Agenda of Implementation Advisory Group

Implementation Advisory Group

9 March 2017

Minutes of Implementation Advisory Group Meeting

held at Leichhardt Service Centre on Thursday 9 February 2017

The meeting commenced at 6:25pm.

Members:	· Lucille McKenna OAM	· Alex Lofts
	· Darcy Byrne	· Vera-Ann Hannaford (apology)
	· Sam Iskandar	· Rosana Tyler (apology)

Other Attendees:
· Richard Pearson , Administrator · Rik Hart, Interim General Manager · Peter Gainsford, Deputy General Manager Assets and Environment · John Warburton, Deputy General Manager Community and Engagement · Michael Tzimoulas, Deputy General Manager Chief Financial and Administration Officer · Nellette Kettle, Group Manager Integration, Customer Service and Business Excellence · Rad Miladinovic, Coordinator Governance and Administration (Minute Taker)

1. Welcome by Administrator

2. Acknowledgement of Country

3. Apologies: Vera-Ann Hannaford and Rosana Tyler

4. Disclosures of Interest: Nil

5. Election of Chairperson: Darcy Byrne was appointed as Chairperson for this meeting.

6. Confirmation of Minutes: McKenna / Lofts

THAT the Minutes of the Implementation Advisory Group held on Thursday 8 December 2016 be confirmed.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

7. IAG0217 Item 1: Integration and Innovation Plan - Monthly Update

Recommendation: Iskandar / Byrne

THAT the report be received and noted.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

8: Ashfield Pool briefing: IAG members received a verbal update from the Deputy General Manager Assets and Environment.

9: TechnologyOne Presentation: IAG members received a presentation from Technology One representatives.

10: Organisational Structure Update: IAG members received a verbal update from the Executive Team.

11: Co-location Options: IAG members received a verbal update from the Executive Team.

Meeting closed at 9.02pm.

Item No: IAG0317 Item 1

Subject: Integration and Innovation Plan - Monthly Update

File Ref: 17/6012/17681.17

Prepared By: Emma Lannan - Change and Integration Projects Officer

Authorised By: Nellette Kettle - Group Manager Integration Customer Service & Business Excellence

SUMMARY

This report provides the IAG with a progress report on the merger implementation, including a high level summary of progress against the actions in the Integration and Innovation Plan (i-Plan), and progress in relation to key strategic projects/activities.

RECOMMENDATION

THAT the report be received and noted and the IAG provide any feedback.

BACKGROUND

The Integration and Innovation Plan (i-Plan) outlines the key projects to establish the Inner West Council in preparation for the return of the elected Council.

CURRENT STATUS

During February, significant progress has been made on projects critical to Council’s ability to function as one team and one organisation. A decision has been made regarding the co-location of teams and staff consultation has commenced. An interim salary structure has been proposed, to enable recruitment to the permanent organisational structure. The results of a staff engagement survey, conducted in late 2016, were released and provide a benchmark measure for the organisation. The Inner West Council organisational values, developed in a bottom-up process by the staff, have been announced and work has begun on embedding them into our organisational culture. Our service integration work has continued, with a focus on coordination and prioritisation of projects and resources.

In addition, substantial progress has been made on projects of significance for our community, including the development of the Community Engagement Framework and Community Strategic Plan. A status overview against the actions in the i-Plan is provided in Attachment 1.

Co-location Plan

Co-locating teams will enable staff to continue to build strong, working relationships and to function as one team, within the new Service Units. During December and January, the co-location project manager has been assessing the capacity of our sites, along with our operational needs. The Leadership Team endorsed the co-location plan on 23 February. This plan impacts indoor staff only with the new work locations, by Service Unit or team, identified in the table below.

Group Managers have commenced a period of consultation with their teams. Staff will have the opportunity to tour their new work locations in March and submit their feedback on the suitability of the site for their team’s functions. The co-location plan will be considered by the Joint Consultative Committee in April. Teams will begin moving in May, in a staged approach.

The co-location plan for outdoor teams is under development. It will involve broad consultation with staff due to the complexity in also consolidating plant, equipment and materials concurrently.

