16 April 2024
R S Grant
[FYI request #26109 email]
Dear R S Grant
Official information request for Reserve Bank of New Zealand office occupancy rates
We refer to your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request of 16 March 2024 for the following:
1) How many of your staff work from home on a permanent basis.
2) Approximately what proportion of your staff are in the of ice each day, on average.
If you do not have the above information, please provide any information you have created within
the last 12 months (including but not limited to internal emails) discussing the extent to which
RBNZ staff attend the office versus working from home.
Background on RBNZ flexible working policy
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand – Te Pūtea Matua (RBNZ) has a flexible working policy and
guidelines that includes ‘flexi-place’ options such as working from home.
Flexible working takes many shapes and forms including variations to work hours or days, variations
to leave patterns for more flexibility, working from other locations, or flexible options around careers
and roles.
The following documents provide you with relevant information on RBNZ flexible working:
•
Flexible Working Arrangements
•
Your guide to flexible ways of working
•
Our approach to hybrid working
These have been released previously by RBNZ under the OIA and can be found at the fol owing
link:
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/project/sites/rbnz/files/publications/oias/2023/oia2223-
081-wfh-policy-and-stationery-subscription-spending.pdf
The document
Your guide to flexible ways of working provides the most robust and up-to-date
information on flexible working options and how this is agreed between RBNZ employees and
people leaders on a case-by-case basis. The document
Our approach to hybrid working sets out the
principals and practical considerations for hybrid working.
Staff working from home
RBNZ currently has 13 staff members (out of more than 500) who have an official
location/place of work outside of Wellington or Auckland (where RBNZ has offices). While
these employees will primarily work from home they are required to travel at various times to
work in one of our office locations.
2
Office occupancy
Given the case-by-case nature of flexible working arrangements set out above, the RBNZ does not
keep records of office occupancy. A one-of exercise was undertaken in late 2023 however that
produced an indicative occupancy/utilisation rate as a percentage for the RBNZ building at 2 The
Terrace. This was done for the Wellington of ice only (excludes Auckland) and for data from May
2022 to April 2023 at a time when working from home may have been more common fol owing
COVID-19.
This data was extracted and manually audited to calculate unique swipe card access to the building
compared to the number of available desks (excluding public holidays). This information needs to
be treated as indicative only for the time and, given the manual auditing of data, may include some
errors.
The calculated occupancy for the RBNZ at 2 The Terrace, month-to-month, for May 2022 – April
2023 is set out below.
May 22
June 22
July 22
August 22
September 22 October 22
39%
43%
41%
38%
41%
43%
November 22
December 22
January 23
February 23
March 23
April 23
39%
43%
46%
46%
38%
51%
Please also note that the RBNZ owns the building at 2 The Terrace and has, in some instances,
allowed other agencies to make use of spare desk space if appropriate and needed (for example,
following the recent fire in the Treasury building at 1 The Terrace).
There are no plans to repeat this exercise or make any other estimations of office occupancy,
although it is expected that there would be higher occupancy/utilisation now than indicated in this
May 2022 – April 2023 period.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this response.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
Please note that we intend to publish a copy of this response on the RBNZ website:
www.rbnz.govt.nz/research-and-publications/official-information-requests. Responses to requests
are published in order to improve public transparency and provide an additional resource for anyone
seeking information.
Yours sincerely
Government and Industry Relations
Reserve Bank of New Zealand – Te Pūtea Matua
Document Outline
