BYRON SHIRE COUNCIL

                                                                                                                                 4.5 - Attachment 2

 

 

            BUSINESS EFFECTIVENESS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACTION PLAN

2015/2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source Documents:

E2015/38994

2012/2013 Business and Management Effectiveness Survey Report

E2015/38996

2013/2014 Business and Management Effectiveness Survey Report

 

Introduction

 

Byron Shire Council has had a Financial Sustainability Project Plan in place since 2012. In addition Council, along with 77 other NSW councils, has been participating in an Operational and Management Effectiveness Benchmarking Study, implemented by Local Government Professionals in collaboration with PriceWaterhouse Coopers. Council now has Benchmarking Reports for the 2013 and 2014 Financial Years.

 

In addition to identifying key trends and changes in the NSW local government sector as a whole, the Benchmarking Reports measure Byron Shire Council’s performance across a large number of key operational and management areas, including Workforce Management, Finance Services, Operations, Risk Management and Corporate Leadership.

 

At present the trend data is limited but as more data becomes available over the years, the trend data will become increasingly robust and indicative. In addition, Council has committed to participating in the Regional Analysis and Comparative Tool which will commence next financial year, based on 2014/2015 data, and this will provide an additional layer of analysis and support.

 

In the meantime, this first year of trend data is a great starting place from which to continue to build Council’s Business Effectiveness and ensure that Council remains Fit for the Future.

 

Some Key Highlights & Opportunities:

 

·      The 2013/2014 Report highlighted that many of Council’s workforce management initiatives implemented over recent years (such as revised leave policies and improved safety and injury management processes) have been effective, with Council’s performance in these areas bettering the regional average.  There are still many opportunities for improvement, however, which are identified in the Action Plan – see summary on pg 14

 

·      Council has a slightly more diversified revenue base than comparative regional councils with 43% of Council’s revenue coming from rates and annual charges and the balance from other sources, compared to the regional average of 48% from rates and charges- see details on pg 57.

 

·      Even though Council has been in a capacity rebuilding phase, Council is still effectively managing productivity with its growth in revenue exceeding its growth in employee costs – see details on pg 43.

 

·      The benchmarking currently maps trends in ‘service reviews’ in some key internal corporate functions. The reports do not currently capture external service reviews which are also important to business effectiveness. For example Byron Council has initiated reviews on a regional basis of waste and procurement services but this is not captured in the Reports. Council has raised this issue, and LG Professionals has indicated that the service review section of the survey will continue to be expanded over time.

 

 

 


BYRON SHIRE COUNCIL

                                                                                                                                 4.5 - Attachment 2

Byron Shire Council Business Effectiveness Action Plan

 

 

Category

Description

2013/2014 Achievement against Regional (RA) or State Average (SA) or PwC Benchmark

Goal

Action

When

Who

Finance

Capital Expenditure per resident against budget

BSC $380

RA $500

1st year $400

2nd year $450

3rd year $500

Look at FFF Key Improvement Strategies to ensure actions will support improving trends.

Year 1

 

Corporate & Community Services

Rates and Annual Charges

 

N/a

Council able to report on separate revenue sources of rates, annual charges and fees

 

Revenue Policy reviewed and adopted and implementation commenced

Improve data collection system to increase accuracy in reporting

 

Review rates and charging policy at beginning at next term of Council.

Year 1

 

 

Year 2

Corporate & Community Services

 

Bachelor, certificate and diploma qualifications of finance personnel

BSC 21%

SA 34%

Increase in percentage of staff with tertiary qualifications

Personnel encouraged to further their studies

Years 1, 2 & 3

Manager Finance

 

Finance function effort by process

 

Increased understanding of benchmark

Review benchmarked information and source information to understand the data and determine whether further action required

Year 1

Corporate and Community Services

Finance Policy

 

An integrated Finance Strategic Plan

Link with FSPP Revenue Generating Policy Review.

Year 1

Corporate and Community Services

Electronic Delivery of rates notices

BSC 31%

RA 48%

Year 1 – 36%

Year 2 – 42%

Year 3 – 50%

Promotion and Engagement

Years 1, 2 & 3

Corporate and Community Services

Leveraging technology for developing financial reports

BSC 41%

RA 40%

Self service online reporting and/or BI applications are used

 

Process mapped

Implementation commenced

Year 1

Year 2

Corporate and Community Services

Governance

Customer Service

RA 2.6/10000 residents

BSC 1.9/10000 residents

Customer Service review, improvement and investment

Improved understanding of customer requirements

Service Review - Customer Services

 

Voice of Customer data collection systems in place

Year 1

 

 

Yr 2

Organisation Development

Operational Plan Actions

BSC Actions Implemented 74%

Actions Implemented:

Yr 1 85% 

Yr 2 90 %

Yr 3 >90%

Implement Operations Plan actions

Years 1, 2 and 3

Whole of Council

Information Technology

Expenditure on IT

(calculated per employee)

RA $5,026

BSC $7,675

Better understand the reasons for the trending increase in expenditure and short-medium expenditure requirements.

