Officer Development Programme

Proudly partnering with the Institute of Directors (IoD) we'd like to present the Officer Development Programme. Designed specifically for public service agency senior leaders with officer responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).

This programmes was recognised at the 2021 SafeGuard Workplace Health and Safety Awards, winning the Governance category.
Check out our programme and register your place today!

2025 Cohort Dates:

	COURSE 13
Module	Topic	Location	Date	Time
Module 1 & 2	Managing, leading and governing health and safety; and H&S Risk Management	In person (Wellington)	Thursday 13th March 2025	8.30am – 1pm
Module 3 & 4	Overlapping duties; and Monitoring what matters	In person (Wellington)	Thursday 15th May 2025	8.30am – 1pm
	COURSE 14
Module	Topic	Location	Date	Time
Module 1 & 2	Managing, leading and governing health and safety; and H&S Risk Management	In person (Wellington)	Thursday 14th August 2025	8.30am – 1pm
Module 3 & 4	Overlapping duties; and Monitoring what matters	In person (Wellington)	Thursday 18th September 2025	8.30am – 1pm

Registration and expressions of interest

To find out about future dates and/or register interest in a future course, email ghsl@mpi.govt.nz with attendee details (Name, Position, Email and Phone details, plus IOD membership details if known). Note that places are limited, and all bookings will remain tentative until confirmed by the GHSL.

GHSL Contact

Anita.McGhie-Filkins@mpi.govt.nz

0800 HS Lead (0800 47 5323)

What is in it for you as a Leader?

The purpose of this programme is to build our leaders' understanding of their role and duties as an officer, what that means in practical terms, focussing on assuring the identification and management of critical risks, including psychosocial harm, and developing their capability to differentiate between their required management and governance roles.

“Despite having spent years working in this space, I found the IoD officer development programme extremely helpful, ensuring my knowledge and skills are up to date. I particularly enjoyed and benefitted from working through practical examples with my colleagues from across government, which opened my eyes to risks and controls that I hadn’t previously considered.”

- Richard Griffiths, Deputy Chief Executive, Ngā Pou o te Taumaru/Minstry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Overview of the Programme

Over the last three years the impact of this programme has been significant with over 300+ chief executives, deputy chief executives, and senior leaders attending this course to uplift health and safety leadership and professional development.

This professional development programme includes nine hours of in person workshops (a customised IoD Advanced Health and Safety course, delivered across four short modules), supplemented by pre-and post-course e-learning modules, reading materials, resources, tools, and case studies.

All course and resource content has been tailored for the public service, recognising that officers in most central departments and agencies are also senior leaders with dual management responsibilities for health and safety governance and operation managment.

Check out our pdf promotional flyer [PDF, 1.5 MB]

Officer Development Modules

The following topics are covered in two half-day sessions. Each topic will be explored with a governance focus but with consideration as to how the topic may be viewed through different lenses (governance, leadership, management) in a public sector environment:

Managing, leading, and governing Health & Safety – an overview of the three roles and perspectives. Includes leadership behaviours and practices. Recap on the scope of PCBU duties. Bringing it to life –practical application i.e. meeting structures, reporting, questions that should be asked, using the three lenses of governance, leadership, and management.
Health and Safety risk management. Risk landscape (acute, chronic, and catastrophic), risk assessment methodologies, implementing effective prevention and mitigation controls, controls assurance (three lines of defense), risk tolerance, owning your risk matrix, alignment with Enterprise Risk Management.
Overlapping duties and understanding the complexity and challenges of identifying and managing them (particularly thinking about the public sector’s wider role in policy setting, standard setting, system ownership/funding).
Monitoring what matters – setting meaningful KPIs, data, insights, reporting and information management systems – this module references the Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum guide “Monitoring What Matters”.

Who can attend?

This programme is now considered as essential for all Tier 1 and 2 Senior Leaders, as well as GM’s People & Capability and Tier 3 Leaders wanting to take on more senior roles.

Investment?

For all public service agencies who register via the GHSL at a discounted rate of $1,200 + GST per person.

*Note –A minimum of 15 participants are required to run a course, with a maximum of 24. In-house options are also available – above minimum and maximums apply.