An interview with Chris Rose, CEO Logan City Council, Queensland
As CEO of Logan City Council in Queensland, Chris Rose manages a budget of over $370 million and oversees more than 900 staff who cater for the City’s 180,000 residents.
Chris believes a CEO is fundamentally a leader, who must provide direction and ‘walk the talk’ in terms of expectations and accountabilities. He said it is also important to provide quality, professional information and advice to Council and individual Councillors.
“Leadership is ultimately about providing direction, purpose and support to staff to clear the path for a unified approach towards excellence and best practice,” Chris Rose said.
As well as the looming amalgamations in Queensland, where 157 Councils will be reduced to 73, Chris Rose said the challenges facing Local Government include sustainability, Constitutional recognition, skills shortages and the need for stronger regional collaboration.
“Councils must provide local leadership in terms of sustainability initiatives and set a clear example for residents to follow,” he said. “We also need more efficient and effective regional collaboration and cooperation. Local politics can impact on our ability to improve the quality and value for money for services provided by Councils. Additionally we should give high priority to community education and engagement. Local Government is very much a people business and we should, as an industry, give this greater focus.”
Chris Rose said benchmarking is another area with room for improvement.
“While a lot is said about benchmarking in Local Government, there is not much evidence that we are taking this opportunity seriously,” he said. “Logan will soon be facilitating a review among interested Councils of benchmarking opportunities in key Local Government service areas.”
Logan is also getting its leadership and organisational culture right. Council has placed great emphasis on its ‘Leadership and Culture Journey’ over the past few years. The journey provides all staff with innovative opportunities for leadership development, aimed at improving their life leadership skills. It also places great importance on staff enjoying high levels of personal job satisfaction, including a strong focus on improving the health and wellbeing of all staff.
“So much can be achieved with a positive and motivated workforce,” Chris Rose said. “It’s about employing the right people and providing a workplace where those people will want to stay.
“We have implemented culture projects in every Council branch, along with four corporate project teams who develop a variety of events and programs for everyone to participate in. The results have been inspiring. Our staff turnover rate has decreased from 14.5 per cent to just over 12 per cent, our absenteeism levels are down and Logan is the first large Council in Queensland to achieve over 70 per cent in an independent Workplace Health and Safety Audit. Our staff job satisfaction levels are also running at above best practice levels.”
In the last two months, Logan City Council has received nine local, State and national awards. Additionally, recent community surveys rate Council’s performance as ‘best practice’ in the four key areas of Council’s Corporate Plan, which include a vibrant community, a strong economy, a sustainable environment and a well managed City.
Chris Rose said these accolades are also the result of Council aligning its organisational structure around service delivery.
“In 2006, Council implemented a realignment in our management team,” he said. “We moved away from the traditional ‘professions based’ structure of Local Government, into a structure that aligns management with service delivery. As part of this process, responsibility and accountability for service delivery was totally allocated to third level management. The results have been exceptional. Silos have come down, staff feel much higher levels of empowerment and the total cost of management has reduced significantly. We also have the added bonus of an increased focus on service delivery.”
