1982
Act
FIRE AND EMERGENCY NEW ZEALAND
INTEGRATION PROGRAMME
Information
Guide to selection and appointment of
Local Advisory Committee members
[to be tested in LAC Hawke’s Bay pilot]
Official
the
November 2017
Version: 1.0_FINAL
under
Released
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Integration
Guide to selection and appointment of LAC members
[Hawkes Bay Pilot]
Document Control
Document information
Project name
Fire and Emergency NZ Integration Programme
Author
Resilient Communities Workstream
1982
Title
Guide to selection and appointment of Local Advisory Committee members
[to be tested in LAC Hawkes Bay pilot]
File name
Guide to selection and appointment
Act
Revision history
Version Date
Author
Description of change
0.1
8 Nov 2017
Julia Saunders
Initial draft
0.2
11 Nov 2017
Nic Wright
Updated for feedback from Nic Wright
0.3
14 Nov 2017
Nic Wright
Updated for feedback from Sue Sherburd
0.4
14 Nov 2017
Tauvale
Updated document to align with programme
Whitman
documentation standards
0.5
28 Nov 2017
Julia Saunders
Updated following feedback from evaluation
Information
committee
1.0
28 Nov 2017
Julia Saunders
Final version
Feedback and input sought from
Official
Name
Business Area
Date
Version
Nic Wright
Integration Programme
8 Nov 2017
0.1
the
Sue Sherburd
Integration Programme
11 Nov 2017
0.2
Gary Lockyer
Integration Programme
11 Nov 2017
0.2
Cushla Majendie
Integration Programme
11 Nov 2017
0.2
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Fire and Emergency New Zealand Integration
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[Hawkes Bay Pilot]
Table of Content
Purpose of this guide .............................................................................................................................. 4
Background ............................................................................................................................................. 4
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Confidentiality and Ethics ....................................................................................................................... 4
Call for Nominations ............................................................................................................................... 5
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Application Channels .............................................................................................................................. 5
The Evaluation Approach ........................................................................................................................ 5
Essential Criteria ................................................................................................................................. 6
Evaluate Expression of Interest (EOI) and Curriculum Vitae (CV) ....................................................... 6
Reference Checking ............................................................................................................................ 6
Score Moderation ............................................................................................................................... 7
The Evaluation Panel ............................................................................................................................... 7
Evaluation Criteria and Scoring ............................................................................................................... 7
Estimated timeframes for process completion ...................................................................................... 9
Information
Final recommendations to appoint ........................................................................................................ 9
Appointments ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Unsuccessful nominees ....................................................................................................................... 9
Appendix 1: Evaluation criteria and weighting ..................................................................................... 10
Appendix 2: Selection and appointment process diagrams ................................................................. 11
Official
Appendix 3: Exit process diagram ......................................................................................................... 12
Appendix 4: Trial LAC Evaluation Process Details ................................................................................. 13
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Purpose of this guide
The purpose of this guide is:
To explain how to fairly and consistently evaluate information supplied by individuals
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expressing interest becoming a Local Advisory Committee Member (committee member).
To describe the process and protocols for people participating in the screening, selection
and appointment of a committee member.
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To explain the evaluation methodology, criteria and processes relating to the selection and
appointment of a committee member.
Background
Local Advisory Committees will play a pivotal role in helping Fire and Emergency to ensure that
communities become more resilient in the future. This means that New Zealand is safer and better
prepared physically, economically and socially. Lives, property and the environment are increasingly
protected and preserved, and there is a reduced likelihood and consequence of unwanted fire.
The main purpose of the Local Advisory Committees (LACs) is to provide advice from a local
Information
perspective to Fire and Emergency. They will ensure that local risks and needs are considered and
that the voice of local communities is represented in Fire and Emergency’s local and national
planning for fire and non-fire services. This requires that LAC members:
undertake efficient and effective local engagement for the board; and
provide local advice to Fire and Emergency on the national strategy, local issues and local
planning;
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while considering and promoting the interest of the local area Fire and Emergency volunteers,
industry brigades in the local area and any current operational service agreements and
memorandums of understandings that Fire and Emergency has and that are relevant to the local
the
area.
