Who we've worked with

The Institute provides commissioned work for a range of external stakeholders. Recent examples are provided below and include Ministry for Women, the Productivity Commission, United Nations Women, and MBIE.

In 2019, the Ministry of Health commissioned NZWRI and Sense Partners to empirically assess the impacts of "sinking lid" policies on gambling behaviour in New Zealand. Sinking lid regulation is a key local government policy instrument used across New Zealand communities aimed at reducing gambling harm. The use of sinking lid policies is supported by the Ministry as part of their strategy to prevent and minimise gambling harm.

The successful partnership between NZWRI and the Ministry for Women has produced numerous ground-breaking findings over recent years. The Ministry for Women first engaged NZWRI in June 2016 to conduct new research into the drivers of New Zealand’s gender pay gap. The Ministry commissioned this project to identify and focus on the right actions for reducing the gap. Subsequent to these research findings, the Ministry then recommissioned NZWRI to explore the labour market outcomes of men and women as they have children. Results from this research provided insights as to the parenthood penalties that drive the gender pay gap.

NZWRI has partnered with MBIE on multiple occasions. In 2016, MBIE commissioned NZWRI to explore youth's expectations of employment and employers’ expectations of work readiness in South Auckland. The challenge was hosted by the Auckland Co-Design Lab, where the team were able to collect insights about the attitudes, views and experiences of young people and employers, and to also quantify the economic costs of youth disengagement. Further in 2017, MBIE recommissioned NZWRI to better understand the low pay sector within New Zealand, and the changing nature of this group in recent years.

In June 2017, the Ministry of Education (MoE) released an International student wellbeing strategy to promote safety and welfare of international students in New Zealand. This strategy includes four broad domains of interest – economic wellbeing; education; health; and inclusion. NZWRI was commissioned by MoE to scope how useful administrative data can be in producing benchmark indicators to monitor outcomes under this new wellbeing strategy.

The Productivity Commission have engaged NZWRI on two projects over two consecutive years. In 2017, NZWRI was commissioned to examine the substantial ethnic gaps in higher education in New Zealand. Then again in 2018, the Productivity Commission engaged NZWRI to evaluate the implementation of Wellington’s Health Care Homes scheme on a range of health-related events.

NZ Women's Empowerment Principles commissions NZWRI on an annual basis to conduct the NZ Women’s Empowerment Principles Survey (NZWEPS). The NZWEPS aims to uncover policies and practices within New Zealand’s largest organisations on behalf of the United Nations Women, with a specific focus on the seven UN Women’s Empowerment Principles.

The Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (Superu) were one of NZWRI's key partners between 2016 and 2018. Superu aimed to increase the use of evidence by people across the social sector and commissioned NZWRI to provide such evidence for two different projects. The first explored residential movement within New Zealand, which entailed the quantifying and characterising of NZ’s transient population. The second project examined the possibility of modernising the welfare and social assistance system to remove or reduce reliance on the couple-based unit of assessment in New Zealand.
Superu was disestablished on 30 June 2018. The Social Investment Agency now houses all Superu reports and resource in The Hub.

The Māori Language Commission funded NZWRI for new research into subjective motivations for the inclusion of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori in business and organisations. This project includes a 1000 response survey and nine follow-up interviews to collect data on what motivates or impedes non-Māori organisations to use and promote te reo Māori; the value proposition that te reo Māori has with these organisations; their implementation pathways for the integration of te reo Māori in their business; and approaches to the learning and teaching of linguistic components of language revitalisation that are appropriate to the acquisition of te reo Māori.

Lifewise commissioned NZWRI in 2016 to scope the cost of homelessness in New Zealand. The cost of homelessness to society and to the individual is difficult to measure, which in turn makes it difficult to formulate and evaluate meaningful policy change to address rising homelessness and housing deprivation.

NZWRI was commissioned by the Blind Foundation to provide insight as to the size and nature of the disabled population in NZ, and how their economic outcomes have changed over the last 15 years. The aim of the Blind Foundation’s project was to present an up to date summary of people with disabilities as such information is imperative for policy makers and support providers alike. The research scope of this report was to examine relevant overseas legislative models providing for accessibility for disabled persons and to distinguish therein provisions that might significantly advance current New Zealand accessibility laws.

View the campaign and other relevant information.

CCANZ commissioned NZWRI to assess the impact of new ways of working on diversity and wellbeing. This project researched outputs-based culture in the CCANZ workplace, and the relationship between this concept and greater flexibility across the organisation. Key staff within CCANZ were interviewed with the aim of providing organisational-specific recommendations.

Concerned with the number of youth not in employment, education or training (Y-NEET), NZWRI was commissioned by the Vodafone Foundation NZ to paint a comprehensive portrait of the Y-NEET population in New Zealand. This project also involved quantifying the cost of youth disengagement in terms the lost productivity, as well as the additional burden on public finances. View the video

With continuing advancements in digital technology, many organisations internationally have adopted virtual communication practices. Flexible and remote working is increasingly recognised as essential for employee engagement, productivity retention and wellbeing. Auckland Transport commissioned NZWRI to explore the prevalence of such practices in Auckland in an attempt to understand the extent to which flexible working might impact worker travel behaviour and, with it, Auckland’s future infrastructure requirements.