NZ Superfund: Redesigning graduate recruitment to build diversity in investment and finance roles
In November 2021, the New Zealand Superfund leadership team committed to increasing the numbers of women in leadership roles, Māori and Pasifika in appointments. Despite the growing diversity of the company’s wider staff pool, senior leadership in the finance sector as a whole has remained relatively unchanged. The appointment of a new position, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, in early 2022 was a key part of the commitment to improve how the Guardians reflect the communities they serve as well as achieve better outcomes and decision-making. The development of the DEI strategy (launched June 2023) influenced some of the engagement in the GEM.
The increased focus on diversity and inclusion resulted in a revamp of a pre-existing internship programme to now include a Graduate Programme, with the first cohort of recruits starting in early 2024. Core recruitment training has also been redesigned. All this is intended to help meet the goal of increasing Māori and Pasifika in new appointments by 2027 to reflect the average in the overall finance and investment sector.
Alongside the new Head of DEI, the company brought on a new Talent Sourcing and Graduate Lead to carry out the redesigned talent pipeline and recruitment process. With the intention of widening the pool to a more diverse selection of candidates, there has been a material shift in the application process. Advertising and job descriptions have been geared towards more diverse audiences, and psychometric testing occurs later in the process. By shifting the focus away from heavy reliance on academic measures such as GPA success and ensuring there is a kanohi ki te kanohi meeting before psychometric testing, the recruitment team have been able to identify candidates who may not have previously made it through the recruitment process, diversifying the pool.
The internship and graduate programmes “are a really good vehicle for change in terms of that representation of Māori and Pasifika young people coming to an investment or financial services organisation,” says Sam O’Loughlin, Talent Sourcing and Graduate Lead.
The revamped focus on diversity and inclusion in the internship programme has created a balance of gender in participants, in addition to six of the nine interns being Māori or Pasifika. With general managers across the business taking on interns, four have come on board from TupuToa, with an additional two Māori and Pasifika interns recruited directly from universities. Through university expos and the sponsorship of the University of Auckland’s Toroa Programme, a career development and employability programme for first-year Māori and Pasifika Business students, the business has been able to build relationships with students. The ability to encourage students into the investment and finance sector is hugely important for the team, and raises brand awareness amongst a young, diverse population.
NZ Superfund is also working on developing a scholarship plan for students, with a focus on supporting more women, Māori and Pasifika people, and other ethnicities and demographics. The company has established a Pasifika-specific scholarship with AUT and has been explicit about its prioritisation of diverse populations with the establishment of a sustainable finance scholarship offered at Otago University.
With the Graduate Programme commencing in 2024, two Māori graduates will join the company in full-time, permanent positions. Volume recruitment for the graduate programme has been a highly intense exercise for both the Talent team and candidates, with the team making the decision to interview candidates before testing. The changes in the recruitment process have resulted in a measurable difference in who has been applying for and getting jobs, with over 30% of the final 15 candidates being Māori/Pasifika.
The recruitment team did find that the number of Māori and Pacific candidates dropped off during the psychometric testing and review of academic achievement stage. While psychometric testing is intended to predict ability and circumvent unconscious biases, the majority of these tools are created abroad. The recruitment team are currently discussing the impact of these tests in terms of how an individual’s score may be impacted by cultural background, their ability to test well under pressure, and other variables. The delicate balance of broadening the scope of recruitment and where equity and inclusion sit alongside academic and psychometric testing is still being considered.
The focus on building up a diverse workforce comes with a unique set of challenges for NZ Superfund, as an organisation still at the start of its diversity, equity and inclusion journey, in a niche sector that has historically not attracted Māori and Pasifika and has had long tenure at senior levels. While relationships are being built, and they are actively sponsoring career and skill development for diverse investment and finance students, there is still a scarcity of Māori and Pasifika staff currently at the NZ Superfund.
“You need more Māori and Pasifika, but you also need more Māori and Pasifika staff to support those new staff coming through,” says Sam. “I think having those communities and rōpu set up as well, which is organically happening for us, is important too.”
In working towards the achievement of NZ Superfund’s DEI objectives, the organising staff and a small number of Māori and Pasifika kaimahi have been carefully considering the need for cultural advisors and networks. At present, there are informal networks in place for Māori and Pasifika, but developing a formal network may help mitigate the burden of cultural tax put on staff.