The people who engage in the LAC selection and appointment process will be important community
influencers so the process we follow for how we treat people and how we make them feel
(particularly unsuccessful applications and nominations) is as crucial as selecting the most suitable
people. It is important that we maintain a “community relationship” mindset (versus an
employee/employer or commercial mindset) as we conduct this selection and appointment process.
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Confidentiality and Ethics
The integrity of the committee and those involved in establishing it is highly valued and must be
reflected and maintained throughout this process.
Confidentiality of both the evaluation process and the results of this process is important. Those
involved in the evaluation of nominees should not contact the nominee regarding their application
without discussion with the panel.
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Do not discuss applications with others who are not involved in the selection and appointments.
Ensure you disclose any personal connection to any of the nominees at the beginning of the process.
Call for Nominations
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The call for nominations for LAC members will be publicly notified in the local newspaper and will
appear on the Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s website.
An analysis of local stakeholders will also be carried out by the national co-ordination function in
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conjunction with local leaders and local Maori advisors to identify possible nominees and approach
these nominees specifically for nominations.
Note, regulations relating to the LAC appointment process, due to be in force by 1 July 2018, may
result in changes to this process.
If a vacancy for a committee member arises with no obvious succession (e.g. Deputy Chair to act as
Chair), then the vacancy will be publically notified and placed on the Fire and Emergency Local
Advisory Committee webpage.
Information
Application Channels
Nominees need to complete the expression of interest form in full and provide their professional CV.
This can be done electronically online or submitted in hard copy form. Applications will be collected,
tracked and recorded by the nationally by the LAC administration function (to be informed by the
trial).
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The Evaluation Approach
The purpose of this evaluation process is to screen nominees using a pre-defined method in order to
the
present a shortlist of suitable nominees to the Fire and Emergency Board, for potential appointment
to a Local Advisory Committee (LAC/committee)
It is critical to the selection and appointment process that applications received are evaluated and
scored by the panel consistently and without bias. Adopting an evaluation methodology, with pre-
defined evaluation criteria and prescribed scoring metrics, reduces the subjectivity from the scoring
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process, ensuring that all responses are treated consistently and equally, irrespective of who is
responsible for scoring each application.
The evaluation team will carry out the following steps in the evaluation process, to continuously
refine the pool of suitable nominees, down to a recommended shortlist.
Step Description
Evaluated against
Evaluation
Outcome
1.
Satisfy essential criteria relating to the
Pre-defined criteria
Pass/Fail
eligibility of the nominee to become an
LAC committee member
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2.
Evaluate expression of interest and CV
Pre-defined criteria and
Score
scoring metrics
3.
Conduct interviews/panel discussions
Prescribed interview
Score
questions
4.
Reference checking
Prescribed reference
Favourable/
checking questions
unfavourable
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Essential Criteria
The essential criteria are a list of minimum non-negotiable requirements that the nominee must
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meet in order to be considered for selection to committee.
Applications for the Local Advisory Committees, will be automatically be excluded if the nominee is:
not a NZ citizen; or
under 18 years of age; or
an undischarged bankrupt; or
prohibited from being a director or promoter of, or being concerned or taking part in the
management of, a company under any statutory provisions.
Whilst the nominee will be asked to self-disclose any criminal convictions they have and any
conflicts of interest they are aware of, this does not automatically exclude them for further
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evaluation. These disclosures will be assessed on a case by case basis.
Evaluate Expression of Interest (EOI) and Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Each nominees EOI and CV will be assessed against specific criteria developed to determine the most
suited persons for the role. At a high level, the criteria seeks to impartially evaluate the nominee’s:
Skills, experience and qualities; and Official
Local knowledge of risks and needs and extent to which they successfully engage with local
communities of interest.
These criteria will be evaluated in detail at various steps in the evaluation process and will be based
the
on supporting information provided the nominee (i.e. application form, CV and cover letter) and a
behavioural competency-based interview.
The panel will score based on the evidence in front of them and not pre-existing information,
knowledge or ideas they have about the nominee over and above what has been presented.
If following interview, a nominee demonstrates strength in a particular area, not demonstrated in
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the application process, the score can be adjusted to reflect this.
