Policy ‐ Recruitment
The employment of staff at Environment Southland is governed by Part 4 s42(2)(g) & (h) and
Schedule 7 s36 Local Government Act 2002 (LGA) and by the provisions of the Employment
Relations Act 2000 (ERA) and other employment related legislation. This policy sets out how
Environment Southland will conduct its recruitment of staff in line with those statutory
requirements.
1.
Contents
1.
Contents
2.
Introduction
3.
Policy
Policy
Policy owner
Approval Date and Date of Next
Approved By
MORF
Related
No.
Scheduled Review
Reference
Standards
MP07.6
People
&
Approved – May 2007
Executive
A387926
LGA 2002
Capability
Reviewed – 30 September 2015
Employment
Reviewed – 23 October 2018
Relations Act
Reviewed – 28 March 2022
2000
Approved – 5 September 2022
Reviewed – 15 October 2025
Environment Southland is the brand name of the
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Southland Regional Council
Management Policy – Recruitment
2.
Introduction
The employment of people at Environment Southland is governed by Part 4 s42 (2)(g) and (h) and
Schedule 7 s36 of the Local Government Act 2002 and by the provisions of the Employment
Relations Act 2000 and other employment related legislation.
Part 4 s42 states the Chief Executive is responsible to his or her local authority for:
“(g) employing, on behalf of the local authority, the staff of the local authority; and
(h) negotiating the terms of employment of the staff of the local authority.”
Schedule 7 s36 of the Act states:
“A local authority, and any other person having responsibility for the selection and
management of employees of the local authority, must operate a personnel policy that
complies with the principle of being a good employer.”
It goes on to define a good employer as one who:
“operates a personnel policy containing provisions generally accepted as necessary for
the fair and proper treatment of employees in all aspects of their employment”.
The Environment Southland Delegations Manual clarifies who has the authority to hire
employees.
3.
Policy
1.
Employees may be appointed on an open tenure (permanent) or fixed term (temporary)
basis.
2.
Open tenure agreements may be full‐time or part‐time hours, not casual.
3.
Fixed term agreements may be full time or part time, not casual hours.
4.
Casual agreements may be offered where there is no guarantee of hours worked, no
regular pattern of work and no ongoing expectation of employment.
5.
Unless the term of an agreement is otherwise fixed according to s66 of the ERA, the fixed
term shall be specified as 30 June following commencement.
6.
For like‐for‐like recruitment (i.e. direct replacement), the Manager concerned will
obtain written approval (via the
Request to Recruit Form) from their General Manager
and Finance for the recruitment process to commence. Noting that there may be times
when strategic business decisions are made that may override this. When this occurs,
GMs will need to follow that directive when approving recruitment requests.
7.
If the recruitment request is for a new additional role approval from the Chief Executive
is required.
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Management Policy – Recruitment
8.
The Manager/Team Leader is authorised to interview and select the preferred
candidate, with their General Manager providing the final approval (via the
Preferred
Candidate Form) to make an offer and appoint.
8.
A vacancy will exist when:
employee numbers are below complement (i.e. following the exit of an employee
from the organisation, when the resource remains a requirement to complete our
work programmes), and
approval is given by Council and/or the Chief Executive to increase the permanent
employee complement, and
written approval is given by the General Manager and Chief Executive to create and
fill a temporary or casual vacancy.
9.
Any proposal to create and/or fill a vacancy above the established employee complement
or to reallocate the complement between Divisions shall require the approval of the Chief
Executive and relevant General Manager.
10.
The employee complement shall be established with respect to full‐time and part‐time
positions each year at the time Council approves the Annual Plan.
11.
No position shall be made permanent unless Clauses 6 and 7 of this policy are complied
with.
12.
Prior to creating or filling a vacancy, the Manager shall ensure that the requirements of
Council’s policies under the decision‐making provisions (s76–79) of the Local Government
Act 2002 are met.
13.