The size of NZ Superfund also means that there may be limited progression prospects for anyone into the senior tiers, let alone Māori and Pasifika. This is where their Alumni programme comes in as a way of expanding the progression prospects of current employees, who may end up moving ‘up and out’ into another institution in the government financial ecosystem and who may end up circling back into the organisation later in their careers. Formalising industry-wide or sector-wide networks to support Māori and Pasifika workers is seen as a promising approach for sectors where they are extremely under-represented.
Case Study Summary
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Increase Māori and Pacific identified people in new appointments by 2027, with a target of 10% Māori and 6% Pasifika staff. Currently, this sits at 2% combined.
The Early Careers programmes – internships and graduate recruitment – as supported by new DEI, enterprise and recruitment strategies, are seen as key pathways for more Māori and Pasifika tauira entering investment and financial services. This will not only improve Māori and Pasifika recruitment for the Guardians, but support the overall ‘pipeline’ of Māori and Pasifika talent into the very pākehā and very male financial investment industry.
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The Talent Sourcing and Graduate Lead manages most of the early careers programme activities with the support of internal stakeholders, as part of core business.
The Intern programme is offered enterprise wide, and all General Managers across the business have taken on interns within their business units.
The Graduate Programme pilot (2024) is focusing on recruitment to the investment teams. Key internal stakeholders are the five Heads of Direct investments, External Investments and Partnerships, Asset Allocation, Strategic Tilting, and Data Analytics. The Chief Investment Officer has had oversight of this iteration of the programme.
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Programmes aiming to improve diversity in early career pathways at the Guardians, including:
Internship programme (freshly partnering with TupuToa since 2022).
Graduate programme (pilot, first cohort onboarding March 2024).
University scholarships in finance and investing, focusing on student diversity, specifically women, Māori and Pasifika.
Increasing social media and brand awareness of the financial investing space as a career among the same demographics.
Has included revising recruitment processes for the Graduate programme and recruitment generally, to improve diversity.
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From the Enterprise Recruitment budget directly.
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Appointment of a specific role to establish a specific role to drive this initiative - Talent Sourcing and Graduate lead.
Intern programme: Interns were sourced from TupuToa, directly from universities, and directly from the market.
Graduate programme: 406 applicants for only 4 roles showed great reach. The organization ended up establishing 2 more opportunities during the process, taking on 6 graduates in total. It was a very intense process for both the Talent team, and candidates, and was a testing ground for revised recruitment processes for improving diversity of intakes.
Modifications to the order of the process, prioritizing face to face interaction up front, improved access and advancement through the process for Māori and Pasifika candidates. However, questions remain about getting the balance right with the psychometric testing process towards the end – developed internationally to remove bias, but which causes drop-off of Māori and Pasifika candidates.
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While 2% of the current workforce is Māori and Pacific, following change in recruitment process aiming to increase diversity, more than 30% of the final candidates for the graduate programme were Māori (2 out of 6 of the positions).
66% of 2023 interns are Māori or Pacific.
A key outcome of DEI reform to general recruitment processes has been removing the expectation of 10 years experience as a requirement and conducting interviews prior to testing (piloted with the graduate programme). This, combined with the new resourcing of a DEI lead, and refocusing on diversity for talent acquisition, is expected to improve general recruitment of Māori and Pasifika in the way it has for the early career programmes.
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Key success factors enabling the diversified intake have been:
Leadership support on diversifying talent acquisition, especially through the funding of a Head of DEI who can lead and support organisational culture change and also technical process change.
Building cultural competency through Tiriti o Waitangi workshops and refreshing te reo classes (that incorporate tikanga learning) throughout the organisation, especially training hiring managers.
Key challenges:
Getting the approach and balance right on psychometric testing.
Difficulty of maintaining employment for early career intakes in a small organisation: relationships aren’t necessarily able to be long term, but strengthening leaning into the Alumni network can provide progression opportunities within the general sector that may not happen within the organisation itself.
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Early career programmes within revised DEI strategy.
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Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation | Te Kaitiaki Tahuna Penihana Kaumātua o Aotearoa
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