News and Publications
DRSL Wins New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation Achievement Award
28 November 2011
DRSL has won a New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation (NZBEF) Achievement award. The NZBEF awards are the only awards in New Zealand which are fully aligned to the internationally respected US Baldrige criteria.
Dispute Resolution Services Ltd CEO, Neil McKellar said the award had highlighted where the organisation operated well, and the areas where it needed improvement. "This is exactly what we were looking for," he said.
"One of our core principles is innovation, and we believe that the NZBEF framework is a great business tool to see where we can be more innovative in the way that we approach our business. For us innovation and continuous improvement leads to better service for the consumers that use our services, and for our clients – the organisations that we run dispute resolution schemes for.
Our aim is to become a centre of excellence in dispute resolution. The NZBEF Achievement Award is a stepping-stone towards that. It is a measure of how well we are doing compared to best practice criteria, and gives us a guide as to where we are relative to other businesses, not just those within our industry.
Already we have benefited hugely from the process by reflecting on what we do and how we do it. We are gaining real insight through the most objective external assessment we could hope for. And we are now prioritising our effort based on what we have learnt in pursuit of those things that matter most to our stakeholders.”
DRSL Wins Best Workplaces Award
21 November 2011
DRSL has won the Most Improved in the Small-Medium sized organisation category of the JRA Best Workplaces 2011 awards.The award is in recognition of DRSL having the greatest improvement in its overall JRA score from 2010 to 2011.
CEO Neil McKellar said the award showed DRSL was learning from its staff what the key drivers were for staff engagement, and highlighted the benefits of asking staff’s advice and feedback on what matters is really important.
“It’s essential that the feedback from staff is taken on board by me and our management, and then making sure it is put into action,” he said.
HR Manager Katrina Leather said the critical issues that made a difference for this award were leadership and management visibility, internal communication, and a much improved learning and development framework that had been put in place.
“We’re really proud of what we have achieved with award,” she said. “And it’s good for the whole organisation - if your team are engaged and satisfied with their work, it provides a solid platform for the whole business to achieve its targets.”
DRSL Statement of Intent
8 November 2011
DRSL has released its inaugural Statement of Intent (SOI).DRSL is required to produce a Statement of Intent as an independent Crown-owned company.The purpose of the document is to enable the Crown to contribute to and confirm the company’s objectives and strategies, and to provide a base against which the company’s actual performance can later be assessed.This SOI outlines for Parliament, Ministers and interested stakeholders DRSL’s
high-level operating intentions, objectives and performance expectations for the financial year commencing 1 July 2011 and the following two financial years.The SOI document can be viewed here; DRSL SOI.
Changes Announced in DRSL's Ownership
18 May 2011. Improved ACC disputes resolution announced
Dispute Resolution Services Limited (DRSL) is to become an independent Crown Company on 1 July 2011 as part of the Government’s reforms to improve New Zealand’s system of accident compensation, ACC Minister Nick Smith announced today at a conference on work place safety in Wellington.
“Separating DRSL from ACC is needed to reinforce the independence of the review system. Many claimants view ACC as judge and jury on entitlements because DRSL is directly owned by ACC. It also makes sense now that DRSL is doing significant dispute resolution work for other sectors including financial services, telecommunications, and health,” Dr Smith said.
Disputes Resolution Services is a registered company solely owned by ACC that undertakes between 9000-10,000 review applications from ACC claimants each year. The company employs around 100 staff and is based in Wellington.
“This change is consistent with National’s 2008 Election policy of improving ACC’s dispute resolution services. It would also be a necessary step to separate DRSL from ACC if the Government proceeds with allowing other insurance providers to provide workplace cover.”
DRSL will be listed on the Crown Entity Schedule from 1 July with the shareholding Ministers being the Ministers of Finance and ACC. A new Board will be appointed reinforcing the separation. The Orders in Council creating DRSL make plain that it will be subject to the Official Information Act.
“This change will not affect reviews already in progress. It will enable DRSL to focus on being an efficient and effective provider of dispute resolution services for ACC and other sectors,” Dr Smith said.
ENDS
Media contact: Simon Beattie 021 243 8271.
This media release can be found on the official website of the New Zealand Government, beehive.govt.nz. A link to the release can also be found here.
Annual Report 2010
DRSL's 2010 Annual Report is available to download as a PDF document. You will need Adobe Reader to read the downloaded file. This is free software that you can get from the Adobe website.
The annual report file is available here.
TDR Launch Wins DRSL Business Excellence Award
DRSL has won its second Vero Excellence in Business award, at the annual gala event in Auckland last night.
DRSL won the ‘BDO Business under $5M turnover One to Many Offering’ category for the launch and development of TDR. In 2007 DRSL won the Vero Excellence in Business award in the Business ($5-10m Turnover) category.
Derek Pullen, the DRSL Manager for TDR, accepted the award on behalf of the TDR and DRSL teams at the award ceremony, and thanked not only those who set up the scheme, but the staff and support people who continue to keep the service running at such a high level.
He noted that the TDR business was significant for DRSL as it was another step towards DRSL’s strategic direction, a ‘one company, many services’ model. DRSL delivers dispute resolution schemes in two arenas – personal injury dispute resolution for ACC, the telecommunications industry with TDR – and in the near future will be launching a new offering in the financial services sector.
Annual Report 2009
DRSL's 2009 Annual Report is available to download as a PDF document. You will need Adobe Reader to read the downloaded file. This is free software that you can get from the Adobe website.
The annual report file is available here.