One Melbourne, One CoM

City of Melbourne Action Plan

June 2015

Message from the CEOThe future will bring many opportunities and challenges that will test our city and our organisation in new ways. The City of Melbourne has a lot to be proud of. All of us who work here want to continue our successes and keep delivering exceptional results for our Council and the Melbourne community.

The City of Melbourne Organisational Action Plan – One Melbourne, One CoM – is our initial blueprint for change. It responds to the recent Organisational Capability Review and is a first step in refreshing and reinvigorating our organisation to best support Council and the community. A key concept in the Action Plan is stewardship – this is the idea that we owe an obligation not just to support the current Council but also to prepare for future challenges, and to be ready to meet the needs of future councils.

This Action Plan is a work plan for the next 12 months. In large part it reflects what City of Melbourne employees said is important for the organisation to do to continue to stay at the top of its game. It documents what needs to be done now to ensure that we meet future challenges.

At the very core of the plan is an understanding that we are one organisation, working together, and that our fundamental responsibility is to bring Melbourne together - One Melbourne, One CoM.

The plan includes actions that will:

refresh our community plan – Future Melbourne

deliver a new organisational vision and four year rolling plan to guide and strengthen the organisation in the face of future challenges and opportunities

strengthen our approach to leadership to ensure that we have an accountable, inclusive and collaborative approach, that leadership of the organisation is encouraged at all levels and that decisions are clear and transparent

develop our people to best meet current and future needs, drive greater consistency in our performance and open up more opportunities for people to gain different experiences across the organisation

provide better customer service through support of digital technologies and ensuring that customers receive integrated and comprehensive service from us

do more to simplify, standardise and improve our systems and processes so that we lighten our administrative load and can work smarter, delivering even more for Council and our customers.

The actions respond to goals seven and eight of the current Council Plan, and are designed to make working at CoM even better. We will continue to deliver for Council as our first priority – but we will focus more on how we deliver, working together more purposefully and building an even better organisation. An organisation that is more integrated, more collaborative and more efficient.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the Executive Leadership Team, Management Team and all employees of the City of Melbourne for your input in developing this Action Plan. I know many people have put a lot of time and effort in to this process. Staff at all levels have been very productive and courageous in putting forward ideas for change and also in reinforcing what is great about CoM.

This level of engagement makes me confident that we are ready and able to deliver on these actions and that we will make progress quickly. I am confident that Council, employees and the community will rapidly experience a better CoM, and that we will make progress on our objective of One Melbourne, One CoM. This will keep us at the top of our game and make for an exciting period ahead for CoM.

Ben Rimmer

CEO

Contents

Message from the CEO....................................................................................................................................... 2

Contents.............................................................................................................................................................. 3

Background:........................................................................................................................................................ 4

Organisational Capability Review Findings 4

Action Plan development 4

Organisational Action Plan themes:....................................................................................................................5

COUNCIL VISION AND PLAN............................................................................................................................ 6

Actions:............................................................................................................................................................... 7

ORGANISATIONAL VISION AND PLAN............................................................................................................8

Actions: 9

LEADERSHIP................................................................................................................................................... 10

Strategic Directions: 10

Actions: 11

PEOPLE............................................................................................................................................................ 14

Strategic direction: 14

Actions: 15

CUSTOMER...................................................................................................................................................... 18

Strategic direction: 18

Actions: 19

PROCESS & SYSTEMS................................................................................................................................... 21

Strategic directions: 21

Actions: 22

Monitoring and Reporting.................................................................................................................................. 24

Background:

Organisational Capability Review FindingsCapability reviews focus on leadership, strategy and delivery capabilities and highlight internal management strengths and areas for improvement.

The City of Melbourne Organisational Capability Review was completed in May. It was a forward-looking assessment of how well the City of Melbourne is equipped to meet future needs and deliver the very best outcomes for its Council and community.  It applied a tried and trusted framework that has been used elsewhere in Australia and around the world.  It is the first time that this review model has been applied to local government in Australia.

The findings of the review were a great affirmation for what the City of Melbourne does well. They acknowledged the substantial talent and expertise of past and present leaders as well as our managers and staff. The Senior Review Team identified a number of areas in which City of Melbourne leadership has shaped our city and created world-leading knowledge and impact.

In addition, the report outlined the following areas for improvement:

organisational vision and plan

culture of teamwork and collaboration with particular focus on the leadership team

accountability at all levels within the organisation

speed, agility and transparency in decision making

mobility, talent management, diversity, inclusion and succession planning

simplifying and removing overlapping processes.

Action Plan developmentThis Action Plan sets out a blueprint for how the City of Melbourne will develop as an organisation and how we will properly meet the challenges that lie ahead of us. It reflects the commitment of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) to fully consider the findings and observations of the Organisational Capability Review report.