Notes will be kept as to the reason a particular nominee is unsuccessful or less favourable than
another.
In all circumstances, all steps and decisions are documented and justifiable so the Board are able to
provide evidence that a fair selection and appointment process has been followed.
Reference Checking
References can be used to check subjective topics or for concerns that were unable to be alleviated
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in the interview process for one reason or another.
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Reference checking will be conducted for preferred nominees that have been identified for
recommendation to the Board and will serve as a final step to validate the evaluation outcomes
drawn to date.
Score Moderation
All evaluation outcomes will be recording on a scoring sheet. The individual scores of each panel
member will be consolidated on a consolidated scoring sheet by a scoring moderator and will be
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used to compare nominee evaluation results. The panel will meet to review consolidated scores,
discuss any obvious outliers and disparity between individual scores and their rationale for scoring.
Individual scores may be changed or moderated, as appropriate, as part of the moderation process.
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The Evaluation Panel
An evaluation panel must be made up of a minimum of 3 assessors, who will be responsible for scoring
the EOI and CVs and conducting interviews for nominee LAC members. Fire and Emergency New
Zealand personnel will make up the majority of the panel. External evaluators to Fire and Emergency
may be invited to participate on the panel, if appropriate. Gender and diversity balance to be
considered when forming a panel.
Information
It is likely that personnel responsible for conducting the initial screening of nominees by assessing
these against the essential criteria, outlined above, will be different to those members on the
evaluation panel. Screening against essential criteria is expected to be carried out at a national level,
by the national co-ordination function.
It is recommended that the evaluation panel comprise of at least the following roles:
1. a local leader with appropriate local knowledge of local risks and needs and communities of
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interest;
2. a Maori advisor with appropriate local knowledge of iwi;
3. a leader from the national co-ordination function to ensure consistency of capability across
the
all LACs; and
4. a moderator (non scoring role) from the people and capability function to ensure
consistency of process across all LACs.
Evaluation Criteria and Scoring
The scoring involves the use of weighting and a score range.
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The weighting applied to the major evaluation criteria in the application process is outlined below.
Category
Criteria
Chair
Member
Skills, experience and
Leadership
40%
40%
qualities
Thinking, judgement and analytics
Ethics
Working style; collaborations and
communication
Local knowledge,
Understanding of local risks and needs
60%
60%
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engagement,
Community focussed
influence/mana
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Engages broadly with communities of
interest
Diversity of network within the local
area
TOTAL
100%
100%
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See Appendix 1 for Detailed criteria and weightings.
Scores must reflect the merit of the nominee relative to the scoring scale outlined in the table
below.
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Score
Description
9-10
Greatly exceeds
Exceptionally well demonstrated or an overwhelmingly
competence
significant amount of evidence to suggest nominee
requirements
exceeds competence requirements
10+ years current/recent relevant experience, if
applicable
7-8
Demonstrates more
Clearly demonstrated or a significant amount of
than required
evidence to suggest nominee exceeds competency
requirements. Information
5+ years current or recent relevant experience, if
applicable
5-6
Competence sufficiently Nominee satisfies the competency requirements.
demonstrated
At least 2+ years current or recent relevant experience, if
applicable
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3-4
Not sufficiently
Some evidence to satisfy requirements, however light,
demonstrated
missing information or some reservations or concerns
the < 2 years’ experience or experience not relevant and/or
recent, if applicable
1-2
Not demonstrated
No evidence to support requirements are met OR
evidence to suggest inconsistent or not appropriate
when compared with requirements
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Interview scores will reflect the performance of the nominee during their interview.
Scoring structure for the interview questions is as fol ows and each interview will be taken on own
merits. The weighting applied to the competencies in the interview process is outlined below.
Competency Area
Weighting
Introductory & experience
10%
Local Knowledge
25%
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Strategic and risk based thinking
25%
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Group think facilitation
10%
Stakeholders
30%
The panel will agree on a score for each interview question between 1-5.
INTERVIEW QUESTION RATING SCALE
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Rating scale: 1= Poor, 2 = Limited, 3 = Demonstrated, 4 = Exceeds, 5 = Greatly exceeds
Scores will be reflective of the merit demonstrated in the response provided.
