Statement from Chief Executive on proposed workforce changes

When Kainga Ora was established in 2019, the breadth of work we were tasked to deliver expanded significantly and we had to increase our workforce.

We have performed our core functions while constantly evolving, and over the last 18 months we have been able to start reducing our internally focused change programmes and resources.

Kāinga Ora is now further responding to government direction to identify potential savings while maintaining the delivery of our core functions and services.

In November 2023 Kāinga Ora introduced recruitment restrictions for all roles that were not frontline or customer facing and removed 300 roles from budgets. We have not been replacing people as they have left, and we have not renewed fixed terms roles as they have ended.

The next phase of this work is focused on achieving further efficiencies by changing the approach we take and reducing the volume of work we undertake in some support (or back-office) functions. We are realigning, repositioning and reducing the size of those teams.

There will be job losses as a result of this work. We are very mindful of the impact this will have on our people so we’re taking a staged, considered approach that enables us to carefully support staff through the process.

We are currently consulting with staff in teams within the People Governance and Capability, Government and Sector Relationships, and National Services groups about change proposals that could result in a net reduction of 159 positions.

The exact number of positions that will be disestablished within the teams will not be finalised until we have completed consultation with affected staff.

Kāinga Ora will be offering voluntary redundancy to people in the affected teams.

Change proposals for some other teams within Kāinga Ora will be put out for consultation with affected staff in the coming months.

Depending on the outcome of the independent review into Kāinga Ora and the decisions the Government makes in this year’s Budget, additional changes to staffing levels could be required. Kāinga Ora is committed to making sure that staff are the first to learn of any changes that are proposed. 

Read more on the workforce changes.