Staff at Melbourne’s Bayside City Council are gaining valuable management skills from Council’s commitment to staff development programs. Recently, 60 managers and coordinators undertook a two day leadership program. The course focused on problem solving and synergy among teams.
Chief Executive Officer Peter Akers said, as staff are the most important resource Council has, he is committed to this type of program. “It was an easy decision for me to invest the time and money in leadership development training for key staff at Bayside because I knew that this investment would reap enormous rewards for the rest for the staff, Councillors and the community,” he said.
Participants were encouraged to continue meeting following the program to reinforce and further develop skills and ideas resulting from the training. One group has taken this up enthusiastically, meeting once a month away from the office.
Convenor of this group, Senior Town Planner Nick Hooper, said he has seen positive changes to his leadership style and gained an understanding of other people work from the program.
A further four staff from Bayside have been chosen to participate in a Graduate Certificate Program at the Mt Eliza Business School.
This Program is being developed and implemented by a Local Government networking group of Human Resource Managers from Bayside, Glen Eira, Kingston and Frankston Councils.
This course spans 12 months and is conducted in a workplace setting with content relevant to real Council projects and activities. Workshop topics include Project Management; Teamwork; Managing Change and Finance-Understanding Performance Data.
Peter Akers said this is a unique opportunity for Bayside staff to work with managers and mentors from other Councils.
For further information contact Peter Akers, telephone (03) 9599 4444.
