Jobs for Nature employment metrics

Jobs for Nature funded projects need to provide number of:

• employment starts
• people currently employed
• total hours – DOC uses this data to calculate full time equivalent (FTE)

These employment metrics are one part of the wider reporting requirements for the Jobs for Nature programme.

Other reporting requirements.

Why we have these metrics

The focus of these metrics is not about “jobs created”, due to a lack of shared definition for the word “job”. Contracting and sub-contracting arrangements may further complicate how to interpret the word "jobs".

The following points apply to each of the three employment metrics:

• Include all types of employment. For example, contracting, sub-contracting, employees, self-employees, casual, fixed-term, part-time, full-time.
• Count metrics only where the employment is directly funded by a Jobs for Nature activity.

Do not count metrics for organisations that are not funded by Jobs for Nature, even if they benefit from the programme. For example, an independent nursery business increased staff hire to meet the demands of a Jobs for Nature planting project. Do not count metrics for this business as they are not directly funded by Jobs for Nature.

Employment starts

The number of people who have been employed since the previous indicated date.

For casual employees, count when the employment relationship begins, and not each time the person complete work.

Example 1

An employed person was re-directed to support a Jobs for Nature project. Their wages are now paid by the Jobs for Nature project. Upon starting this employment relationship, count as one employment start.

Example 2

A self-employed contractor was hired by a project made up of two smaller projects (sub-projects):

• one for weed control, and
• one for riparian planting.

If the contractor was hired under one employment agreement for both sub-projects, count as one employment start.

If the contractor was hired under two employment agreements, one for each sub-project, this may be counted as two employment starts. However, if it’s identifiable that this is the same person, effort should be taken to prevent double-counting for this overall project.

People currently employed

The number of people employed at a specific point in time. This reflects the number of people employed at any given time.

Total hours

The combined total number of paid hours from all employed people, including part-time, casual and full-time hours. This includes all hours worked, and leave such as annual and sick leave. For projects that have contractors, hours worked does not include annual leave or sick leave and is limited to hours paid. 

DOC will calculate FTE

DOC will use the total hours number to calculate the FTE. Your project does not have to provide calculated FTE values.

One FTE is 30 hours per week for 52 weeks, totalling 1560 hours per year. This is consistent with the Statistics New Zealand definition of full-time work being 30 hours or more per week. The FTE is calculated as total hours divided by 1560.

Projects may determine FTE differently, for example, using 40 hours instead of 30 hours per week. For our metrics, we use total hours divided by 1560 to prevent variability of FTE between projects.

Estimating total hours example

You estimate that an activity will need:

• three people working 40 hours per week over 4 weeks, and
• one person working 20 hours per week over 4 weeks.

You would estimate the total hours:

• For the three people, you do 40 hours × 4 weeks × 3 people = 480 total hours.
• For the one person, you do 20 hours × 4 weeks × 1 person = 80 total hours.
• For the total hours, you add 480 and 80 to get 560 total hours.

You then use the estimated total hours to calculate the estimated FTE as 560 total hours ÷ 1560 = 0.36 FTE estimate.

Actual total hours

If the actual timesheet was different to the estimate, report the actual total hours.

Example timesheet:

• Two employees who each worked 10 hours per week over 4 weeks
• Three employees who each worked 40 hours per week over 4 weeks
• One contractor who worked 15 hours total during the 4 weeks

Your project would calculate total hours for the reporting period:

• For the two employees, you do 40 hours × 4 weeks × 3 people = 480 total hours.
• For the three employees, you do 10 hours × 4 weeks × 2 people = 80 total hours.
• For the one contractor, you do 15 hours × 1 person = 15 total hours.
• For the total hours you add 480, 80 and 15 to get 575 total hours.

DOC will use the actual total hours to calculate the actual FTE. This would be 575 total hours ÷ 1560 = 0.37 FTE.

This means that over four weeks, this project provided work equivalent to 0.37 FTE, with a total number of 6 people employed.

If all employment ended following this reporting period, the people currently employed for next month would be zero.