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Estimated timeframes for process completion
This is dependent on the circumstances, however below are some indications of how long a process
and the steps within a process is expected to take:
Activity
Target timeframe
Advertising / collections of expressions of interest
4 weeks
Shortlisting
1 week
Interviews
2 weeks
Reference checking and recommendations
1 week
Offer and appointment
1-2 weeks
Information
Final recommendations to appoint
Recommendations for appointment will be made to the board by the evaluation panel. The board
are responsible in law for appointing the committee Chair and Deputy Chair, but in practice are most
likely to appoint all members of a committee.
Appointments
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Nominees are not appointed until they have read understood and returned the appointment letter.
Appointments will then be confirmed and communicated.
All appointments made are subject to the completion of any pre-appointment reference checks that
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are still required to be undertaken to the satisfaction of the Board.
Unsuccessful nominees
Nominees are entitled to obtain verbal feedback as to why they have not been unsuccessful at the
conclusion of the process. This will be carried out at the nominee’s request.
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Nominees wishing to make a complaint about the appointment process are to follow the complaints
procedure. This would be through the standard Fire and Emergency Complaints process.
Note: Regulations relating to the appointment and removal of members are being drafted
currently by Department of Internal Affairs and are expected to be in force for 1 July 2018. This
may result in changes being required to be made to the processes outlined in this document.
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Guide to selection and appointment of LAC members
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Appendix 1: Evaluation criteria and weighting
Essential Criteria
EOIs will be initially assessed against a four high level stage gates on a Pass/Fail basis. Applications
that receive an overall Pass will be considered for detailed evaluation.
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Criteria
Criteria description
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1.
Motivations for expressing Applicant’s motivations for wanting to participate in the
interest
trial are aligned with that of Fire and Emergency’s
2.
Availability
Applicant is available to attend trial committee meetings
and carry out trial activities over the trial period
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3.
Exclusions
Applicant does not have any criminal convictions or
conflicts of interest that would prevent them from
participating in the trial
4.
Live in the local area
Applicant resides in the local area as defined by the trial
LAC boundary
Detailed Criteria
Weightings for the key sections of the EOI are set out below.
Chair
Member
#
Criteria
Weighting
Total
Weighting
Total
Information
1. Skills, Experience and Qualities
40%
40%
Leadership
10%
5%
Critical thinking/ strategic agility
10%
15%
Ethics
5%
5%
Working style, collaboration
15%
15%
and communication
2. Local knowledge and engagement
60%
60%
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Understands risks and needs of
30%
30%
community of interest
Engages broadly and has
15%
15%
outreach to and number of
the
different interest groups
Can demonstrate that they are
15%
15%
representative of a cluster, and
not one particular industry
Total
100%
100%
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Appendix 2: Selection and appointment process diagrams
Select
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Information
Appoint
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Appendix 3: Exit process diagram
Note, the exit process is subject to regulations currently being drafted by the DIA.
[TBC]
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Information
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Appendix 4: Trial LAC Evaluation Process Details
The screening panel for the trial LAC comprises of:
Name
Role
Ken Cooper
Local manager, Hawke’s Bay
Trevor Mitchell
Local manager, Hawke’s Bay
Piki Thomas
National Maori Advisor
Gary Lockyer
Workstream Leader, Resilient Communities
Nic Wright
Project Manager, Resilient Communities
Sue Sherburd
Principal Engagement Advisor, Integration Programme
Cushla Majendie
Implementation analyst, Integration Programme
The evaluation panel for the trial LAC comprises of:
Name
Role
Ken Cooper
Local manager, Hawke’s Bay
Trevor Mitchell*
Local manager, Hawke’s Bay
Piki Thomas
National Maori Advisor
Gary Lockyer*
Workstream Leader, Resilient Communities
Nic Wright
Project Manager, Resilient Communities
Sue Sherburd*
Principal Engagement Advisor, Integration Programme
Cushla Majendie
Implementation analyst, Integration Programme
Julia Saunders
Moderator (non scoring role)
*Interview/discussion panel
under the Official Information Act 1982
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