As part of a renewed commitment to stewardship of the organisation, individual Directors and Managers will act as ‘sponsors’ for each of the Action Plan themes. The expectation is that individual sponsors will actively seek to influence, through ELT, delivery of the actions in accordance with the strategic directions. Theme responsibilities have been deliberately allocated outside the substantive content of each group.

The Action Plan has been developed through a broad consultative process over the last four weeks.

During this time, employees have been invited to provide ideas and suggestions through participation in workshops and submitting comments via email and Yammer.

We have received many emails and Yammer posts and 170 employees across all levels and Groups attended workshops and contributed input.

Organisational Action Plan themes:In response to the Organisational Capability Review, we will focus on six themes. These themes will be used to guide our activities over the next year. They include:

COUNCIL VISION AND PLANThrough the Council Plan, our elected Council sets the direction for our organisation over a four-year period whilst striving to deliver on the community’s vision of a bold, inspirational and sustainable city. It is this core democratic process that drives the activity of the City of Melbourne.

The administration is responsible for ensuring Council’s strategic objectives are delivered in the most efficient and timely way. It is our role to provide professional policy and administrative advice and recommendations to Councillors to enable informed decision-making. It is also our role to provide ‘stewardship’ for the organisation, thinking ahead and planning for the capabilities we will need to support the next Council, and the one after that.

A key focus for the organisation during 2015-16 will be working with Council and the community to refresh the Future Melbourne plan.

In the seven years since the plan was first adopted the city has experienced rapid and transformational change, particularly in the pace of development, rate of population growth and the speed of technological change. Above all, the rapidly changing technology landscape will bring significant opportunity and disruption, and will lead to new expectations from the community. All of this change comes against a context of climate change – both the need to adapt our city to prepare for a warmer, drier climate, but also the need for city governments to provide leadership in de-carbonising the economy.

The Future Melbourne refresh provides an opportunity for our leaders and employees, working collaboratively, to put their passion for Melbourne into practice and demonstrate thought leadership. We will ensure the community, key stakeholders, and partners are engaged in the vision for Melbourne’s future.

This ongoing obligation to bring Melburnians together, and to ensure that there is an integrated, efficient and effective administration to support their vision, is the origin of the title of this action plan: One Melbourne, One CoM.

We also have an obligation to work with Council to ensure that the annual plan and budget processes best support current and future Councils.

In order to deliver on the Future Melbourne vision for current and future Councils, we will need to hone our capabilities, to ensure that we support inspirational leaders who engage and develop our people, that we have a ‘One CoM’ approach to our customers and that we have the systems and processes in place that will enable us to keep pace with change.

Sponsors: Geoff Lawler and Alexandra Links

Actions:

Refresh the Future Melbourne Plan1. Refresh Future Melbourne in order to ensure that the community, the Council and the organisation have

an up to date view about future challenges and opportunities for Melbourne. Completed by July 2016. Lead: Future Melbourne.

Update Council Plan process2. Update the process for developing the next Council’s four year Council Plan with a view to improving:

Alignment of strategies and goals

Prioritisation of actions

Effectiveness of reporting and evaluation.

Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Improvement and Program Integration.

Review Annual Plan and Budget process3. Review the process for developing the Annual Plan and Budget in order to improve Council oversight,

reduce administrative complexity and enhance financial accountability. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Finance and Procurement and Improvement and Program Integration.

Improve administration prioritisation and focus4. Improve processes to more explicitly manage, schedule and prioritise the work of the organisation in

delivering on the Council Plan action and Organisational Plan ensuring that flexibility is built in to manage changing priorities. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Improvement and Program Integration.

Continue to enhance 10 year Financial Plan5. Commence work on version two of the 10 year financial plan, incorporating updated Council and

organisational planning work and lessons learned through version one. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Finance and Procurement.

Prepare Land Use and Infrastructure Plan6. Aligned with the future Melbourne process prepare a draft land use and infrastructure plan for

consideration early in their term by the newly appointed Council. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: City Strategy and Place.

ORGANISATIONAL VISION AND PLANThe Organisational Capability Review found that in order to ensure our organisation remains well placed to support the delivery of Council’s current and future priorities during changing times, we must have a longer term plan for the organisation itself.

As a leading public sector organisation it is our responsibility to ensure that we know where we are headed and are operating as efficiently as possible - that we’re getting the most out of our people and processes and avoiding duplication of our efforts.

A clear 10-year organisational vision and four-year organisational plan will enable us to identify our organisational goals and risks, to schedule our efforts and to align our priorities across the organisation. If we have an effective four year organisational plan, Council will see a more efficient, aligned, and effective administration supporting them and the community will see faster, better and more consistent outcomes.

The organisational plan will also allow us to prioritise our efforts, and to ensure that our work on strengthening the organisation integrates with Council objectives and priorities. It will set out a phased and orderly approach to building our capability, with increasing maturity quarter after quarter, year after year. We can’t do everything at once; we need to build capability through gradual improvements across different areas of our work at different times. We will need to make sure that there is time and capacity at an individual, branch and organisational level to manage the priorities we agree upon.