Interrogate the data and review spend against IT strategy.

Develop an action plan to forecast IT expenditure over the short-medium term.

Year 1

Year 2

Corporate and Community Services

IT Priorities

More than 87% of participants had different IT priorities to BSC

Better understand the reasons behind why BSC’s priorities are different and when the priorities are likely to change

Review IT strategy and confirm top 3 current priorities. Review those against benchmarking data and report with recommendations the reasons for any differences.

Year 1

Corporate and Community Services

Risk Management

Risk Management Plan

BSC: No

RA: Yes

Risk Management Plan in place

Develop Risk Management Plan

Year 1

Corporate and Community Services

Workforce

Workforce Planning

Various

Workforce Plan includes actions to address identified opportunities.

During review of Workforce Plan in 2015/2016 include actions addressing: 

-   Succession planning for management positions;

-   Gender equity, leadership development for women in local government and professional development for female workforce;

-   Attraction and Retention of Gen Y employees.

Years 1 and 2

 

Organisation Development Team

 

Overtime (per EFT)

RA 4.1%

BSC 5.6%

 

Year 1: reduce from 5.6% to less than 5%

Year 2: reduce from 5% to less than 4.5%

Year 3: reduce from 4.5% to less than 4%

Finance Team will set and distribute targets for each Team (Manager level).

 

Active management to reduce overtime as a percentage of wages to better than median.

Monthly reporting with reasons when goal not being achieving.

Year 1

 

 

Years 1, 2 and 3

 

 

 

Years 1, 2 and 3

Manager Finance

 

 

Managers and Directors

 

 

Managers and Directors

Casual Labour Hire (as a percentage of total expenditure on employees and agency costs)

RA 2.6%

BSC 8.3%

 

Year 1: reduce from 8.3% to less than 6%

Year 2: reduce to less than 4%

Year 3: reduce to no more than 2.5%

Finance Team to review management of casual labour data and set up systems in the general ledger to make it readily accessible and able to be analysed in detail eg costs against salaries budgets, compared with project costs or natural disaster response costs etc.

Monthly reports to Directors and Managers

 

Active management to reduce casual labour

Beginning of Year 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Years 1, 2 and 3

 

Years 1, 2 and 3

 

 

Manager Finance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manager Finance

 

Directors & Managers

Spans of Control (size of teams)

BSC 4.2

PwC 6

 

Review spans of control across all teams to improve understanding of supervision requirements for different operations.

Mapping of Spans of Control across Teams complete

Recommendations adopted for inclusion in future workforce planning initiatives

Year 1

 

Year 2

 

Organisation Development

Long Service Leave:

Continued implementation of Long Service Leave Policy

BSC 25%

RA 28%

 

% staff with balances in excess of 12 weeks reduced to 20%

% staff with balances in excess of 12 weeks reduced to 15%

 

Develop leave management templates

 

Monitor and review leave balances monthly

 

Implement leave management plans where necessary

Year 1

 

 

Years 1, 2 and 3

 

 

Years 1, 2 and 3

 

 

Organisation Development

 

Directors and Managers

 

Directors and Managers with support from Organisation Development

 

Formal Performance Appraisal

RA 73%

BSC 37%

% of Supervisors and above with Formal Appraisal increased to 90%

Directors and Managers to ensure that all supervisory staff in their teams including themselves have a PPR plan in place that is reviewed formally at least once per annum.

Years 1, 2 and 3

 

Directors and Managers with support from Organisation Development

Turn Over Rates in First Year

RA 17.3%

BSC 21.6%

Data broken down further to identify % turnover arising from permanent appointments (ie not including traineeships or short term vocation placements which by their very nature end in first 12 months)

 

Review Data and report on outcomes with recommendations as required

 

Year 1

Organisation Development

 

Explanatory Notes: 

 

·   The above Action Plan contains 3 years worth of actions, but years 2 and 3 will need to be reviewed as further annual reports, trend data and the comparative tool data becomes available.

·   The methodology for mapping of personnel to the categories of customer services, finance and IT changed between 2012/13 and 2013/14 as a result of improvements to the use of the tool. This has resulted in the trend data in the 2014 Report appearing to show reductions in the numbers of personnel in these areas as well as drops for example in the number of staff with certain tertiary qualifications – eg see item 2 on page 46 or page 64. This does not reflect an actual drop in staff or qualifications of the staff servicing those areas, rather it is just reflective of the changed methodology

 

Document History

Doc No.

Date Endorsed

Details Comments eg Resolution No.

E2015/31344

19 June 2015

2015/2016 Business Effectiveness Action Plan