Council’s Transformation takes next step

Published on 19 July 2024

Waitaki District Council’s ambitious programme to transform how it delivers for customers and communities has taken another important step forward. On Thursday 18 July, Council’s Leadership team shared the new organisation design for the transformation of Waitaki District Council at an all staff briefing.

This design was the culmination of extensive engagement with Council staff to rethink how Council’s services and activities can deliver more effectively and efficiently for the district. 

A four-week internal consultation on that proposal, began on 22 May 2024. All staff were invited to offer their thoughts on the proposal and suggest changes, with hundreds or items and suggestions being submitted. This week's new organisation design includes changes made as a result of that consultation.

Many current roles will be replaced by new and different roles in a staged process over the next 12 months. Many of our current departments and teams will be replaced by new and different teams, focused on community outcomes and delivering consistent customer-focused services.

It is a big change for all our staff – we will be asking everyone to work in different ways, using different systems and different approaches. The implementation of the organisation design will take time as we support our staff through these changes and work to keep any disruption to our customers to a minimum.

Council is looking to support and retain the experience, knowledge, and value that our staff contribute to the district.

Council is keen to avoid redundancies where possible, which are costly in both knowledge loss and dollars to the ratepayer. We are working to find places and opportunities for our staff within the new structure.

We are not proposing to replace paid Council staff with volunteers. We appreciate the value our volunteers bring to our cultural facilities, but also recognise the importance of having permanent staff at our gallery, libraries and museum.

The organisational design is just one part of the wider Transformation Programme. The vision of the transformation programme is to become a leading, innovative council delivering the best for our communities. 

A key focus is to become more effective in how we deliver and provide better value for money. Efficiency is not the only driver but has become more important as all councils have seen dramatic increases in costs of goods and services at the same time as our communities also feel the pinch.

Organisation Design is a big part of moving to a bold new operating model and it’s just one of the many changes underway internally ‘under the hood’. Council will be providing more information about transformation in the near future, but is focused on supporting our staff at this time.

ENDS