Auckland University of Technology funded Research Programmes

Workplace diversity has significant implications for a firm’s productivity and, in turn, aggregate productivity and economic growth. Improving the allocation of talent across the workforce is estimated to equate to productivity gains of 10%, and account for 20-40% of aggregate output growth per person over the long-term.

The allocation of labour across sectors in NZ is highly segregated with concentrations of women and ethnic minorities in lower-paid industries. One implication of this lacklustre workforce diversity are substantial gender and ethnic pay gaps, which have significant financial, health and wellbeing consequences for affected individuals, and their whanau. Just a 1% reduction in gender and ethnic pay gaps would equate to an $180million wage gain per annum.

Our programme adopts a mixed-methods approach utilising disparate administrative, survey and qualitative data to create an evidence-base for policy and practice to improve workforce diversity. It will estimate the productivity benefits to NZ of improved diversity. The role of workplace policies and practices, diversity in organisations’ leadership, indigenised workplace, structural levers within and between occupations and industries will also be analysed. It will also evaluate public policies aimed at improving diversity and equity.

A key focus is on both Māori and Pacific businesses, and associated workplace practices and learnings regarding recruitment, pay transparency and organisational culture. Māori and Pacific-led qualitative research with change leaders will provide in-depth contextual understanding of enablers, barriers, and value systems attached to work.

The research team is led by Professor Pacheco and includes academics from NZ, Australia, Denmark and Germany. The team is supported by industry, government and non-government partners in an advisory group, who actively participated in the co-design of research priorities and will drive implementation of the findings.

New Zealand is vulnerable to damaging earthquakes, recent examples being Christchurch in 2011 and Wellington in 2016.

Modern buildings are designed/built to sustain controlled damage during severe earthquakes, protecting occupants but necessitating costly and time-consuming post- earthquake repair or replacement. The cost of rebuilding Christchurch was $40 billion while repairing Wellington is anticipated to cost $30 billion, not taking into account the cost of business disruption and environmental damage. There is an urgent need for sustainable and resilient buildings that can be rapidly reoccupied following major earthquakes.

Conventional building solutions will be damaged and become unreliable after severe earthquakes, for example, demolition of the Christchurch CBD after 2011, while existing more resilient building solutions (e.g. base isolation) are expensive with limited applicability.

This proposal will close the current gap by establishing easily built, cost-effective, sustainable, and highly resilient seismic solutions that can be applied to both new and existing buildings. These will implement semi-rigid friction-sliding connections instead of conventional rigid connections. These novel connections will become flexible during strong earthquakes, limiting earthquake-induced forces and dissipating earthquake-induced energy imposed/exerted on the building. They are based on three decades of R&D by the core research team into innovative earthquake structural solutions.

The goal is to create solutions for sustainable earthquake-resistant buildings, avoiding structural damage and enabling speedy re-occupancy. These solutions, which will be implemented at the same cost as conventional solutions in both new and existing buildings, will revolutionise the long-term prospects for the resilience of all building types, both in New Zealand and around the world. They will be widely accessible on economic grounds due to their adaptability and versatility and low implementation cost, ensuring safer and more sustainable communities in seismic regions.

The purpose of this programme is to improve the revitalisation of New Zealand communities, leading to better wellbeing outcomes nationally, within communities, and among individuals. The research is aligned with the multi-billion-dollar urban regeneration and building projects currently taking place across New Zealand. The focus on wellbeing has arisen from the substantial international evidence indicating that countries that enhance wellbeing not only raise the standard of living for their citizens but also create a foundation for stronger and more resilient economic growth. This programme will firstly unravel the long-term impact of urban regeneration on high-level indicators of community wellbeing and deprivation using routinely collected government data. The next aspect of the project is centred on Kāinga Ora tenants – a population that experiences significant economic, social, health, and education hardship. The personal wellbeing of public housing tenants at various stages of housing development will be examined. The final stage of the project will explore in how urban regeneration impacts ‘experienced’ wellbeing (e.g., momentary affective states like stress, anxiety, mood), physical activity, social contact, sense of community, neighbourhood interaction/mobility, and cultural identity. The outcomes of this work will provide developers and policy-makers with new and essential information on the multifaceted impact of major urban regeneration on the people of New Zealand, giving direction to future improvements. By protecting and adding value to the government’s major social investment, this will have significant and long-lasting benefits for New Zealand society.