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Tāpiritanga B: He Rārangi Kupu | Appendix B: Glossary of Terms

For the purpose of the Research, Science and Innovation Workforce Survey of Organisations, the following definitions were used.

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Term Definition
Cultural capability Courses, workshops or seminars to build competency to reflect on intercultural interactions, creating awareness about the differences in perspectives and expectations that can occur when working with people from different backgrounds.
Early Career Researchers Early career researchers are defined as being within 10 years of completing their highest research qualification, normally (but not necessarily) a PhD, who can demonstrate research independence. Parental and other forms of leave can be deducted from the 10-year post-qualification time limit. (Royal Society Te Apārangi)
Employee Employee refers to a person employed to do any work for hire or reward under an employment agreement. The hire or reward is almost always a wage or salary. Employees have all minimum employment rights under employment laws.
Employment arrangement types
  • Permanent employees – Permanent employees have the full set of employment rights and responsibilities. Employees have to meet certain criteria to qualify for some employment entitlements, such as parental leave, parental leave payments, annual holidays, sick leave and bereavement leave. There may be small differences between full-time or part-time employees because of their work patterns. (Employment NZ)
  • Fixed term – A fixed-term (temporary) employee’s employment will end on a specified date or when a particular event occurs. A fixed-term employee might be someone who is brought in to replace another employee on parental leave, to cover a seasonal peak or to complete a project. Fixed-term employees have the same employment rights and responsibilities as permanent employees, except that their jobs will finish at the end of the fixed term (and sometimes the way in which they receive their annual holiday entitlement may be different). (Employment NZ)
  • Casual – ‘Casual employee’ isn’t defined in employment legislation, but the term is usually used to refer to a situation where the employee has no guaranteed hours of work, no regular pattern of work, and no ongoing expectation of employment. The employer doesn’t have to offer work to the employee, and the employee doesn’t have to accept work if it’s offered. The employee works as and when it suits both them and the employer. This can sometimes happen because it’s hard for the employer to predict when the work needs to be done, or when the work needs to be done quickly. Each time the employee accepts an offer of work it is treated as a new period of employment. (Employment NZ)
Ethnicity Ethnicity is the ethnic group or groups a person identifies with or has a sense of belonging to. It is a measure of cultural affiliation (in contrast to race, ancestry, nationality, or citizenship). Each ethnic group includes all those who have identified with it, so people may be counted in more than one group. (Stats NZ)
The New Zealand census recognises six major ethnic groups: European, Māori, Pacific Peoples, Asian, Middle Eastern/Latin American/African (MEELA) and Other Ethnicity.
Full time Working 30 hours or more per week. (Stats NZ) 
Full-time equivalent (FTE)  A unit of measurement that indicates a workload of an individual employed worker. For the full-time equivalent metric, an employee is assigned an FTE value between 0 and 1 depending on the proportion of full-time hours (however defined by each department) worked. For example, an employee working full-time equals 1 FTE while an employee working 60% of full-time hours equals 0.6 of an FTE. The FTE values of all employees are added up to give the total number of FTE employees in an organisation. (Public Service Commission)
Gender Refers to a person's social and personal identity as male, female, or another gender such as non-binary. Gender may include the gender that a person internally feels ('gender identity'), and/or the gender a person publicly expresses ('gender expression') in their daily life. A person's current gender may differ from the sex recorded at their birth and may differ from what is indicated on their current legal documents. A person's gender may change over time. Some people may not identify with any gender. (Stats NZ) People can also identify with more than one gender.
Headcount For the headcount metric, each employee is counted as one. (Public Service Commission)
Immigration New Zealand Accredited employer Employers wanting to hire any number of migrants on the new Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) must gain employer accreditation. All employers who intend to hire migrants on AEWVs must meet the standard accreditation requirements. These requirements are intended to ensure all employers hiring migrants meet minimum requirements to support and settle migrants and comply with employment and immigration laws.
Mātauranga Māori Mātauranga Māori - the body of knowledge originating from Māori ancestors, including the Māori world view and perspectives, Māori creativity and cultural practices. (Note: this is provided as a general description and not as an authoritative Crown position or definition.)
Part time Working less than 30 hours per week. (Stats NZ)
Research For the purposes of this survey, when we refer to 'research' we are referring to activities for gathering, organising, generating, understanding or recording knowledge. We intend this definition to be read in its broadest sense, to include science, social research, research into the arts and humanities, and any other activities that may be commonly understood under the term.
Research areas
  • Arts and Social Sciences – e.g. humanities, culture and society, design, psychology, creative arts, Māori and indigenous studies, architecture, education, social work.
  • Business and Law – e.g. economics, law, commerce, management, government.
  • Engineering and Computing: – e.g. electronics, aerospace, nanotech, information technologies, artificial intelligence, information systems.
  • Health: – e.g. health sciences, medicine, medical sciences.
  • Science: – e.g. life sciences, natural sciences, chemistry, physics, mathematics, agriculture, environmental sciences.
Research students  Research students or postgraduate researchers or graduate students are not considered employees for the purpose of this survey. They are usually completing a Masters or a PhD. However, if your organisation is receiving a Callaghan Innovation R&D Career or Fellowship Grant for the student you can count them as an employee. Student Grants(external link) — Callaghan Innovation
Role types
  • Senior leadership/Management – Senior leadership/Management represents the highest level of management in an organisation/department responsible for planning, leading and controlling an institution. E.g. Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Scientist, General Manager, Manager, Pou Ārahi, etc.
  • Research staff – Research staff are those engaged in the conception and/or creation of new knowledge or products, involved in the planning or management of scientific and technical aspects of R&D projects. E.g. researcher, science leader, scientist, senior scientist, research associate, research fellow, postdoctoral researcher.
  • Technical staff – Technical staff are persons who undertake technical or professional tasks in support of research and whose salaries are related to technical salaries. E.g. laboratory technicians, librarians.
  • Support staff – Support staff refers to administrative and general service employees whose work supports research. E.g. office staff, administration officers.
  • Commercialisation staff – Commercialisation staff refer to those who promote and support the marketing and commercialisation of R&D outputs. E.g. business development managers, business consultants, commercialisation managers, marketing and communication specialists, sales executives.
Wellbeing A health and wellbeing programme involves investing time and resources in supporting employees' physical and mental health.

< Appendix A: Methodology and caveats | Appendix C: Acronyms >

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