A program that tracks data trends overtime has been utilised by councils across New South Wales as a key benchmarking tool.
The program – created by Local Government (LG) Professionals, NSW in collaboration with PwC Australia– identifies how councils are performing across key operational and management variables.
More than half of NSW’s local councils have voluntarily participated in the program and the latest round of analysis has recently been released.
CEO of LG Professionals, NSW, Annalisa Haskell, said the program is useful for councils to measure their performance against peers.
“To date, there has been no government tool for tracking performance or measuring local council performance. So the industry built its own united approach.
“The collection and analysis of this data could not come at a more timely moment in our evolution,” Ms Haskell said.
“With submissions from proposed merging councils now being considered by the NSW State Government, backing up assertions with hard data is even more crucial. This will ensure that moving forward, all local councils will have key information to operate with maximum efficiency and effectiveness, and to measure the impact of any future changes – whether initiated by council or imposed.”
The latest results show more NSW councils (62%, up from 43% two years ago) now have a formal IT strategy. 28% of NSW councils (up from 17%) rank analytics and business intelligence tools as a priority.
In addition, 44% (up from 34%) of NSW councils now report risks to council at least quarterly.
“This attention to the role of finance, risk and IT within NSW councils shows a deeper professionalism and changing attitude,” Ms Haskell said.
“Councils are to be applauded for recognising the importance of rigorous accountability.”
However, results also show NSW councils continue to face some staff selection and retention issues with turnover of first year employees at 18.4% (up from 17.9%) compared to overall turnover, which sits at a low 10.2%. There has also been a 3% decline in the spend on training per full-time equivalent employee.
Ms Haskell said the program is expanding into other jurisdictions.
Western Australia is set to launch the program across the state later this month.
“Our goal at LG Professionals, NSW is to see every local council join this program in order to keep control of the measurement of their council through the reform process, as well as maximise delivery of services to their communities.”