Once the recruitment advertisement is live on our online recruitment platform, the People
& Capability Officer will send out an organisation‐wide email advising of this. These
vacancies will also be included in the weekly Bulletin email.
14.
Opportunities for existing employees to fill vacancies shall be a first consideration, subject
to them meeting the criteria of preferred qualifications and experience.
15.
A member of the People & Capability team shall be engaged to manage the recruitment
process.
16.
The Manager/Team Leader shall be responsible for preparing, in consultation with People
& Capability, a:
Job Description
Job Evaluation
Recruitment and selection strategy
17.
A member of the People & Capability team shall be involved in the selection process to help
ensure Council’s equal opportunities employment and good employer obligations are met
and that Council’s processes are fair and equitable.
18.
To ensure that Environment Southland is not seen as discriminating for or against a family
member, all family members will be permitted to apply for, and will be considered for, any
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Management Policy – Recruitment
vacant position.
19.
For the purposes of this policy a family member or relative is defined as being related to an
employee by blood, marriage, affinity or adoption, who are wholly dependent on, or are
members of an employee’s household.
Applicants related to employees may be declined a position if there is a:
reporting relationship between an employee and the applicant:
This is to avoid bias or conflict which may occur when managers/team leaders
are involved in a process with a relative such as:
deciding which team member to appoint to a position
deciding which contracts to renew
completing performance reviews
disciplinary action
recruitment
or
risk of collusion to the detriment of the organization.
Environment Southland may decline to appoint a person if the employer of that relative
could be subject to detrimental collusion between that person and their relative.
No employee may directly recruit any relative. Where a candidate applies for a position
over which a relative has recruitment authority, the recruiting employee must hand those
responsibilities over to another suitably qualified person.
Employees cannot be transferred or promoted inside a reporting relationship with a
relative.
All relationships, described above, should be reported to People & Capability, including the
disclosure of any of these types of relationships that develop while employed at
Environment Southland.
20.
Should an applicant be required to attend an interview involving travel of more than
160 km, we will reimburse actual and reasonable expenses incurred.
21.
Interview panels for permanent and fixed‐term positions shall be made up of:
(a)
the immediate Manager/Team leader of the position;
(b)
where possible, the next tier in the line management structure or another member
of the team;
(c)
a member of the People & Capability team.
When (b) or (c) is not possible, a third person (Manager or Team Leader) from
another team that works closely with the recruiting team should form part of the
interview panel.
When a member of the interview panel is known to have a personal relationship
(e.g. friendship) with a candidate, this must be declared to People & Capability in
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Management Policy – Recruitment
order to consider ways to manage this impact on the recruitment process.
For consistency the interview panel should be the same for all interviews relating to
the same position.
The same interview guide (questions) shall be used for all applicants interviewed for
the role.
A scoring number for each question will be allocated by each person interviewing on
the interview guide they complete.
22.
Prior to making any offer of employment, the Manager/Team Leader shall complete a
Preferred Candidate Selection form documenting the offer to be made. The form is to
be approved by the relevant Divisional Manager and, General Manager .
23.
People & Capability will draft a letter of offer that meets the requirements of the
Employment Relations Act and Environment Southland’s employment agreements and
reflect the criteria noted on the
Preferred Candidate Selection form.
24.
If required, reasonable removal expenses of household effects will be met by
Environment Southland up to a maximum amount of $5,000 from South Island locations
and $7,000 from North Island locations, subject to the following conditions:
quotations are obtained from three sources;
quotations identify all storage and/or re‐delivery costs separate from relocation
costs;
storage of household effects from first pick up is limited to three weeks;
all insurance costs to be met by the owner;
removal costs of pets, vehicles, boats or trailers will not be met;
should the appointee leave for any reason within a period of less than two years,
Environment Southland will require the appointee to refund the removal costs
pro rata;
up to two weeks’ suitable accommodation costs in Invercargill will be paid for the
appointee at the time of commencement of duties.
Information regarding the process, along with links to the relevant documents, can be found in the
Recruiting New Employees ProMapp.
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