Local Government Case Study

Environmental Services department

THE ORGANISATION

THE ISSUES / PROBLEMS

• The Environmental Services structure had 'evolved over time' with little or no assessment of resource requirements, skills levels and flexibility
• Need to determine whether the section can be organised differently to improve overall performance
• Morale within the department was low, a key requirement was therefore to positively engage staff in the review

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

• Carried out an initial 'scoping' exercise across all of the constituent teams : Housing, Liquor Licensing, Pollution Control, Health and Protection, Food Standards, Port Health
• Conducted a series of group workshops to identify problems and issues around : business processes, IT systems and support, workload management, skills and training, 'cultural' issues
• Carried out an extensive series of data analysis / desk-top studies covering: the existing organisation structure; levels at which tasks / functions are carried out; workloads and work-flows; existing business processes; current demarcations and the match of resources, skills and workloads
• Quantified the impact of existing organisation / process weaknesses and established the opportunity for improvement
• Open feedback sessions to senior management and to all staff within the section – sharing of all findings and conclusions
• Designed a phased improvement and implementation programme commencing with (the perceived) most difficult area
• Established and coached review teams of selected staff in 'lean' principles to illustrate improvement opportunities and change current mindsets / thinking
• Conducted detailed review of existing business processes employing strong 'visual management' techniques
• Actively engaged staff from within the ES department, also key interfacing functions and IT department
• Constructed a workload and capacity planning model for the Environmental Services teams
• Generated highly detailed implementation programme
• One-to-one coaching of senior managers and staff throughout the programme
• Review teams presented improvement programmes to colleagues and to senior management

PROJECT RESULTS

• Vastly improved process effectiveness and efficiency – improvement range between 35% and 56%
• Identified potential for additional revenues from grant associated activities / functions
• Identified opportunity for skills enhancement, increased flexibility and improved utilization of resources
• Reduce sub-contractor costs and improve sub-contractor performance
• Significant improvements to staff morale and confidence
• Improvements to interfaces – other key functions within the Council
• Programme now being extended to other parts of the Council