In this edition of the Government Property Group newsletter – we explore the future of government workplaces; keep up to date with the work on the Government Office Accommodation Programme; and find out more about the Government Property Portal updates.

Kia ora koutou katoa

We have experienced some extraordinary times of late, as a country and as a public service. As Property Functional Lead for government, I have been very proud of how we have adapted our workplaces, supported our people and kept them safe.

The Public Service response to COVID-19 has demonstrated that we can embrace new ways of working. We’ve seen some great examples of agencies across government working rapidly to respond to the challenges a nationwide lockdown presented.

Collaboration between the Government Property Group, the State Services Commission, the Government Health and Safety Lead and Ministry of Health led to the development of guidance for agencies on managing workplaces during COVID-19. This guidance was developed in a rapidly changing environment and agencies have said it provided valuable direction when planning for their people to return to the workplace.

Recent weeks have highlighted the importance of collaborating with other functional leads and that the workplace must focus on the health safety and wellbeing of workers, not just the physical property.

Our challenge now is to reflect on all we’ve learned as we develop flexible and resilient workplaces that serve the needs of New Zealanders. We have an opportunity to improve how the property system reacts to unforeseen events such as COVID-19 to enable a workforce to achieve its goals. 

What the future of the workplace looks like is an exciting prospect. Government offices should be a place to bring people together for collaboration, innovation and provide a community feel in a workplace context. The Government Property Group has developed the Government property workplace strategy that will lead us into this future and we look forward to sharing more of this with you in coming weeks.

Ngā mihi matakuikui (Thank you very much).

Kia mau ki a koutou ano me o koutou whanau (Take care of yourselves and your families).

Carolyn Tremain

Chief Executive
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

The willingness of the Public Service to embrace remote working has shone a spotlight on the future of our workplaces. 

The Government Property Group (GPG) is leveraging this change in mind-set to advance new ways of working and support Public Service reforms.

Peter Bollmann, GPG’s Principal Advisor, talks with Andrew Wharton about how COVID-19 changed the way government works.

View this video and other reflections from lockdown.

The consultation on the Government office branding and NABERSNZ guidelines due for release in March was delayed due to COVID-19. We are now aiming to consult on these two initiatives in August. Here is a summary on what the guidelines will cover:

Government Office Branding

Workplace branding is the overall look and feel of the office environment. It’s an extension of the brand and logo of a single agency and it reflects its vision and values. Having said this, modern government services are increasingly joining up and co-locating to foster collaboration between agencies and simplify services to New Zealanders.

The guidelines suggest ways to adopt neutral branding and promote the New Zealand Government brand while still preserving an agency’s identity. 

NABERSNZ

Last year, the Minister of State Services announced that Government office accommodation would be measured utilising the NABERSNZ assessment. A NABERSNZ rating is an effective way to measure the energy performance of an existing building over time.

GPG has been working with the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (EECA) to develop guidelines for agencies to use. The main focus was to establish the thresholds for each assessment type and applying these to the various agency office leases in place which. This approach will be will be shared with agencies during the consultation period.

Property information current and updated

Now is the time to ensure that your property information, lease records and cost data are current and accurate for financial year end 2020. The due date for lease information is 31 July and cost data is 28 August.

With upcoming development changes to the GPP, it would be beneficial to complete these soon so you are not updating records while learning new functionality.

Your Property Portfolio Specialist will be in touch to discuss this further.

Agency engagements and training sessions

As you will appreciate, we have postponed our on-site training sessions. Please contact the team if you would like to arrange a virtual session.

We are here to help build capability within the system and for those who require assistance with updating property information, to ensure the information held is aligned and consistent with the requirements of the lease management standards and guidelines.

Read our lease management standards and guidelines.

Email the GPP team

Development of GPP improvements is underway!

We are excited that work on the improvements to GPP has begun and the first stage of testing commenced in mid-June. 

We have completed the migration to Microsoft Azure, a cloud based service, as part of enhancements, and testing and implementation is completed on the upgrade to the latest version.

Here’s a reminder of some the changes under development:

• new lease console functionality to manage and access information in one place
• overall change to the look and feel for a more intuitive navigation experience
• new landing (home) page and dashboards that display trends and changes to your portfolio, as well as shortcuts to commonly used functions, and
• a reduction in the number of reports

These enhancements offer a simplified and improved user experience, making it easier to enter data and display information.

Look out for an invite to a sneak peek of some of the more significant changes. This will happen prior to training, which will commence closer to launch date. 

We will provide more information on training and launch in due course. 

If you have any questions about the GPP, please email the team.

Auckland Accommodation Programme - Manukau

The Auckland accommodation project aims, where possible, to co-locate agencies in either a single government building, or as part of campus style precincts, linking to the community and transport routes.

We have re-engaged with the market on the Manukau Hub Registration of Interest (ROI). This closed on Friday 12 June and the evaluation team are now reviewing the submissions. 

The proposed hub(s) is expected to provide a 15,000-20,000 square metres of office accommodation to achieve the Government workplace strategy outcomes. 

The Hub is also expected to support the Transform Manukau project, a wider programme of regeneration of the Manukau area, led by Panuku Development Auckland. Panuku is a council controlled organisation that delivers urban regeneration in Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland).

An extensive refurbishment of an existing building or a new development, will also help stimulate future economic activity in Manukau.

Wellington regional accommodation project

This project aims to co-locate a number of agencies in suitable accommodation in the wider Wellington regions to support future government agency growth, modern working and resiliency planning.

We are currently engaging with developers at all locations identified in response to a Registration of Interest process.

We have published guidance for agencies to help you manage your workplaces through all COVID-19 Alert Levels. This was developed in consultation with the Government Health and Safety Lead and the State Services Commission.

As New Zealand continues at Alert Level 1, it is important to ensure that procedures, processes and systems in place during Alert Levels 2 to 4 are robust enough to be re-established in the event that Alert Levels are raised.

• Reflect on lessons learnt from this experience to consider what may be needed in the event of raised Alert Levels, or other emergency events in the future.
• Consider other arrangements, procedures and processes that might be needed and ensure they are robust enough to respond quickly.
• Establish processes to review, agree and adapt to further changes that may be required when implementing new or temporary measures.
• As well as considering changes needed to respond to COVID-19, also consider what changes may improve business as usual procedures.
• Now is a great time to review your business continuity plans.

Read more about COVID-19 property update - for agencies.