Innovative, Dynamic, City of the Future. It’s a lofty aim, but when Logan City Council adopted those six words as the city’s official vision in May 2017, our Development Assessment team were emboldened by the challenge.
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We asked ourselves, how can we deliver our planning and development services in a way which increases outstanding value for the customer, while facilitating great development outcomes in Logan?
Through a previous Queensland award, we already were recognised for moving from a bureaucracy to a business, but we knew we could make even further strides towards becoming a leading-edge service provider on a national platform.
So, as a collective we looked at how we could improve, how we could harness new technologies and ideas to really take our vision towards a reality for our customers. In the last 12 months we’ve taken these ideas and put them into practice here at Council.
These initiatives include:
- Mobility Program – Branch Investigators and Plumbing Inspectors having access to Council information in the field and reducing the time in which decisions reach the customer.
- Drainage Plans Online – an Australian-first providing a web portal for customers to access Council’s infrastructure information,
- Drones – integration of this technology to improve decision making and evidence gathering.
- Real Time Reporting – reporting that is updated hourly enabling management to move quickly to respond to increases in workload across the business and ensure compliance with our customer response timeframes.
- Employee Attributes Development Framework – Piloting a new position description format that facilitates the creation of a unique individual development plan that rewards individual achievement and excellence.
They have been warmly welcomed by staff and customers since their implementation, which has been rewarding to see.
It was then with great honour that we received the 2018 Australian Business Award for Business Excellence, recognising these great initiatives.
The award is a tremendous acknowledgement of the team’s outstanding work, as we were competing against a strong field of private and public sector entities.
We’re happy with the win but we won’t rest on our laurels.
We’ve just launched an innovative new online tool, the Logan PD Hub, a fast and free way in which our customers can access digital planning and development services.
It includes a Queensland-first planning tool and customers can also access several reports such as flood levels free and on demand, as well as estimators for development fees, infrastructure charges and environmental offsets.
Aside from our award-winning technological advancements, in the next 18 months we’re also on a drive to really listen to and engage with our customers in a way which will shape the next phase of the services we offer.
Our focus on delivering customer excellence continues and we’re excited to be continuing our work in this local government sphere.
