Ipswich City Council Administrators Update - Vision 2020 January 2020

WHAT WE DID A Transformation Project team engaged external Human Resources consultants (Prominence Pty Ltd) to facilitate the design and delivery of a leading practice People and Culture Framework and inform the development of a three-year People and Culture Strategic Plan. The team prepared a Safety Management Framework aligned to AS/NZS ISO 45001:2018 setting out accountability and responsibility with achievable measurable goals. Your council is now the first council in Queensland to build a safety framework to this standard. The team also developed a Safety and Wellbeing Strategic Plan that targets the actual organisational drivers of safety and wellbeing. NOW There is still some work to be done in this area. Whilst no organisation is “perfect” in terms of its people management, your council is on the pathway to becoming a leading local government in the way it deals with its own staff. Progressively, your council is moving from being “reactive and operational” towards becoming “proactive and strategic” through an internal business partner model; a typical contemporary approach whereby specific People and Culture Branch officers are “case managers” for a particular operational division/teams of council. More focus needs to be placed on the areas of grievance management, performance management, health, safety and wellbeing, leadership development, and recruitment and selection (including diversity and inclusion). The community can expect progressive improvement in the way your council deals with its own staff. Council staff can expect to be part of this transition which will probably take a few years. The incoming mayor and councillors can expect this area to be greatly improved compared to previous practice, but still be “work in progress” and to have the strategic reporting in place to enable them to monitor the progressive transition of the organisation.

NOW Your council now has five departments and an Executive Leadership Team (ELT) comprising five general managers. The community can expect this structure to provide more efficient service delivery. Council staff can now expect their roles and reporting arrangements are better aligned with meeting the council’s goals in Advance Ipswich and its corporate plan. The incoming mayor and councillors can expect their organisation to be effectively structured and more responsive to their strategic directions in the future. SUPPORTING LINK: Ipswichfirst.com.au/changes-to-councils- management-structure-to-streamline-operations/ 4.11 PEOPLE AND SAFETY At the core of any organisation’s ability to perform its role are the capabilities and capacities of its human resources. It is entirely reasonable for Ipswich residents and ratepayers to expect that your council has contemporary human resource arrangements that enable the organisation to effectively recruit, train and develop, manage the performance, and ensure the safety of its people. BEFORE ADMINISTRATION The services provided by the People and Culture Branch were largely reactive and transactional in nature; ensuring payroll was administered and recreation leave applications processed etc. There were no human resources, training and development or performance management strategies in place. No safety management system was in place, and there was no strategic direction regarding the management of safety and wellbeing. It was largely a reactive approach with limited accountability and focus on the prevention of recurring incidents.

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