Item:
IT Organisation Design – Decisions from
Consultation
To:
Electoral Commission
For:
Special Board meeting 27 NOV 2024
Prepared by:
Aaron Tasker, Chief Information Officer
Recommendations
It is recommended that the Board:
1.
note the Information Technology (IT) Change Proposal Decision Document
2.
agree the disestablishment of 20 positions within the IT team.
3.
agree the establishment of 20 positions within the IT team and their associated position
descriptions.
4.
note the risks and mitigations related to the change.
5.
agree the implementation of the final decisions
6.
note the recommended approach to salary offers will be presented to the Board.
Purpose
7.
The purpose of this paper is to seek Board approval and endorsement of final decisions
following consultation on the IT organisational design.
Background
8.
The Commission’s Board agreed on 11 September that we proceed to consultation on
proposed changes to the IT team
9.
The ELT agreed on 1 October that the CIO, supported by People & Culture release the
consultation on changes to the IT team, positions and processes for change.
10.
The IT consultation for change was distributed as a proposal on 16 October and
feedback submissions closed on 1 November after an extension to initial feedback
timelines.
11.
The changes proposed disestablishing 20 positions, including vacant positions, and
significantly impacting 12 staff.
12.
The changes proposed establishing 20 new positions, and processes for significantly
impacted staff to be redeployed into appropriate positions.
13.
On 19 November, ELT endorsed the overall change decisions and impacts to progress
to the Board for approval.
14.
On 19 November ELT also discussed the merits of different approaches to salary
options for both the IT and People and Culture change proposals. Given the decision
would become the prevailing approach for current and future change processes, it was
agreed to present options to the Board for consideration.
Discussion
Feedback on the Consultation
15.
Staff across the Commission provided more than 30 pieces of feedback during the
consultation period.
16.
With support from P&C, we identified these key themes:
16.1
Overall rationale and need for change:
16.1.1 Support for the proposal recognising that the IT team needed review
and change
16.1.2 Agreement on the need to address current capability gaps
16.1.3 Support for utilisation of temporary staff to uplift capacity for electoral
events
16.2
Position descriptions and responsibilities:
16.2.1 The need for greater specificity regarding electoral event
responsibilities
16.2.2 Concerns that position descriptions are too generic
16.3
Salaries and remuneration:
16.3.1 Concerns regarding position sizing and remuneration bands,
especially for those being offered lower banded positions.
16.3.2 Perceived undervaluing of institutional knowledge
16.3.3 Discrepancies perceived between proposed salary bands and similar
roles within the Commission
16.4
Team structure and capacity
16.5
Support for the overall management and team structure
16.6
Support for introduction of Security Operations Centre (SOC)
16.7
Feedback on requirements for specific positions
16.8
Suggestions for additional capacity in specific areas
Changes made from consultation feedback
17.
We modified the proposed changes based on the feedback received. These have been
included in the IT Change Proposal Decision Document in Appendix A and outlined
below.
Changes to position titles
Original title
New title
Manager, IT Infrastructure
Manager, IT Infrastructure & Operations
Records Administrator
Records Officer
Infrastructure Architect
Infrastructure & Cloud Architect
Infrastructure Engineer
Infrastructure & Cloud Engineer
Technical Support Analyst
Systems Administrator
Senior Technical Support Analyst
Senior Systems Administrator
Changes to position descriptions
Position
Summary of changes
Records Officer
Minor updates to position description to
incorporate feedback, including additional
knowledge and experience requirements
Cyber Security Engineer
Updated terminology, added information
management and changes to security-related
responsibilities
Manager, Applications
Detail provided regarding the position’s
budget responsibilities
Test & Release Manager
Clarified position scope regarding leadership,
testing responsibilities and team relationships
Solutions Architect
Changes to role to focus on oversight rather
than preparation of technical plans, clarified
strategic planning and collaboration
responsibilities
Infrastructure & Cloud Architect
and
Updated responsibilities to better reflect cloud
Infrastructure & Cloud Engineer
focus and cross-team collaboration
Senior Systems Analyst
and
Clarified responsibilities regarding electoral
Systems Analyst
events and product ownership and updated
technical requirements and role scope
Manager, IT Infrastructure & Operations
Detail provided regarding the positions’
budget responsibilities and replaced strategic
planning with product management, and
made changes to experience, knowledge &
qualification requirements.
IT Operations Lead
Added knowledge management
responsibilities.
Lead Architect
Minor clarifications & terminology
Senior Systems Administrator
and
Additional technical skillsets added to
Systems Administrator
experience and qualifications, and changes to
the role purpose to include build &
deployment
18.
Final position descriptions for all roles to be established have been included in Appendix
B.
19.
Position descriptions with significant changes have been submitted for sizing by Korn
Ferry and have not yet returned.
Changes to structure
Area
Summary of changes
Senior Systems Administrator &
Replaced one of the proposed Systems
Systems Administrator
Administrator positions (2) with a Senior
Systems Administrator.
IT Infrastructure Team
Renamed to the IT Infrastructure &
Operations team.
Risks
20.
We identified medium inherent risk associated with this change to the capacity &
capability of the IT team and knowledge retention for key person risk.
21.
With planned mitigations, one risk remains at a medium rating to the knowledge
retention of the IT architecture team. This risk has already been realised, due to recent
resignations and limited tenure in this area.
22.
Salary impacts to kaimahi temporarily increases the current key person risk. The
likelihood of this has increased from the change proposal ELT approved. This is most
significant in the Applications Team where the most tenure and IP currently resides.
23.
While the risk is temporarily increased, the changes to the IT organisation will mitigate
the risk in time by improving the structured approaches to knowledge retention and
capacity.
24.
Detail of the risk analysis is included in Appendix C – Change risk analysis.
Salary offers approach
25.
Options for salary approaches have been provided in a separate paper for consideration
by the Board.
26.
The outcome of the Board decision will be the approach that is implemented for current
and future change processes
Budget
27.
The IT personnel budget is not expected be impacted by the changes to positions.
28.
If the recommendation for considering offers above 100% to kaimahi who are offered
positions at lower bands, this is forecast to be an additional $53,650 with the
assumption that we would not offer above 110% of bands.
29.
Changes to bandings of positions that are currently being reassessed may further
increase the budget impacts.
Next steps
30.
If approved, the CIO will undertake the following next steps.
Date
Activity
28 NOV
Communication of decision
29 NOV – 13 DEC
EOI & redeployment processes
16 DEC
Communication of outcomes
27 JAN
Change implementation date
31.
The CIO will begin recruitment for critical vacant roles in early 2025.
Appendices
A. IT Change Proposal Decision Document -
IT Change Proposal Decision Document - November
2024.docx
B. Final position descriptions – IT Change Final Position Descriptions.zip
C. Change risk analysis -
Change Risk Analysis.xlsx
