Each year the Auckland Council group, like all other public and private organisations, publishes staffing and salary data in its Annual Report.
Auckland Council Chief Executive Stephen Town says the council continues to focus on responding to Auckland’s growth by investing in critical infrastructure and delivering services across a wide range of areas, and delivered by a wide range of employees.
Here are some of the key facts about council staff from this year’s Annual Report:
- Employee numbers at Auckland Council have seen a net decrease of 11 over the financial year, while increasing by 193 across the wider group. This growth was driven by a range of factors including growth in the Port Company and delivery of major infrastructure projects.
- The total number of employees across the group is 40 more than the number of employees pre-amalgamation. During that time Auckland’s population has increased by around 170,000.
- Auckland Council competes with the private sector for senior management and specialist roles. The methods used to determine the salary ranges follow best practice and the remuneration data used to benchmark covers a range of private and public sector organisations.
Staff earning more than $100,000
Auckland Council salary bands are benchmarked against using international best practice and reviewed against market data. We compete with the private sector for senior management and specialist roles.
This year’s financial results show that the net number of Auckland Council (as opposed to the council group) employees earning more than $200,000 has increased by 18, to 73 employees. This equates to less than 1 per cent of employees earning more than $200,000, and is in line with the Wellington City Council, but below other public sector organisations such as Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and well below the private sector for equivalent.
The increase is for a range of reasons. They include salary increases taking employees over the $200,000 threshold, new roles and in some cases two roles being merged into a single role with broader responsibilities.
Increased staff numbers
Employee numbers at Auckland Council (excluding CCOs) have decreased by 11 full-time equivalents (FTEs) overall this financial year.
Across the Auckland Council group, employee numbers have increased by 193 FTEs. In total, the number of FTEs across the Auckland Council group (excluding Ports of Auckland) is 40 more than the number of employee pre-amalgamation.
Per capita, employee numbers were 3.69 per 1000 residents for the April-June 2017 quarter. The Performance Plan target is 3.9 per 1000 residents – this is based on financial year 14/15.
The increase in employee numbers has largely been driven by:
- An increase in council operational and customer service employees (a response to growth and delivery)
- Ports of Auckland bought two other logistics companies, bringing on 56 FTEs
- Ports of Auckland also increased headcount by 28 FTEs, in response to business growth
- Employees have also been brought in to reduce external expenditure and to help with the delivery of major infrastructure projects, such as the City Rail Link.
At the same time we have also seen a decrease of 108 FTEs in the number of ‘back office’ employees within Auckland Council (excluding CCOs) as efficiency drives and other initiatives take effect. ATEED also saw a reduction of 23 employees on the completion of the World Masters Games.
