//Case Study: Operational Review
The challenge
As part of the LGA Productivity Experts team, we were commissioned to complete a operation review of a borough council’s admin services – the first in a series of reviews which were designed to help shape the future of the working operations of the council.
Our methodology
We used a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to understand:
- The council’s current administrative and support resource and its capability, capacity and cost.
- The council’s medium term (three years) administrative needs.
- Options for a structure to meet these needs.
- A summary of areas and processes seen during the project which could deliver efficiencies either after further review or by implementing suggested changes.
The challenges we identified
Our review identified a number of key challenges:
- poor overall awareness of what the admin teams can offer to support divisions
- limited opportunities to consider new or better ways of working
- legacy issues around job descriptions and pay grades that prevent staff from working outside of role
- an ageing workforce profile with little succession planning
- less resilience being achieved than required
- separation from the admin team, resulting in management doing their own admin
- a resource-heavy post process
- inefficiencies in the print room operation
- more team supervision needed
While undertaking the review and making recommendations we took into consideration the council’s Corporate Plan for 2019/20 and its six priorities.
What we did
Engage with key stakeholders
Engage with key stakeholders.
We engaged with a number of individuals and groups including affected and not-affected staff, the recognised union and senior leadership through surveys, emails, face-to-face meetings and telephone interviews. We also spent time in the different environments to understand the environment and workflow, and to take another perspective.
Provide tailored 121 support to different departments
Provide tailored 121 support to different departments
We spent time with the wider council teams and the external organisations they were involved with to put together recommendations for working more efficiently aside from the review. By working with these teams, we were able to offer additional opportunities to improvements and effectiveness that weren’t dependent on the outcome of the review.
Develop action plans
Develop action plans.
The outcome of the review included a number of action plans, for both implementation of the recommendations and specific to different departments. We designed the action plans to be self-fulfilling and not require any additional resource or cost to the council.
Communicate and promote
Communicate and promote
Throughout the project we developed ongoing communications to keep all stakeholders engaged and to deliver the outcomes in a measured way at the end. We highlighted the key benefits of the outcomes to enable the council to promote this as a successful project, despite some staff being made redundant and others being relocated.
Presentation to the Council
Presentation to the Council
As part of the project, we presented the report to the senior leadership team at a Board meeting. This enabled explanation and Q&A time, as well as further discussion on the options.
Successes
The review identified a number of areas for efficiencies relating directly to the administration teams and also to other parts of the council. These included:
- better use of technology and Office 365
- relocation of all staff into one building
- better use of online intranet services
- efficiencies in licensing, land charges and policy support
- an opportunity to use higher-graded staff differently to support the corporate plan
- identification of a potential income stream
- a lead into a review of estates and facilities
Our admin review for one borough council resulted in…
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