Staged in Melbourne in early August, the Municipal Association of Victoria’s Local Government Technology Solutions conference attracted some 200 delegates from Councils in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and from New Zealand. Aiming to demonstrate the importance of technology as a key change lever for improving Local Government performance and service delivery, a range of speakers covered challenges and opportunities, and encouraged delegates to think strategically about technology driven innovation.
John Roberts, Research Vice President with Gartner, said that to achieve a high performance workplace it is essential to maximise the capabilities of everyone within the organisation.
“This means ensuring they are able to access the latest and best information available,” he said. “Over the next ten years, the amount of information available will increase at least 100 fold. How this is to be delivered to staff so they can perform at peak level needs to be addressed.”
Andrew Newton, CEO at Victoria’s Glen Eira City Council, told delegates that the most important technology they have at Council is their people.
“You must put staff into a position where they can succeed,” he said. “How you treat your staff sets the upper limit of how they in turn treat their customers.”
Andrew Newton added that with the growing skills shortage, it is easier to keep people than attracting new people, therefore it is essential to create workplaces where people want to stay and are reluctant to leave. Referring to town planning, he said this is a core Council area but through State legislation it is complex, can become highly political and ties up much of your elected members’ time.
“The best way to keep planners is to ensure they are doing town planning work and not clerical work,” he said. “Have systems in place or lower level staff to do this.”
He said in designing any process for improving or streamlining performance, first consider what are your goals and then what success will look like.
“Don’t blame the IT professionals for automating a bad process,” Andrew Newton said. “Get you process sorted out first then talk to IT. You may need to go back to a blank sheet and totally redesign the process.”
For further information and papers from other presenters visit www.mav.asn.au/lgts