We know our employees are eager for strong and inspirational leadership, and clarity about the organisation’s purpose and direction. A clearly articulated vision and forward looking plan will help align all employees at all levels and explain how we will deliver on our commitments to Council and the community, whilst transforming our organisation.

While our organisation’s values are sound, as part of the development of the organisational vision and plan we will consider and refresh them as necessary. This Action Plan is premised on giving greater weight to collaboration as expected core behaviour and a CoM value.

Collaboration is increasingly important in the public sector. It unlocks greater productivity, improves customer service outcomes within constrained budgets and assists with complex policy and service delivery challenges. And it is core to our task of bringing the community together in a One Melbourne approach.

Collaboration requires thoughtful consideration to determine when and why to collaborate as well as genuine support to bring about the conditions required for effective collaboration. Trusting relationships among CoM employees and leadership are a necessary element of successful collaboration.

Sponsors: Geoff Lawler and Alexandra Links

Actions:

Develop a 10 year organisational vision7. Work to develop a long term organisational vision that guides the planning of the administration and

ensures we are building capability for the future. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: ELT.

Develop a four year Organisational Plan8. Introduce a four year rolling organisational plan outlining a phased and orderly approach to building

organisational capability over time. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Improvement and Program Integration.

8.1. Organisational plan initiatives will generally be broken into components of no more than 3-6 months, with an expectation of rapid and iterative delivery, in order to increase the pace of change and the speed of decision making.

Improve administration prioritisation and focus9. Improve processes to more explicitly manage, schedule and prioritise the work of the organisation in

delivering on the Council Plan and Organisational Plan ensuring that flexibility is built in to manage changing priorities (linked to action 4). Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Improvement and Program Integration.

Improve business plan process10. Create clear organisational standards and processes for business planning to create consistency and

ensure all business plans have visibility across the organisation, building line of sight between business plans and individual performance and development objectives. Completed by: March 2016. Lead by: Improvement and Program Integration.

Update key organisational measures11. Review organisational performance measures to align with the strategic direction of the organisation.

Completed by: September 2015. Lead by: ELT and Improvement and Program Integration.

Monitor delivery of CoM Action Plan 12. Monthly progress reports to ELT on progress with Action Plan actions including reporting on strategic risks

to implementation. Completed by: Ongoing. Lead: ELT and Improvement and Program Integration.

12.1. Quarterly reporting to employees and Councillors on progress with the Action Plan in line with Council Plan actions. Completed by: Ongoing. Lead by: ELT and Improvement and Program Integration.

LEADERSHIPThe Organisational Capability Review noted that the executive leadership team has a corporate leadership and stewardship role as well as a responsibility to oversee operational delivery, provide policy advice to Council and engage effectively with stakeholders.

At CoM the formal leadership of the organisation is through the CEO to Council. The CEO is supported by the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and the Management Team (MT). In practice, leadership at all levels of CoM should be fostered and encouraged. City of Melbourne employees are passionate about their work and their city, so leadership in their work comes naturally to many of our people.

CoM leaders at all levels have a role in supporting organisational performance and in encouraging others to act responsibly in the public interest, so that they achieve more together than they would have achieved separately or on their own. Our organisation will really ‘sing’ when it is built on leadership that comes naturally from large numbers of our team.

Leaders play a pivotal role in shaping an organisational culture of collaboration and their role-modelling can achieve culture change. Equally, influential individuals can be significant in driving collaboration. All employees will be encouraged to work across the organisation and give meaningful consideration to the benefits and desired outcomes of collaboration in their work.

The ELT and MT are committed to improving stewardship of the organisation through transformational and integrated leadership, and through collaboration. The CEO, Directors and Managers all understand that their own behaviour matters and sets the tone and direction for the organisation as a whole.

ELT and MT engagement will be characterised by robust debate, as we work together to identify the best advice and deliver the best outcomes. We will now make decision making more consistent and transparent, so that everyone is clear on what has happened, what they are meant to do, and how the original decision was made.

The MT will be supported to develop as contemporary public sector leaders who are collaborative, lead people at individual and team level, drive a culture of collaboration and high-performance and rely on partnerships rather than process or authority to achieve outcomes.

Sponsors: Ben Rimmer and the Executive Leadership Team

Strategic Directions:The following strategic directions will guide CoM in its implementation of the CoM Action Plan and beyond:

Robust and transparent decision making and delivery.

Visible, collaborative and inclusive leadership team.

Organisational stewardship.

Thought leadership.

Leadership at all levels.

Actions:

Introduce a new Executive Leadership Team13. Introduce an expanded Executive Leadership Team (ELT) to focus on leadership of the whole organisation

and increase cross organisational collaboration.

