A lot of attention is focused upon whether a staff position is front line or not. A mantra appears to be developing that cutting back office jobs and using the freed resources for the front line positions will somehow go a long way towards solving the problem of public sector cost reduction and protecting service provision.
A view exists that simply increasing the amount of front line service activities for a job role will transform its productivity.
Services consist of a mass of activities and the discussion needs to be about whether these activities are necessary, how and to what level they should be provided or commissioned, how they are performing in the context of priorities, performance and cost and only then about job roles.The danger in approaching front line services in a narrow way is that the concentration is on staff positions and ‘who’ rather than the impact for the customer and the economy, or the efficiency and effectiveness of resource investment associated with the provision/commissioning of services.
Front line activities without the support of back office activities would not be capable of being provided economically, efficiently or effectively, whoever provides them. The discussion, therefore, needs to embrace both front line and back office activities.
Front line activities are those activities provided directly or commissioned by the Council to enable its customers to gain access to or achieve:
- information
- the support necessary to improve their or other’s quality of life or both
- the prevention of a breach of the contractual relationship between the Council and the customer or the law or both
- a remedy for the breach of a contractual relationship or the law by the Council.
Front line activities may also include those activities provided directly or commissioned by the Council that enables it to gain access to or achieve:
- the prevention of a breach of the contractual relationship between the Council and the customer
- a remedy for the breach of the contractualrelationship between the Council and the customer
- fulfilment of the Council’s statutory duties and or, where it has one, for enforcement of the law.
Back office activities are then those activities provided or commissioned by the Council to ensure the economic, efficient and effective operation of front line activities.
Without putting front and back office activities in context there is a default position that existing activities are the right ones. Merely increasing the percentage of time a staff member spends on front line activities does not lead to a transformation.If a so called front line staffer is only currently 50 per cent productive then increasing the balance of activities it undertakes between front line and back office by 20 per cent, only increases the productivity of the post by 10 per cent.
This is not transformational. A more fundamental review of activities is required. Only when front line activities are organised to take a coordinated holistic approach to customers will the true potential for cost reduction, performance improvement and value creation for customers be achieved.
It’s not just about whether a staff position is front line or not.
*Malcolm Morley is Chief Executive of Harlow District Council and can be contacted via the Editor, email info@lgfocus.com.au The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of his employer.
