About us
Staff
Housing Assistance
Housing Assistance is a freephone service that is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via the National Contact Centre. The service receives a broad range of enquiries, from maintenance on current tenancies to any of the wide range of Corporation products or services. In 2007/08, Housing Assistance continued to experience call volume growth. In August 2007, operations were expanded by about 30 percent to meet increased customer demand.
Table 9: Housing Assistance statistics
| Year | Total enquiries |
| 2005/06 | 380,141 |
| 2006/07 | 420,326 |
| 2007/08 | 548,913 |
Source: Housing Assistance.
National Contact Centre customer service
The National Contact Centre's Gravitas customer satisfaction survey continues to produce excellent results. In 2007/08 the average customer satisfaction result was 98 percent.
Enhancing skills and knowledge
The Corporation needs to invest in developing people to ensure it has the right people with the right skills. Many specialist training and education programmes are available and range from the formal induction process to leadership development and technical training. These programmes support staff to develop their capability to deliver services within their current roles and ensure they have the capacity to respond to new opportunities and future organisational needs.
In 2007/08:
- 179 new staff attended the two-day formal induction to learn more about the structure, services, products and shared objectives
- 13 staff completed the Certificate in the National Certificate of Public Sector Services (Client/Customers Level 4) with a further six staff due to complete in the 2008/09 financial year
- nine staff were awarded Making a Difference Scholarships allowing them to participate in a year-long course of part-time study in areas of specialisation related to the Corporation's work
- five staff were awarded Swinburne Scholarships for study towards the Certificate of Social Science in Housing Management Policy
- one staff member was awarded a scholarship to attend the Leadership New Zealand Programme, which focuses on issues of importance to New Zealand leaders now and in the future, and explores social, political, economic and cultural forces and trends
- four training schools were held in Auckland to help improve tenancy management expertise
- training clinics were held across the country that included topics of working with the law, the Residential Tenancies Act, Official Information Act and the Privacy Act
- one-on-one coaching was provided through a trainer-for-a-day programme
- refresher clinics were held on core technical policies and procedures.
Maintaining a safe and healthy workplace
The Corporation has appointed a national security manager and a health and safety manager to work with the business to develop security and health and safety strategies. Good progress has been made upgrading the security systems and practices for staff and the Corporation's offices.
Work also started on the deployment of a comprehensive health, safety and security management framework to deliver excellence in health, safety and security performance.
Recognising and celebrating diversity
In 2007/08, the Corporation continued to celebrate diversity by supporting the activities of Te Hou Ora and Tagata Pasifika.
Te Hou Ora, the Maori staff network, guides the Corporation's efforts to support and develop the aims and aspirations of Maori staff.
Tagata Pasifika, the Pacific staff network, supports Pacific staff to grow culturally and professionally in their roles.
The Corporation supported events such as Maori Language Week, Matariki, International Race Relations Day and World Refugee Day.