Proposed New Work Locations

Ashfield Service Centre

· DGM Community & Engagement

· Strategic Planning

· Community Services & Culture

· Library & History Services

· Customer Service (frontline)

Leichhardt Service Centre

· General Manager

· DGM Assets and Environment

· DGM Community & Engagement

· Human Resources

· Legal Services

· Communications, Engagement & Events

· Development Assessment & Compliance

· Governance (Business papers and Mayoral support)

· Property, Major Building Projects and Facilities

· Customer Service (frontline)

Petersham Service Centre

· DGM Chief Financial & Administration Officer

· Governance

· ICT

· Finance

· Customer Service (including call centre)

· Integration & Business Excellence

· Environment & Sustainability

· TechOne Project Team

St Peters Depot

· DGM Assets & Environment

· Trees, Parks & Sportsfields

· Procurement & Fleet

· Footpaths, Roads, Traffic & Stormwater

· Human Resources (WH&S)

Marrickville Town Hall

· Library & History Services

Leichhardt Town Hall

· Parkers

Petersham Town Hall

· Children & Family Services

· Recreation & Aquatic

Leichhardt Demountable

· Rangers

Service Integration and Review

The Integration and Transformation Program has focused on Stream 2 (Corporate Priority Projects) and Stream 3 (Service Unit Integration) projects, with Group Managers required to submit their prioritised project plans and business cases for additional support in February. Current efforts have concentrated on the alignment of projects, and their inter-dependencies. Critical to this process has been the collation and assessment of resource bids for projects unable to be supported within Service Units. Approximately 20 project bids amounting to $1.5M were received by the Integration Team, covering both Stream 2 and Stream 3 projects. These bids are currently being assessed with the Finance Team to identify the most appropriate funding source, including existing service unit budgets and the merger implementation fund. This process is running concurrently with the development of the integrated 2017-18 budget. The Transformation Program Overview Document will be considered by the Leadership Group in March.

Regular stakeholder meetings have been established with ICT, Finance and Governance and the Integration unit to manage program-level risk effectively, share critical information in a timely manner and continue to build strong working relationships across key service units and projects.

To ensure a high level of staff engagement with the transformation program, a regular program of staff forums (Integration Updates) commenced in February. Each month, the Integration Unit will visit the service centres and two depots (on a rotational basis) to update staff on key integration projects, including TechOne and Corporate Priority Projects (refer Attachment 2). Importantly the forums provide an opportunity for staff to ask questions and get to know the staff leading key integration projects. The forums will complement the regular staff newsletter on integration, providing information in a different format that enables two-way communication and feedback.

When the service integration program is established and well underway, the next phase for the Integration and Transformation Program will initiate: establishing and embedding Council’s continuous improvement program, using the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF). Initial training in the ABEF was held in February, for 19 staff across a number of Service Units, to introduce the principles and build staff capacity to begin considering Business Excellence principles in their service integration work.

Community Engagement Framework

The development of Council’s community engagement framework has been mapped out. The whole-of-Council framework will define how staff plan, implement and evaluate community engagement so that:

· there is a consistent principles-based approach to engagement embedded across the organisation;

· the roles and responsibilities of staff and consultants undertaking engagement activities on behalf of Council are clearly defined and understood;

· a culture and capacity for quality engagement is supported across Council;

· community needs and expectations are understood and reflected in the decisions and actions of Council; and

· the community’s trust in Council and satisfaction with Council’s performance is increased.

Building on the strong foundations of community engagement from the legacy councils, a draft project plan to develop the framework has been endorsed by the Leadership Group in early February. Staff engagement is currently underway prior to presenting the framework to LRAC and Strategic Reference Groups for their feedback in March (subject to their meeting schedule and existing agendas). The final draft will be considered by Council, prior to an extensively promoted period of community review. The final framework is expected to be adopted at the April 2017 meeting of Council.

Developing the new Community Strategic Plan

Council is required to develop and endorse a new Community Strategic Plan and prepare a four year Delivery Program by 1 July 2018. A process has been mapped out to develop the Inner West Community Strategic Plan (CSP), ready for consideration by the newly elected Council in September 2017. The process will facilitate whole-of-community engagement during 2017 and allows for the newly elected Council to request additional consultation to be carried out prior to formal endorsement. The Statement of Vision and Priorities, which has had extensive community input to its development, will provide a starting point for the Community Strategic Plan. An issues paper and a community engagement strategy are currently in development. The issues paper will provide context and the community engagement strategy will outline how Council will facilitate discussion with community and stakeholders to answer the key questions the CSP will address:

· Where are we now? (analysis of issues and “stock take”)

· Where do we want to be in ten years’ time? (the vision and outcomes)

· How will we get there? (strategy development)

· How will we know when we have arrived? (community indicators and targets)

Community engagement will launch at Carnival of Cultures (19 March) and run until August 2017. The Local Representation Advisory Committee (LRAC) and the Strategic Reference Groups (SRGs) are considered key stakeholders in the process. The community engagement strategy is being developed to incorporate roles for the LRAC and SRGs through the development of the CSP. A draft CSP will be presented to the newly elected Council. It is anticipated that the new Council will consider the draft CSP and adopt it for public exhibition and a final period of community review. The new Council may request additional engagement prior to the exhibition period. The CSP must be endorsed and adopted by 1 July 2018, to meet statutory requirements.

