Communications Function Review 2010Report of the Steering Committee

Communications Review Steering Committee Maarten Wevers (Chair) Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet

Jeremy LambertMinistry of Agriculture & Fisheries

Justine Gilliland Land Information New Zealand

Debbie GeeDepartment of Labour

Jason RyanState Services Commission

Michael Player NZ Police

Jo Rudman (Secretary)

With thanks for the tremendous work of:

Jenny Clark, Shaun Fogarty, Fiona Morris, Elizabeth Jenny Clark, Shaun Fogarty, Fiona Morris, Elizabeth Griffin, Diana Marriott, Christine Seymour, Russell Pilcher, Katie Mathison, Justin Brownlie, Barbara Crocker, David Venables, Tina Norris, Sue McCabe, Jane Green, Mike Shatford, Julie McBurney, Colin Feslier, Mike Munro, Rod Scotts, Deidre Hill, Pete Coleman, Andrew Bignall, Stephen Moore...

and many others in comms teams across the core public sector...

Definition“Public Sector Communications

enables the effective flow of information and ideas between an agency and

its internal and external publics, to facilitate participation, service delivery,

and informed decision-making, and to build accountability and trust

in government.”

Core Competencies‘Competency models are

management tools

which describe the skills, attributes and behaviours employees use

to achieve outcomes at work.’

We’re going with LomingerUses a set of cards to identify

competencies critical to success

67 competencies 19 career stallers and stoppers 7 global focus areas

Directors’ competencies Strategic agility Problem solving Dealing with ambiguity Decision quality Motivating others Integrity and trust

Advisers’ competencies Decision quality Negotiating Composure Learning on the fly Problem solving Political savvy Listening Interpersonal savvy Written communications

Performance Measurement and Evaluation

Monitoring press clippings and keeping a register of media enquiries are most commonly used to measure comms performance.

Researchers are most commonly consulted to measure comms performance.

Most effective approaches not always the most commonly used

What we need to do... Develop a guide to evaluation from UKGCN and US

best practice guides. Debate:

Do we require a generic framework and/or common reporting tools?

If using multiple sources, should they be ‘crunched’ into a set of agreed high-level reporting criteria?

Investigate feasibility of a database across government as normative data.

Induction package for CEs: the elements

1. Governance2. Political neutrality3. Reputation4. No surprises5. Media training6. Dealing with difficult issues7. Risk management8. Dealing with a crisis9. Internal communications10. Measurement reporting11. Strategic input12. Marketing and branding13. All of government communications

Training Module Function Standards of integrity and conduct Fairness in communications Conflicts of interest Cabinet manual Relationship with Ministers General elections Select committees Official Information Act E-Government

Head of Profession Issue Deferred in short term Chair of communications is approved Deputy chair is approved Panel of CEs is nominated and approved Administrative support for chair Review undertaken after two years

Good practice comms unit No single matrix model Information provided on different models Examples of structures from three organisations Guidelines for organising comms function Flow chart on ‘how to designate a role’

GCN Web Resources 2009 work to be validated by MSD web team

(thanks from us all)

Publication on Network website

Guidelines for Ministerial Offices

DIA Product road tested Tweaked Ready for use as template

Procurement ‘Centre of excellence’ approach to sharing

best practice Online procurement toolkit to be hosted on

public sector intranet Explore ways to leverage value for money

comms procurement practices Cross-government and provider event later

this year(all projects led by

MSD)