At the 2006 Local Government Managers Australia National Congress in Perth, FOCUS invited delegates to nominate individuals or teams from their Council who are improving their Council’s operations and meeting community needs.
In this edition, we showcase two more of our high achievers for 2006.
Rebecca Horan, Executive Secretary, Shire of Coolgardie, Western Australia
Located 560 kilometres east of Perth, Coolgardie was the first settlement on the Western Australia Eastern Goldfields. The Shire covers 30,500 square kilometres, encompassing the towns of Coolgardie, Kambalda, Kambalda West, Widgiemooltha and Kurrawang. With a population of approximately 6,000 people, the Shire team is quite small with 45 staff members.
CEO, Mal Osborne nominated Executive Secretary, Rebecca Horan, to appear in FOCUS. Rebecca Horan has been with the Shire of Coolgardie for eight years. As well as assisting the CEO and scheduling senior staff tasks and duties, she prepares Council agendas and minutes and organises Council functions.
“Rebecca turns her hand to anything that needs attending to,” Mal Osborne said. “She assists the CEO, Managers and Councillors and has helped to improve many aspects of our Council. She has brought our policies and procedures up to scratch and greatly improved organisational consistency across many areas.
“The Shire is in the midst of an intensive capital works program, meaning the Council, management and staff all have a great deal on their plates. Rebecca ensures that all necessary information is disseminated, and that we are all aware of regular meetings and when deadlines are due.”
Mal Osborne said that as a CEO with involvement in many activities, it can be difficult to keep track of everything.
“In many ways, the Executive Assistant’s role can be likened to that of a babysitter; ensuring that the CEO and Councillors are looked after, not ambushed, and are organised for their next appointment or meeting,” he said. “I often jokingly say that Rebecca is actually my personal babysitter! In a small organisation such as ours, Rebecca is a really valuable asset.”
Coolgardie has two Council offices located 75 kilometres apart. Rebecca Horan has been a major driving force in assisting the Shire to be seen as one organisation with one vision and one future.
“In doing so, Rebecca is overseeing the creation of one set of documentation for the organisation, which remains an ongoing process,” Mal Osborne said. “She is committed to improving practices across the organisation and has taken on a myriad of roles to support the whole organisation, not just her office.”
Rebecca said that having two Council offices can sometimes lead to double handling.
“Sending documents through from one end of the Shire to the other can mean we double up on paperwork and lose time preparing it, but being well organised can overcome confusion and keep our processes running smoothly,” she said. “Having two office buildings a considerable distance apart also means that staff can speak to other staff over the phone for many months before actually meeting face to face.”
Rebecca tries to involve all staff from both offices in administration staff meetings so they can meet face to face and also sort out problems and differences that may exist in the communication and procedures between the two offices.
“We also try to get together a couple of times a year in a more social setting, such as for the International Women’s Day Breakfast,” she said.
Rebecca said that an effective Executive Secretary needs to be well organised, efficient, always willing to assist no matter who is asking for help, and always prepared to give new things a go.
Mal Osborne said Rebecca recently improved and updated the standard procedures for the induction of new staff members, assisting them to integrate into the organisation smoothly and comfortably.
“We recently had a number of new people start in our office, and they have all adjusted really well,” Rebecca Horan said. “It is a pleasure to work with people that you get along with on a daily basis. It just makes the job more enjoyable.”
Team Winner – The Shire of Brookton team, Western Australia
The Shire of Brookton is located in the Western Australian Wheatbelt region, 140 kilometres south east of Perth on the Brookton Highway. Covering an area of 1,620 kilometres, the Shire includes the town of Brookton and the localities of Aldersyde and Kweda. With a population of 1,100 people, Council has a small team to meet the needs of its community. Council has two full time and five part time staff in its administration and finance offices.
CEO, Gary Clark said the skill shortages experienced in Australia are even more difficult in regional areas.
“It has always been a challenge to find skilled people that are committed to working in a country area,” he said. “As a small Council, we are able to offer some flexibility in our employment arrangements. A lot of skilled people move to this area to run farms or local businesses with their partners and they are not necessarily looking for full time work. Brookton offers part time and job share positions to address this and we have been able to attract skilled people to our finance and administration functions.
“We have a small team of people in the administration office but several have tertiary qualifications and all have great skills and experience.”
Appointed as CEO of Brookton in February 2005, Gary nominated his entire office based team to appear in FOCUS for the significant changes they have brought to Council over the last 12 months.
“As a new CEO, I consulted with all staff to get an idea of what they thought were problem areas in the administration,” Gary Clark said. “I found that there was a number of things to do to get the organisation focused.
“Major projects at hand were the development of a strategic plan, a recreational facility plan and a townscape plan. However many internal business processes also needed to be streamlined and improved.” Gary worked towards a cultural change at Brookton to provide staff with more autonomy within their roles.
“I wanted to give staff a licence to look for improvements and set about making them without feeling the need to get permission,” he said. “The strategic plan has painted a picture of where we are headed as a Shire. How we get there will largely depend on the staff. They have embraced this challenge and are improving efficiency and productivity across the organisation.”
Staff are now more creative in their roles and are able to implement changes within their own area as they see fit. They then document these new procedures, thus allowing many improvements to be made over a short period of time.
Gary said one minor change that has made a big difference is Brookton’s new dog registration process. Previously there was no electronic method in place, and all registrations were kept in a manual paper file. As Council had no access to a program and it was not in the budget to purchase one, a spreadsheet was established, creating a registration search function.
“This is a prime example of the small but effective changes staff can make when given the licence to do so,” Gary Clark said.
He said that being a small team, it is easier to communicate across the organisation.
“This assists the team to work well together, but their effectiveness is also due to a willingness to get the job done,” Gary Clark said. “They are constantly motivated and committed to making improvements.”
Brookton is currently working with five Shires in the area to find more opportunities to work regionally. Gary said that his entire team has embraced the need for change to ensure the sustainability of the Brookton community.
