Success stories from Councils in times of crisis

The current unexpected and unplanned crisis has created many new challenges for local government. Council’s are first point of contact for the community and are playing a key role in supporting business, providing information and engaging communities with meaningful activities. We must not forget that the Councils are highly complex organisations offering 100+ services while being governed by multitude of legislation. And, to add to it, not all Councils have modern technology infrastructure and culture to cope with this massive change.

Often work done by Council’s to maintain roads, parks, reserves, footpaths, uninterrupted rubbish collections, enforcement of local laws, public health, parking & traffic management are taken for granted and Councils have pulled all strings possible to continue delivering uninterrupted services. It is commendable how Councils have very quickly taken this opportunity to not only to continue to focus on business continuity, but at the same time – working on the future business model to stay relevant to the community.

Following are few exemplary things councils have done very quickly by making significant business decisions

Social Innovation – It is a beautiful story in the times of crisis to see how quickly Council’s started to understand and change their offering with the unexpected circumstances surrounding their customers. They have jumped on-board to keep communities engaged by offering home delivery of library books, online fitness sessions, online artist talks and workshops for kids and adults. Additionally, Councils are sending care packages to the vulnerable community members and looking after their well being by knocking on so many doors.

Transforming for agility – It is remarkable to see the speed at which staff roles have been changed to include newer responsibilities; adoption of online platforms to continue engaging customers and creating new funds to provide funding and financial help to small businesses. Councils had to quickly change their operations to enable and enforce the State and Federal govt. restrictions by making changes to open spaces, recreation activities, playgrounds etc to support communities needing to be physical distancing and self-isolating. Several councils have gone live with newer channels of communication like live chat, chat-bot and zoom consultation sessions to provide additional communication channels to connect with the community in this time of uncertainty

Ready to bounce back – The pandemic is radically changing the demand for services and how they are delivered. It is becoming extremely important for Council’s to imagine the new landscape and prepare to maintain this new sense of purpose and speed. Many Councils are adapting new technology, online platforms and already implementing wing to wing digital processes to still be relevant in the new environment. Another trend that is coming up on the horizon is assessment of various expenditure frameworks – spending money in a transparent manner where there is a high impact opportunity.

There is so much more that is in progress to get ahead of the steep change that is happening around us without unsustainable increase in the cost to serve. It hasn’t been easy. It has been striking to see how well and how fast Councils have emerged as leaders by adapting to the changes and achieving new levels of staying relevant and visible to their community. We are positioning the industry for the future and beyond this pandemic and we all must do our tiny bit to ensure we don’t roll back to old ways of thinking and working.

Do you have great examples of Councils taking exemplary steps to support communities in the recent times?