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Our performance

The Commission undertakes research and provides advice to influence policies that:

  • lift New Zealand's productivity, and as a result,

  • lift the wellbeing of New Zealanders.

 

How we measure progress

The Commission takes a strong evaluative-based approach to measuring performance. This is because the topics we work on, the types of analysis we conduct, and the range of community and industry groups we need to engage with change significantly from year to year. It is difficult to capture this diversity of work and effort in fixed quantitative targets.

As an advisory body we do not implement policies. Instead, we communicate our ideas and analysis to influence and shape policy. The nature of productivity issues is also complex. The influence of our work may only emerge over long timeframes, and it may be challenging to directly identify and attribute it to our work.

How we evaluate our performance

We have a performance evaluation framework that is detailed in our Statement of intent and Statement of performance expectations, and reported against in our Annual report, inquiry and research evaluation reports. See our:

Learning from external feedback

Our inquiry and research outputs are subject to a rigorous independent evaluation to ensure that our work is robust, relevant, clear and of value. We evaluate our performance using three primary mechanisms:

Independent expert review

Online survey of participants

Stakeholder focus group

The evaluation reports for each inquiry are included on the respective inquiry pages and here is the latest evaluation of our Economics & Research function. 

In 2017, as incoming Minister of Finance, Hon Grant Robertson requested an external review of the functioning and role of the Productivity Commission. This review was carried out by Dr David Skilling of Landfall Strategy Group in 2018 and the report is available here as well as the subsequent Treasury report to the Minister.

Transparency statement on information gathering

This transparency statement explains how the Commission collects, uses and shares information gathered about members of the public or other entities (directly or indirectly) in accordance with the Information Gathering Model Standards. 

The Commission does not have any law enforcement, regulatory compliance responsibilities, and does not gather any information for these purposes. 

The security of our premises is managed in accordance with our health and safety policy and in accordance with government procurement standards and government Protective Security Requirements. The security of our information is managed in accordance with our Managing Information Policy, and in compliance with the Privacy Act 1993, the Official Information Act 1982 and the Public Records Act 2005. The information we hold is used only for the purpose for which it is collected or as otherwise advised, including as described in our Managing Information Policy.

Note where we have serious concerns regarding potential threats to the physical security of staff, or the security of information or places, we will engage an appropriate authority (such as NZ Police). 

Should we identify a need to gather information in scope of the model standards in future, we will ensure compliance with the Information Gathering Model Standards,and update this transparency statement. 

This statement applies to information gathered by us, our contractors, or any other third parties engaged by us.

Enquiries and complaints

If you have any enquiries about our information gathering activities or believe we have not acted in accordance with this statement, please contact info@productivity.govt.nz.