13.1. ELT will incorporate CEO, Directors, Manager People and Culture; CFO, CIO, Manager Governance and Legal, Manager Strategy and Partnerships and Manager Customer Relations. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: CEO.

13.2. ELT roles will explicitly focus on cross-organisational outcomes in addition to functional accountabilities and Council Plan delivery.

Demonstrate accountable, inclusive and transparent leadership14. Drive a high performance leadership culture that is accountable, inclusive and transparent by:

14.1. ELT agreeing on a statement of leadership expectations, including accountability for results, teamwork and collaboration, inclusive and sustainable leadership, and development of the next generation of leaders. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal.

14.2. Adopting a charter and terms of reference for ELT and the Management Team, including the introduction of:

A calendar that identifies strategic discussions to be had throughout the year.

ELT and MT agendas and outcomes published on Yammer. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal.

14.3. Providing tighter governance, greater strategic focus and higher levels of consistency in organisational transformation, people and culture and technology strategy, through new governance committees with membership from a range of levels that report to ELT. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal.

14.4. Annual independent performance assessment of ELT. Completed by: First review completed by June 2016. Lead: Governance and Legal.

Improve flow of communication and support collaborative environment15. Enhance communication and collaboration across the organisation, and particularly from leaders, through

new tools and approaches.

15.1. Support our people leaders in their role in communicating organisational messages through CoM Leaders. Completed by: Commenced. Lead: CEO.

15.2. Encourage the use of Yammer to support cross organisational communication by:

Ensuring, where practicable, people have access and are skilled.

Providing opportunities for people to build a work profile that includes what they’re working on as well as previous work history, skills, networks, interests.

Identify and share examples of effective collaboration and the factors that contribute to success. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Corporate Affairs and Strategic Marketing.

15.3. Enable rapid communication between teams to support customer service and other collaborative work including the roll out of ‘Lync’ instant messaging. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Corporate Affairs and Strategic Marketing.

15.4. Prepare a collaboration toolkit. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Strategy and Partnerships.

15.5. Set goals for purposeful collaboration and provide recognition in performance appraisals of collaborative achievements. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Managers.

15.6. Create a new governance ComWeb page that contains information, and or links to:

Councillor Briefing Papers

Councillor Forum agendas and presentations

Weekly Media and Communications Report.

FMC and Council agenda planner. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal. 

15.7. Require all default settings for DM to be modified to read only access for documents. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Technology Services.

Leadership and accountability at all levels16. Encourage a culture of leadership and accountability at all levels in the organisation:

16.1. Undertake a review of formal delegation, decision rights and authorisations to empower staff to make decisions. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal Strategy and Partnerships.

16.2. As part of 16.1, develop and agree levels of accountability, including the accountability to present a ‘One CoM’ view to customers and the community, and the accountability to balance risks and benefits. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal Strategy and Partnerships.

16.3. Encourage a wide range of staff at all levels to participate in governance processes such as the development of annual business plans, work on implementing this Action Plan, and new formal governance processes. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: All managers.

16.4. Support staff to present their own work at key decision making forums. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: All managers.

Continue to demonstrate thought leadership17. Identify a range of measures to build on the CoM reputation for thought leadership and introduce a new

generation of leaders:

17.1. Lead discussion with community on the future of the City through the Refresh of the Future Melbourne Plan (links to Action 1). Completed by: 2015/16. Lead: Future Melbourne.

17.2. Introduce new CEO seminar series with ten sessions per year from inspiring speakers to provoke thinking on the way we work and Melbourne’s future. Completed by: Commenced. Lead: CEO

17.3. Provide additional opportunities for employees to present their knowledge and experience to a wider audience. Completed by: Commence immediately. Lead: All Managers.

17.4. Encourage emerging leaders to seek thought leadership opportunities such as the Churchill Fellowship, speaking opportunities and publications. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: All Managers.

One CoM for stakeholders18. Map existing high level stakeholders, and take an integrated and ‘One CoM’ approach to relationship

management, engagement and advocacy. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Strategy and Partnerships.

Ensure that performance and development arrangements support improvements in leadership19. Introduce a new performance management model for the management team to drive consistency in

performance and identify capability needs for the organisation:

Performance and development plans relate to direct reports in a logical and predictable manner.

Performance and development plans with ‘line of sight’ to Council and organisational planning documents.

Cascading peer group performance and development evaluation.

Refreshed approach to formal performance and development documentation.

Expectation of at least quarterly performance and development catch ups. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

19.1. CEO performance and development plan process to be agreed with Council’s CEO Employment Matters Committee as part of 2015-16 planning cycle. Completed by: July 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal.

19.2. ‘360 degree’ feedback for the CEO, Directors and Management Team on broad leadership capabilities. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: People and Culture.

Provide additional development opportunities for Directors and Managers20. Invest in targeted development for the Management Team to improve effectiveness over time:

20.1. Identify high quality, high impact leadership and management development programs, including assessment of their effectiveness following completion. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: People and Culture.

