At the 2009 Local Government Managers Australia National Congress in Darwin, Local Government FOCUS invited delegates to nominate individuals or teams from their councils who are
improving operations or enhancing service delivery within their community.
Natalie Traeger, Manager Corporate Services, Coorong District Council, South Australia
With a family history connected to Local Government, Natalie Traeger felt drawn to Local Government when she was undecided about a career path upon leaving school.
Having a father that worked in Local Government for many years and a grandfather that was an elected member, she too was keen to work in a role that could achieve benefits for the community.
In addition, Natalie was interested in the opportunities and choice available to a Local Government career, particularly in terms of career advancement.
Formed in 1997 following the amalgamation of the District Council of Coonalpyn Downs, Peake District Council and Meningie District Council, Coorong District Council is one of the largest council areas in South Australia.
Natalie joined the District Council of Coonalpyn Downs some 22 years ago, well before amalgamation, and worked in both the human resources and finances departments, before becoming Manager Corporate Services at the new Council in 1997.
In this role, she provides the internal support and resources to enable Council to fulfil its external operations.
This involves carrying out and overseeing finance, human resources, risk management, customer service, IT, OH&S and records management duties.
Coorong CEO Tim Drew nominated Natalie to appear in FOCUS.
He said that since becoming manager, she has worked extremely hard to rebuild the full suite of corporate services functions, which had been allowed to run down for a number of years.
“Natalie has done a fantastic job in building a team of professional staff almost from the ground up, at the same time as delivering improvements in the key areas of finance, risk management and customer service,” Tim Drew said.
Coming from a non managerial background with no formal management training, Natalie feels the role can be quite challenging, but she enjoys being in a position where she can provide benefits for her team, while contributing to the smooth operation of Council.
“I have a variety of young professionals on my team and I am proud that Council can offer them the opportunity to further develop and hone their skills,” Natalie Traeger said.
“I am also keen to raise the profile of working women, and being able to offer both part time and work from home arrangements has enabled me to achieve that. All of my 14 staff are engaged in some form of professional development or are working for Council on a part time or work from home basis.”
Natalie said she is also proud of her role in developing a Customer Service Charter for Council.
“Customer service is not only about front counter service, it is a whole of organisation responsibility, from responding to correspondence to staff knowledge,” she said.
“In 2008 we established a project team to conduct a community survey seeking feedback from key stakeholders regarding customer service standards.
“This was the first time Council had surveyed the community in this manner, and while we achieved an average positive response of 86 per cent, some key improvement areas were identified.
“The project team analysed these improvement areas and developed and implemented a new Customer Service Charter for Council, which is supported by best practice standards that aim to meet the needs of the community and Council.
“Customer service has far reaching consequences on the way Council conducts its business, so it is crucial to have policies in place to make sure it is done correctly.
“We have not had anything like this in place before to ensure there is consistency in our approach.
“We are now due to commence a followup survey, which I am positive will show an improvement in community satisfaction.”
Natalie and her team are now working on a records management project.
She said it is not just about moving into the digital era with an electronic system, but changing the culture of the workplace and instilling that culture in all staff.
“Records management is a responsibility of all staff and this must be reflected in our policies,” Natalie Traeger said.
“We have implemented a cross departmental project team to get this message across, and we are enforcing it from the CEO down, right across the organisation.
“This month, we are running staff awareness sessions to ensure staff understand the changes that will be taking place, and we hope to have the system up and running by April.”
