Discover a world of opportunity in our Public Service

Temporary Opportunities for Public Servants:

See what short-term and secondment opportunities are currently available across the Public Service. Kaimahi currently employed in the Public Service are able to search and apply for current secondment and other short-term opportunities in one place.

Secondments can be longer term in nature and require a secondment agreement or may be very short-term for example to meet an urgent personnel need for a short period of time. The general principle for temporary deployment is that an employee’s core terms and conditions with their home agency remain the same, while recognising that the location and hours of work may change.

Register to be part of Aotearoa’s surge workforce:

Sign up to be part of New Zealand’s surge workforce and support the response to and recovery from natural disasters including severe weather events. Depending on the emergency, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) leads or supports the response and recovery.

To effectively respond to and support the recovery from emergencies, NEMA relies on support from across the system, including the Public Service.

In recent years New Zealand public servants have provided crucial support in response and recovery to the Kaikōura earthquake, COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.

Benefits of joining

Joining Aotearoa’s surge deployment reserve gives you the opportunity to:

  • live out your spirit of service by helping communities deal with and recover from emergencies.
  • gain exposure working in a different agency and/or in a different area of work.
  • build relationships with other public servants and expand your professional networks.
  • develop new skills, gain experience and capability.
  • know how best to support your whānau, friends and neighbours in future emergencies.

Eligibility and how to join

All Kaimahi currently employed in the Public Service are able to register to be part of the surge workforce. To join, you will need to create a profile using your public service email address.

What to expect

Entitlements

While on a deployment you will continue to be employed by your home agency, and on the terms and conditions of your existing employment agreement.

Notification of a surge

When creating your profile, you will be asked to sign-up for alerts when new deployments are posted. In the event that the mobilisation of the surge workforce is required, you will receive an alert (if you are opted-in alerts), asking you to check your profile is up to date and to notify your availability by completing a deployment form. You will then be contacted if your skills and experience meet the requirements of the surge event.

If you have not opted-in to receive alerts you may also be contacted directly where your skills and experience meet the requirements of the surge event.

You will be asked at this time to confirm that you have your manager’s agreement to deploy.

Deployment lengths

These will vary depending on where you are deploying to, the role that you undertake, and the length of the response. Typically, if deploying to a region the length of time is 1 day travel, 5 days working, 1 day travel and 2 days off.

Travelling while on deployment

If you have been selected and are being deployed to an area away from your home the NCC will organise your travel.

All staff deploying will be emailed with a Deployment Pack, which includes the following:

  • A travel itinerary including return travel tickets, taxis, rental car uplift location, etc
  • Information on the nature of the event and the latest Situation Report
  • Risk assessment
  • Health and Wellbeing aspects including 24/7 contact numbers for support e.g. EAP Services, Get Home Safe App
  • Location or map of where to report to and time expected
  • Environment - anticipated weather, expected conditions - austere, cold, wet, hot, requirement for tents, stretchers, etc
  • Equipment and clothing including required PPE if not supplied
  • Indicative shift times if known
  • Expected duration of deployment
  • Contact number for Logistics - Personnel sub-function, 24/7 emergency contact number and addresses of CC’s, etc
Post deployment

There are services available to support your wellbeing post deployment including EAP services and providing feedback on your experience.

Experiences of kaimahi who have been deployed as part of a response
“He mihi nui. Thank you for the opportunity to support communities in Tairāwhiti and Wairoa. Supported by amazing kaimahi from NEMA, Council, iwi, Public Service teams and NCC to name a few, I had what can be described as a humbling, yet extremely rewarding experience” kaimahi deployed as part of Cyclone Gabrielle Response and Recovery.