20.2. Embed a leadership model that balances accountability for specific areas of knowledge and content with accountability for organisational stewardship. Cascade this to all roles over time. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: All managers.

Improve succession and retirement planning21. Strengthen the CoM approach to succession planning and planning for retirement, including:

Requiring succession planning for all Director and Manager positions and high risk specialist positions.

Explicitly ensuring gender balance in every succession plan, and identifying alternate recruitment pathways when this proves difficult.

A knowledge transfer process that captures knowledge from key employees.

Offering a wide range of transition to retirement options including flexible working arrangements. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

PEOPLEThe passion that City of Melbourne employees show for the city, their work and the organisation they work in is our greatest asset. We want to provide a work place that is stimulating, inclusive, fun and driven to achieve outcomes for Council, customers and our community.

To get the best out of our people we want to build a culture of trust that empowers employees to use their skills and judgement to make good decisions. We take seriously our commitment to our employees, providing more opportunities to develop and grow and making it easier to set goals, identify development opportunities and evolve their capabilities.

We are committed to:

Enabling mobility within the organisation and externally.

Developing a responsive workforce that is adaptable and able to meet the challenges of the future.

Promoting flexible workplace practices in support of diversity.

Increasing the representation of women in key leadership positions.

Cultivating talent and helping our people at all levels understand and meet their leadership and management responsibilities.

Strengthening our safety culture and practices.

In exchange, we expect all employees, permanent and temporary to hold themselves and each other accountable to CoM values, to act responsibly in the public interest and achieve results for the community as One CoM.

A significant opportunity for us to improve our people practices is emerging through our participation in the Male Champions of Change program (MCofC). Some of the thinking from this initiative is already influencing this Action Plan; other initiatives will take longer to develop, agree between Male Champions and then implement. It is already clear that we have significant progress to make, and that an integral task will be to ensure that all staff actions and behaviours explicitly support gender equity at all times.

Sponsors: Martin Cutter and Dean Griggs

Strategic direction:The following strategic directions will guide CoM in its implementation of the CoM Action Plan and beyond:

A mobile, flexible and diverse workforce.

Explicit and ongoing commitment to achieving gender equity in our community and in our organisation.

A more consistent approach to managing capability and performance.

A workforce that is well positioned to meet current and future needs.

Talent identified and developed to build future executive capability.

Actions:

Significantly enhance mobility22. Embrace and actively promote mobility:

22.1. Run a series of mobility information sessions covering current mobility options and a practical how to guide. Completed by: Starting in July 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

22.2. Identify and actively promote a wide range of external secondment opportunities e.g. Victorian Government, other councils and/or private sector. Completed by: Starting in July 2015. Lead: ELT.

22.3. Amend performance and development templates to ensure that all development discussions give consideration to options for movement within and outside CoM. Completed by: Starting in July 2015. Lead: All Managers.

22.4. Improve visibility of internal opportunities by creating a digital board to capture internal executive opportunities, and by establishing an expectation that all people leadership acting opportunities longer than four weeks will go through an internal EOI process. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

Encourage and deliver workplace flexibility23. Embrace and actively promote workplace flexibility:

23.1. Amend return to work processes following extended leave, including parental leave, to ensure active promotion of workplace flexibility, inclusion and diversity. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: People and Culture.

23.2. Actively promote flexible working arrangements by:

Undertaking a comprehensive audit of relevant HR policies and procedures.

Implementing simple Workplace Flexibility Protocols.

Gaining commitment by all people managers. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

23.3. Include in all advertisements that CoM encourages applications from people seeking part time and flexible arrangements, and seek to support those arrangements wherever possible. Provide strong and consistent guidance for people leaders in creating and managing flexible workforces. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: People and Culture.

23.4. Ensuring that acting opportunities and internal transfers are available to people working part time. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: All Managers.

23.5. Progressively require all new or updated Position Descriptions to include options regarding the work expectations if flexible arrangements are in place, or in limited circumstances a justification as to why this is not possible. Completed by: Starting in July 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

23.6. Continue to implement actions as part of the Male Champions of Change program. Completed by: 2015/16. Lead: CEO and MCofC Implementation leader.

Promote inclusion and diversity24. Encourage styles of management which embrace and actively promote diversity and inclusion:

24.1. Provide unconscious bias awareness training to all people managers. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

24.2. Develop in house capability to provide coaching and advice on Diversity and Inclusion. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

Support Indigenous employment and development25. Enhance Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural competency in CoM Leaders, and progressively

increase Indigenous employment within CoM.

25.1. Develop a relationship with Jawun Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporate Partnerships, and actively promote four external secondment opportunities per year to chosen regions within Victoria and NSW. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: People and Culture.

25.2. Develop a relationship with Jawun Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporate Partnerships, and actively promote four external secondment opportunities per year to chosen regions within Victoria and NSW. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: People and Culture and Social Investment.

