Recruitment and Promotion
The GEM’s priority outcome is Māori and Pasifika career progression in resilient jobs. This is the key to fair access to social mobility and intergenerational prosperity for disadvantaged communities. Data consistently shows that there are unfair barriers to higher-paid jobs and progressing in work for Māori and Pasifika, regardless of qualifications, and this is a substantial contributor to Māori and Pacific pay gaps. Evidence shows that these barriers can be broken down in individual workplaces by overhauling HR recruitment and promotion processes to remove institutional biases that both directly and indirectly discriminate, such as not taking life experience into account, and taking standardised approaches that only work for one type of candidate. This can be achieved by moving towards more active, targeted, holistic and culturally connected approaches to recruitment and progression within corporate HR practice, and more active engagement of Māori and Pasifika candidates via transforming HR processes and workforce intermediaries.
GEM Indicators
Pay and Conditions
Tracking pay gaps is a KPI that demonstrates the progression and fair valuation of Māori and Pasifika staff. Part of the ethnic pay gap is due to lack of progression, the GEM’s key focus. However, analysing horizontal pay gaps and ensuring equal pay for the same jobs ensures that Māori and Pasifika staff are being paid fairly for their existing contributions, which may be overlooked. In terms of general conditions and benefits, the evidence supports the overall organisational culture of inclusion for Māori and Pasifika and will result in more engagement, retention and confidence from Māori and Pasifika workers to grow within an organisation and progress. Collective approaches to company ownership and profit-sharing resonate culturally with Māori and Pasifika, and having a stake in business ownership is a strong predictor of intergenerational social mobility.
GEM Indicators
Training and Development
The best international evidence on training for minority progression consistently underlines the need for senior mentorship. Strong mentorship ensures minority staff are personally supported, can meaningfully take up and engage in training opportunities, and that someone ‘has their back’ as they progress. Strong findings from local qualitative evidence see these insights localised into specific Māori and Pasifika cultural forms, e.g. tuakana-teina models and collective support groups, where engaging in training and progression becomes embedded in group relationships. Our local evidence also highlights that supporting Māori and Pasifika to a point of readiness, confidence, and bandwidth to take up training in the face of financial and time restrictions is crucial. Targets should be set around Māori and Pasifika uptake, rather than just the existence of available training. Overrepresentation of Māori and Pasifika in key skills needed in sunrise industries is a desirable goal due to their current underrepresentation in resilient STEM industries. Employers can play a major role in closing these equity gaps while also filling critical skills shortages.
GEM Indicators
Organisational Culture and Capability
The best evidence shows that progression happens for minorities when this is prioritised, led and resourced from the top, establishing the organisational culture and infrastructure in support of equity. A core part of this infrastructure is collecting ethnic pay and occupation data – it is the only way to evidence that change is happening. Overall, resourcing equalities works properly and getting managers to take ownership of solving the problem of inequality empowers them to feel like agents of change. Shifts in mindset and cultural capability-building of key operational leadership who implement changes on site, are usually where organisational DEI efforts succeed or fail and are crucial for achieving the primary targets of progression, representation and closing the pay gap for Māori and Pasifika. It is important when employers implement changes in their organisations, particularly for Māori employees, that Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations are at the forefront of thinking, and its articles/principles delivered on via any changes being implemented. For more guidance, see our policy advice on the relationship between Te Tiriti and DEI.
