector organisation, your profile will be made ‘inactive’. Inactive profile information is still searchable by the Public Service Commission for succession planning, talent searches for leaders with specific skills/experience, statistical analysis and research purposes for a period of 5 years. Your profile can be re-activated should you return to a participating public sector organisation within that time. After 5 years your data will be deleted.

    For requests regarding your information please email leadershipandtalent@publicservice.govt.nz 

Te maru raraunga Security

Secure transfer of data

Agencies provide data on PSLG positions and leaders in those positions via a secure SharePoint connection requiring multifactor authentication.

Third party assessment providers supply the Public Service Commission with assessment information through a secure file transfer protocol.

Storage of data

Data is stored on a secure cloud service provided by Microsoft. Only the Manager, Leadership, Development and Recruitment at the Public Service Commission and the Public Service Commission system administrator can approve Privileged User Access to the system that holds this data.

Te maru raraunga Reporting

Reports are produced from the information in the Digital Platform. These reports may include anonymised data trends and themes, generated to support targeted outcomes such as: 

  • agency, sector, function, regional or system-wide talent management, 
  • the recruitment, development and deployment of leaders, 
  • strengthening the leadership pipeline across the system, 
  • progress towards the aims of the Leadership Strategy for New Zealand’s Public Service, 
  • parliamentary reporting as part of the Public Service Commission annual plan and annual report. 

Reports may form part of advice to the Public Service Commissioner or be published on the Public Service Commission website. These reports and analyses may contain information from both the Digital Platform and a range of other sources. 

Senior leaders supporting the Executive Talent programme (e.g. Chief Executives and Deputy Chief Executives) receive reports at an individual level, to support their work with individuals in the Executive Talent cohort to progress their development and career aspirations. 

Official Information Act Requests

All external requests for information held by the Public Service Commission (including information obtained from Departments) are covered by the Official Information Act 1982. 

The Public Service Commission considers that it is unlikely to be required to release unit record data on individuals under the Official Information Act (in accordance with section 9(2) of the Act) but if such a release was ever indicated, the Public Service Commission would consult with the individual/s concerned first. 

Advice to Ministers

The Public Service Commission provides advice to Ministers on matters concerning agencies. This advice may be supported by data obtained from the Digital Platform in a form that complies with this protocol. No individual’s data will be issued; it will primarily be anonymised data on trends, themes and planning. 

Requests for information by Select Committees

From time-to-time the Public Service Commission may be requested to provide information to Select Committees. A Select Committee may direct that any person be summoned to produce papers and records in that person’s possession, custody or control, that are relevant to the committee’s proceedings (Standing Order 198(2)). In this respect the Public Service Commission is no different to any person or organisation in either the public or private sectors and is obliged to comply with such a request. 

In complying with any requests from Select Committees the Public Service Commission will advise any departments about whom information is to be released. Where practical, the Public Service Commission will incorporate any comment or contextual information that the department wishes to provide as part of the response. 

Further guidance on providing information to Select Committees is available on the Public Service Commission website.

Guidelines: Officials and Select Committees 

Parliamentary questions and ministerials

Where parliamentary questions or ministerials relate to individual agencies (other than the Public Service Commission) they will be referred to the minister responsible for that department (under Standing Order 369 and clause 2.26 of the Cabinet Manual 2001). 

Te whakatinana i tēnei kawa, tauākī tūmatanui hoki Implementation of this Information Protocol and Privacy Statement

The following are processes to ensure the requirements of this Information Protocol and Privacy Statement are applied: 

  1. Privileged users sign a Privileged User Confidentiality Agreement (PUCA) before they are provided with access to the Digital Platform.
  2. Individual talent profile data is provided by the individual completing manual input forms (Microsoft Word versions) and emailing these to the Public Service Commission for input into the Digital Platform. Input forms may be pre-populated with data already held on the Digital Platform. To keep this information secure and private:
    1. All documents and emails transferring those documents are classified as “In Confidence” to signal it must be treated in accordance with protective security requirements for that level
    2. All conversations over the phone when gathering information or confirming talent profile information are confidential
    3. Information is not posted by surface mail
    4. All the electronic copies of assessment information are stored in a secure system with limited access based upon roles and responsibilities
  3. Where a physical copy of a record is printed e.g. when an individual is considered for nomination to the Executive Talent programme or discussed with a chief executive regarding a development opportunity, this will be labelled as “in confidence” and handled in accordance with that classification. Documents will be securely disposed of once the purpose for printing has been achieved.
  4. Regular audit reports are produced to monitor usage of the system and ensure this Information Protocol and Privacy Statement is being complied with.