25.3. Make arrangements to ensure that upon satisfactory completion of Indigenous traineeships, all CoM indigenous trainees will have the opportunity for ongoing employment. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: People and Culture.

Insist on gender equity26. Provide for greater gender diversity in CoM, especially in the Management Team:

26.1. Ensure that the gender balance within the Executive Leadership Team and the Management Team improves over time, supported by a clear aspiration that CoM will achieve equal representation of men and women. Measure performance against this aspiration through the Annual Report and other formal documentation. Completed by: Ongoing. Lead: ELT.

26.2. Introduce a Mentoring Program for female CoM Leaders, especially focussing on mid-career support and returning to work after parental leave. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

26.3. Ensure that CoM follows endorsed Australian Government Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

26.4. Continue to implement actions as part of the Male Champions of Change program. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: CEO and MCofC Implementation leader.

Use acting and short term opportunities wisely27. Manage acting and other short term advancement opportunities as a vehicle to promote gender equity,

talent planning and to model flexible working arrangements through an open and transparent process. Completed by: From July 2015. Lead: All Managers.

Revise performance and development processes28. Introduce updated performance and development processes that reflect current priorities and ‘reboot’

expectations:

28.1. Revise performance and development templates and guidance to provide more of a focus on career aspirations, development needs and accountability for delivery of cross organisational

initiatives (including the CoM Action Plan). Completed by: Starting in July 2015. Lead: People and Culture

28.2. Review processes for agency and contract employees. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

28.3. Provide a resource kit to people managers to enable proactive development conversations with employees. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

Refresh OH&S awareness29. Reinforce a culture of safety at work, heightening awareness of all kinds of safety risks, driving discipline

and increasing consistency and visibility of incident reporting and shared lessons across the organisation. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: MT, supported by People and Culture.

Explicit management and development of high potential staff30. Actively identify and support high potential employees within CoM:

30.1. Introduce a formal talent management program to CoM, focused on mid management levels. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

30.2. Consider introduction of a CoM Graduate program that caters for generalist candidates as well as candidates from professional disciplines. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: People and Culture.

Improve position descriptions31. Revise our approach to position descriptions and standardise work level expectations for each level within

CoM:

31.1. Develop agreed CoM Work Level Standards including contributions to Council actions, ongoing operations, people leadership, teamwork and organisational improvement. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: People and Culture.

31.2. Ensure there are fewer distinct Position Descriptions and generic Position Descriptions used wherever possible. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: People and Culture.

31.3. Progressively update all Position Descriptions to reflect organisational priorities and link to new CoM Working Standards. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: People and Culture.

Develop a CoM workforce plan32. Introduce a workforce plan, covering both operational and strategic matters, as part of the four year rolling

organisational plan. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: People and Culture.

32.1. Identify current and future workforce capability and skills requirements. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: People and Culture.

32.2. Progressively identify opportunities to simplify structures and increase spans of control where possible. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: All Managers.

CUSTOMERAt CoM, we use the word Customer to describe external people and organisations who receive services from us or are required to interact with us in the course of their work. We have an incredibly diverse array of customers across our organisation. They include parents at our child care centres, audience members at the Arts House, architects seeking planning permission, small business owners seeking a food service permit, residents of country Victoria parking in Melbourne for a few hours, tourists from Shanghai, and individual ratepayers changing their address.

Providing better standards of customer service is central to everything we do. Our approach for delivering to 21st century customers is to provide simple, easy to use services that deliver a seamless experience.

We do the hard work of integrating our services and presenting that to the customer, so that they don’t have to worry about our internal delivery structures. When we don’t meet our own expectations, and especially when we receive complaints, we learn from the experience and improve the systems that support high quality service delivery.

To remain relevant, we must build a greater connection with our residents and ratepayers, especially through technology. We need to build the organisation’s understanding of their needs and how they would like to interact with us. We need to equip ourselves to deliver the services of 2020 and beyond, and maintain our reputation for innovation and agility in service design.

We know that our residents and ratepayers want more accessible and reliable services – using the latest digital and social media approaches. They also want services that are simple, fast, integrated and do not require unnecessary interaction and effort. Our website, Melbourne.vic.gov.au will become the online entry point for customers to access information and services, but we know this is just the beginning of our digital journey.

Going digital, and improving customer experience more generally, will require agility, co-design and fast paced development. It will require our world-leading expertise in community engagement to be used more and more deeply.

We believe everyone at CoM should work together to put the customer first.

Systems and processes alone are not enough; we are serious about improving the customer experience and we must strive to build a customer centric culture. There are no internal customers within CoM, we all work together as colleagues and as a team to deliver the best outcomes for Council, our residents, ratepayers, businesses and visitors. One Melbourne, One CoM, will require a commitment from everyone and we will hold each other accountable to deliver excellent customer service.

