Did You Know?
Winner of the 2007/2008 Human Resources Institute of New Zealand Awards for Young Practitioner of the Year, Matt and the Polytechnic gained prominence at the Awards. Proving a breadth of experience across a range of industries both private and public sector, the Awards commended Matt, in particular for his ability to tailor solutions to the business culture.

What Matt's been working on
In particular, the awards picked up on two general business initiatives that Matt had had direct influence on. The first was the review of the organisational strategic plan. "The tertiary education environment in New Zealand has changed," Matt argued, "These changes are reflected in the government's Tertiary Education Strategy. And we merely aligned ourselves with the government's direction." Overall, this called for a review of the most important measures and consolidation of the Polytechnic's aims and goals. Having taken on a facilitative role in the past, Matt was earmarked to manage and facilitate this review process. Collaboration and cooperation across the board was very successful due in part to the robust strategic direction taken but also due to the good people involved in the process.

The second initiative involved the development of the revenue diversification strategy. As a government-funded institution, the Polytechnic's ability to generate income depended quite heavily on what the government bestowed on them. It was crucial therefore, for them to rely less and less on this revenue stream. Core areas like teaching staff were funded but there were other areas that could be potential revenue generating opportunities like research, grants and consultancy work. And they needed to start looking at this. It was becoming challenging to be in this business when there was a mandatory cap on student enrollment. Not more than 3158 students. These were forecasts based on past numbers. Not to mention the fact that government funding issues of late had become more complex with government subsidies towards student education, student loans etc, pulling in different directions.

Interesting Tidbit
Matt also talked about some interesting initiatives that were in place. For example, people could effectively put away a percentage of their salary for say, four years, and then take the fifth year off to travel or get into other ventures. Already, five to six people have signed up. Another version of this allows you to sign up for two years to get six months off, simply by putting away 20% of your salary.

Getting on Board
Reporting directly to the CEO, Matt is now part of the senior leadership team, similar to the previous HR lead. However, its not a given. The current CEO overseeing HR issues is certainly helpful, bringing it to the top of the agenda. Matt took about nine months to get on board. "When I first started, I didn’t get on the board for the first nine months. I focused on operational issues and I had to prove myself. The improvements I made in HR are essentially how I managed to do it", Matt says.

Raising the bar
"When I first arrived, there were significant delays in sending out employment agreements and we turned that around. We also focused on resolving employment issues firmly, fairly and fast," he added. It was a case of following the overall managerial lead - it was how the leaders wanted to run things and Matt put that into operation. This didn’t necessarily mean that it was easy. Dealing with a new HR team as well as both new and inexperienced managers did actually put a lot more into the mix than was anticipated. There were also operational HR challenges such as pay and leave issues that were a priority and were the initial focus.

"I had a shared plan with management. I focused on tidying up the burning issues on compliance. I looked at meeting needs first and we spent time with each manager at the beginning, " Matt explained. A lot of training centred on recruitment and selection focusing on good techniques for example. Concentrating on providing this sort of up-skilling meant fewer issues later down the track, less fire-fighting and more focus on the core issues.

Our HR focus
Moving forward, it's about enabling the strategies. "We've put a lot of effort to train, looking at half days once a month and it's been going on for the last two and a half years. It’s brought about lower turnover of managers and a greater sense of experience in dealing with our own issues." People are now more proficient in delegating, learning how to do performance reviews, recruit and select. The 360 degree feedback process has also led to huge improvements on the feedback on managers. And they have even gone on to work with a coach on some issues.

Dunedin, the education city
With a team of seven, Matt oversees the fundamentals in HR from payroll, health and safety for staff and students, industrial relations, recruitment, performance and learning/development to some degree. Thankfully, the Polytechnic doesn’t seem to be plagued by recruitment issues. While it may be different in each market, Matt was quick to stress the benefits of a smaller city like Dunedin, where they are based. There is greater reliance on referrals, networking and contacts. Lecturers know someone in the industry sometimes which helps. And they employ some creativity in sourcing. "It's easier as an education city - the people who come here want to be in this area."

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About Matt Carter
Matt is currently the General Manager of Human Resources at Otago Polytechnic based in Dunedin. Starting out in April 2006 as a HR Services Manager, Matt was promoted to General Manager barely eight months later. One of his key achievements from his time at North Shore City Council is being the first division in the Council to be accredited with the IIP ( Investors in People) standard, a UK based people management standard. Having worked in both Australia and New Zealand, Matt graduated from Waikato University with a Bachelor of Management Studies (Hons) majoring in HR and Business Strategy.