Staff Engagement

In November 2016, staff were invited to participate in a Staff Survey to measure levels of engagement and seek feedback on what the organisation is doing right and areas for improvement. The survey was facilitated by a third party, Insync, and 720 staff participated (60% of the organisation). Results were shared first with the Leadership Team, who met and discussed them at great length. Results were then made available to all staff and are summarised here.

· 44% of staff have a strong sense of belonging to Inner West Council

· About half of our staff look forward to coming to work each day (53%) and envisage a fulfilling future at Council (49%)

· About half of our staff volunteer to do extra work on special projects (54%), happily do extra work to help Inner West Council succeed (55%) and view most challenges faced at work as good learning experiences (56%)

· Positively, most staff are satisfied with their job (60%) and are proud to be working here (62%)

· Most staff (59%) believe their own success is important to the success of Council and 65% are committed to Council’s success

· Half (50%) believe the person they report to is interested in their job satisfaction

· Only a third (31%) believe the senior leadership team has a vision for Inner West Council that inspires them

Broadly, the findings of the survey reflect an organisation that is experiencing significant change and staff who are in the middle of that transition. At the time of the survey, there had been a change of interim General Manager and change in strategic direction. Council was in the process of developing the Statement of Vision and Priorities and organisational values – both are key factors to setting a vision and strategic direction for the organisation. A permanent organisational structure had been announced but not yet implemented and staff had been balancing the delivery of normal operations and additional work associated with the merger implementation, in a challenging environment where teams are still geographically dispersed and without core ICT connectivity in place.

Positively, a reasonable proportion of our staff are willing to do extra work, view challenges as a learning opportunity and are proud to be working at Inner West Council, despite the short term challenges that the merger environment presents, while integration takes place. This survey sets a benchmark for improving staff engagement. The Leadership Group is committed to making improvements to how our staff experience their work and workplace. Good communication, as well as key projects, like the organisational values, leadership development, permanent organisational structure and co-location of teams, are likely to have a positive impact. To gain further input from staff on how things can be improved, Insync will be running a series of focus groups with staff during March to help inform our improvement efforts.

Salary Structure

The Draft Interim Salary Structure merging the three previous salary structures into one is currently out for consultation, including to the Joint Consultative Committee. It has been developed with the intent to provide comparable salaries. It will enable the transition to the permanent organisation structure over the next two to three months. The move to a new permanent organisation structure will allow staff and the organisation to:

· Have some certainty about their role in the future direction of the organisation

· Have some security around their conditions and wages for the immediate future;

· Allow all parties to make decisions about their future employment, or other lifestyle choices.

This ensures the fastest and most efficient process to allow a new permanent organisational structure to be filled with minimal disruption or variation from current rates of pay, noting that with a new structure and new positions this will be unavoidable in some circumstances. The Interim structure will use the salary points of the former Marrickville and Leichhardt Salary Structures so staff will be on comparable pay rates.

A permanent salary structure review will seek to harmonise the various conditions of employment in the future. This review will take 6 – 12 months and will involve considerable commitment and consultation, particularly from the Leadership Team and Joint Consultative Committee. It is best initiated after the permanent organisational structure is implemented.

Systems integration and transformation – TechnologyOne project

Further to last month’s report, work continues to review TechOne’s preconfigured solution. The project teams are working through the business processes and identifying the required configurations to ensure its suitability for the Inner West. The priority in the coming weeks is to finalise the configuration requirements in order to execute the contract and begin building the solution.

Organisational Values

The development of organisational values has been an extensive consultation process with staff. Staff workshops were held in November 2016 to create a shortlist of values. These workshops were open to all staff. Voting was carried out in December with over 900 staff participating (75% of the workforce). The organisational values as determined by the staff are:

· Flexibility

· Integrity

· Respect

· Spirit of Team

The values are summarised as the acronym FIRST, with the brand “First Values – Values First”. This brand recognises that this is our first suite of organisational values, while also emphasising the importance of values, in our decision-making and behaviour.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Nil.

OTHER STAFF COMMENTS

Information to inform this report has been drawn from relevant staff across the organisation.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

This report is published on the Council website.

CONCLUSION

Significant progress continues to be made in relation to the merger implementation and towards building one integrated organisation and culture.

ATTACHMENTS

1.⇩	Integration and Innovation Plan - Action Table - Status Report as at 27/02/17
2.⇩	Stream 2 - Corporate Priority Projects (as of 20 January 2017)