Sponsors: Linda Weatherson and Graham Porteous

Strategic direction:The following strategic directions will guide CoM in its implementation of the CoM Action Plan and beyond:

More consistent, integrated standards of basic service delivery, with less ‘ring-around’ and more first time resolution.

Digital first service delivery, together with seamless customer experience through all our channels.

Services designed rapidly and iteratively with customers and community engagement.

Better management of complex customer circumstances to improve outcomes.

Actions:

Get customer basics right33. Reinforce organisational customer service expectations and get the basics right.

33.1. Create ‘customer basics’ service standards to create consistency in delivery and also allow for branch specific standards. Standards will include protocols for effective management of customer telephone calls. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: Customer Relations.

33.2. Introduce a training/awareness program on ‘customer basics' including at induction. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Customer Relations.

33.3. Ensure that all members of Management Team engage in front line service delivery on a regular basis to deepen knowledge of customer needs and possible improvements. To be reflected in annual performance plans. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: All Managers.

33.4. Implement a case management approach to complex customer interactions to ensure timely resolutions and implement a reporting tool to help identify complex cases. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Customer Relations.

Introduce the Customer Focus Plan34. Develop a Customer Focus Plan 2015-17 to maximise the value we deliver to customers. Implementation

to be staged across key customer groups. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Customer Relations:

34.1. Residents and individual ratepayers. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Customer Relations.

34.2. Businesses. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Customer Relations.

34.3. Professional service firms who engage with planning and building. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Customer Relations.

34.4. Visitors. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: Customer Relations.

34.5. Children and young people. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: Customer Relations.

Develop 2020 digital council prototype35. Develop and agree a prototype of the future CoM online and social media presence to support city

liveability, community engagement and customer service. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Smart City and Customer Relations.

Build a secure online account36. Co-design and prototype an authenticated digital customer service experience, initially focussing on

residents and ratepayers, to simplify services and re-use information where possible. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Technology Services, Customer Relations and Smart City.

Shift high volume work to digital37. Identify and migrate two high volume customer transactions to self-service digital channels with lessons to

inform future work. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: Technology Services and Customer Relations.

Continue to build Community Engagement approach

38. Work with Council and across the organisation to identify new areas in which to expand our community engagement practice, especially focusing on the refresh of the Future Melbourne Plan. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Place and Community Engagement and Smart City.

Introduce new, improved CityLab approach39. Integrate our thinking on Community Engagement, Lean, co-design and Agile project methodology to

create an enhanced ‘CityLab’ function. This new service design approach will be the platform through which we prototype and test new services and ideas, refresh existing ones, and engage with customers, partners and the community. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: City Strategy and Place Group.

Simple, consistent measurement of customer experience40. Update existing work on customer experience measures to cover all external facing areas of the

organisation, enhance consistency and use results to guide improvements. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: Customer Relations.

More transparent and purposeful reporting on customer complaints41. Monthly reporting to Management Team on categories of customer complaints and feedback by branch.

Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: Customer Relations.

41.1. Complaint of the week’ discussion at Management Team huddles. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: Customer Relations.

41.2. Promote the online service that enables customers to provide feedback at any time. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Customer Relations.

Develop business processes to support integrated customer service42. Review our customer relations approach to support our thinking on future CRM system pathways. Relates

to Action 48.2. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Customer Relations and Technology Services.

Upgrade Melbourne.vic.gov.au43. Launch the new Melbourne.vic.gov.au website to make information mobile, transparent and accessible

and provide a clearer description of council services. Completed by: Progressive delivery through 2015 -16. Lead: Digital Transformation Project Board.

PROCESS & SYSTEMSOur processes and systems underpin the way we work and determine the efficiency and effectiveness of our delivery for Council, customers and the community.

The Management Team is committed to working cooperatively across the organisation to find ways of improving efficiency and productivity in our operations.

We will continue to deliver services and look for opportunities to make continuous improvements by simplifying or ceasing processes that are duplicated and inefficient, or involve onerous red tape. In return, we expect all employees to follow procedures that make our work easier so we can free up time to contribute to other, more value adding activities.

We will continue to invest in our Lean thinking capabilities, and will harness that and other methodologies for significant transformational change in the highest priority areas for improvement.

These improvements will increase effectiveness, but they will also reduce risk.

Our technology solutions must match our current and future needs and support us in finding opportunities to drive and increase organisational productivity. This will involve a targeted approach to ICT investment to drive greater efficiency and value and reduced administration and service delivery costs. It will mean that we look for much simpler ICT delivery models, and access to economies of scale that come from sharing infrastructure and operations through cloud and similar models.

We are committed to ensuring we have appropriate governance structures that are fit-for-purpose and effectively manage risk at both an operational and strategic level.

We will free up time for our staff by focusing on the way we work – empowering the right people to make decisions, improving IT and simplifying work systems. 

Sponsors: Rob Adams and Beck Aldridge

Strategic directions:The following strategic directions will guide CoM in its implementation of the CoM Action Plan and beyond:

Get the basics right.

