Moonee Valley City Council’s 900 staff are all aboard the train for ACT. They are not headed for Canberra as their final destination is outstanding results in ACT – Accountability, Customer service and Teamwork.
Moonee Valley Chief Executive Neville Smith said Council had been performing well in these areas but he wanted staff to always be striving for outstanding results.
“To promote this improvement project internally we have used visuals and language connected to trains,” he said. “We have done this because trains have carriages that are linked together as they travel in the same direction towards the same destination.
“These are the key messages we are pushing out to staff as part of this project. To achieve our final destination all staff must work together, be accountable for each other; and head in one strategic direction.”
Accountability, Customer service and Team work are each the subject of a three month campaign that includes:
- a themed staff Leadership Forum and Manager’s Forum
- regular key messages in a new Leadership e-newsletter and staff newsletters.
Neville Smith said one of the major components of each campaign is the linked staff training.
“Since the project commenced staff have been able to undertake a range of training specially designed to achieve improvements in the ACT values,” he said.
Some of the training sessions to date include:
- goal setting – making service planning work for you
- getting the most out of the staff review system
- performance conversations for senior leaders
- coaching – getting the best out of your teams
- managing everyday performance
- coaching – I’m a leader: I’m a coach
- performance enhancement system training
- constructive conversations
- understanding the performance enhancement process for staff
ACT was launched in May with Council already achieving improvements in customer service and accountability.
Neville Smith said this is about making the strategic direction of the organisation clear to all staff so that when people are asked to do training they understand why they are doing it and where it will lead them.
“We’ve already seen positive results, including a reduction in the number of outstanding customer requests and an increase in positive responses from the community about Council services,” he said.”There has also been an increase in the number of staff reviews being undertaken and recorded.”