Reduce risk.

Create capacity through simplification and consistency.

Set a clear direction for future delivery models.

Build processed and systems ready for 2020 and beyond.

Prioritise and align effort.

Lift organisational discipline to enable a reduction of corporate controls.

Actions:

Quick wins to start simplifying44. Implement quick wins that will start to increase organisational discipline and create staff capacity:

44.1. Shift monthly reporting on annual Council actions to quarterly, except for high risk, high priority actions. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: Improvement and Program Integration.

44.2. Consult regarding proposed smarter procurement model to reduce risk, create better value and ensure sustainability over time. Completed by: July 2015. Lead: Finance and Procurement.

44.3. Reduce internal red tape by implementing a ‘one in, one out’ rule for policy documents, and commencing Phase 2 of the Policy Review with the aim to reduce the volume of policy documentation by at least a third while increasing readability and usefulness. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal.

44.4. Finalise the ‘Governance Health Check’ and report results to Councillors. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal.

Build the lean transformation work plan45. Supported by agile decision framework, Lean and other improvement approaches, develop a predictable,

ongoing pipeline of high value transformation projects that deliver better customer outcomes, higher effectiveness and lower cost. Initial high priority investigation areas include:

Resident and individual ratepayer permits and applications.

Planning and building documentation (including the internal planning permit referral process).

Venue and activity booking.

HR forms and processes.

Financial management processes, in particular debt management, cash handling and purchasing processes.

Grants and Sponsorships. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Improvement and Program Integration and Technology Services.

Simplify and reduce duplication in core operations46. Immediately prioritise work to reduce duplication and overlap in core operational processes, including

asset management, contract management (including strategic vendor management), waste management, enforcement and processing of customer documentation. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: City Operations group and Improvement and Program Integration.

Improve core organisational disciplines47. Commence a program of work to enhance core governance disciplines:

47.1. Strengthen our management of high level corporate risks and revise our approach so that controls are rigorous and consistently monitored, including through regular ELT engagement. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: Governance and Legal.

47.2. Review our Business Continuity Planning approach to ensure that it meets current requirements and anticipates future threats. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal.

47.3. Seek the agreement of the Audit Committee to refocus internal audit effort on getting the basics right and improving organisational discipline. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal

47.4. Develop a consistent approach to change management across the organisation. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Governance and Legal

47.5. Invest in portfolio, programme and project management capability, building on existing work, with the aim of achieving P3M3 accreditation and to deliver a consistent CoM approach to projects and evaluation including. Completed by: Commence Immediately. Lead: Governance and Legal:

Capital projects. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: City Design Studio.

ICT project management. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Technology Services.

Refresh the ICT Strategy48. Refresh the CoM ICT strategy to ensure that it better supports this Action Plan and the Council Plan.

Particular strategy focus on:

Opportunities to access economies of scale that come from sharing infrastructure, applications and operations through cloud and similar models;

The need to ensure that ‘Smart City’ technologies in areas such as parking and traffic management are fully integrated into our ICT strategy.

Reducing complexity of applications, products and technologies.

Simplified operational delivery models.

Project delivery approaches shifting to agile wherever appropriate.

Integration with our approach to co-design, community engagement and continuous development to ensure that ICT strategy and customer strategy are aligned and reinforce each other.

Ceasing work that is not consistent with the agreed strategy and architecture. Completed by: December 2015. Lead: Technology Services.

48.1. Clear and agreed enterprise architecture standards and processes to inform ICT Strategy, including an agreed product roadmap that resolves our approach to core business systems such as TechOne, DM, Pathway, Aurion, Accela and AssetMaster. Completed by: September 2015. Lead: Technology Services.

48.2. Establish a clear pathway to improved CRM capabilities to support better customer service to inform ICT Strategy. Relates to Action 42. Completed by: June 2016. Lead: Technology Services.

Support open and big data49. Develop the data and information capability, governance and approaches that are needed to support

contemporary approaches to customer service and operational excellence, including by: Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Smart City.

49.1. Building the supporting technology systems and practices necessary to support a greater focus on data and information management. Completed by: March 2016. Lead: Smart City

Monitoring and ReportingThe CoM Organisational Action Plan contains a number of ambitious but achievable actions and activities to be undertaken across the organisation. To ensure accountability and transparency, the approach to monitoring and reporting of this plan will include:

Development of clearly defined scoping documentation and where appropriate, supporting implementation plans and measures. Documentation will be transparent and available on CoMWeb and Yammer.

Monthly reporting of progress on CoMAP actions and deliverables at Executive Leadership Team meetings.

Coordinated and integrated quarterly reporting to all employees and Councillors.

Progress reports will also be used to ensure CoMAP actions and timings are still relevant and achievable. Any adjustments made to CoMAP will be approved at ELT according to changing conditions and needs of the organisation.