Whakatāne District Council has been announced as the winner of the Excellence in Organisation and People Development Award at this year’s Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards.
The award recognises the amazing work more than 140 Council staff were involved with to develop the organisational vision Toitū te Kotahitanga – Better Together and supporting values.
General Manager People and Engagement Emlyn Hatch says Council’s Executive Leadership team is incredibly proud of the many staff who have developed and personified Council’s vision and values.
“In 2020 we began an intentional journey of transforming our organisational culture and leadership capability following a baseline survey which highlighted where Council was doing well, and where improvements were needed,” he explains. “The People First Programme was established to make these improvements, and we followed an employee-led and leadership-supported process to develop our unique vision and values.”
Through careful planning and resourcing, the People First Programme has developed and embedded a new vision and set of values that guide how staff work, and improved leadership capability and communication through leadership development.
When a repeat survey was carried out in 2022, it showed not only a direct correlation in lifting performance in the target areas of leadership, culture and communication; there was a notable lift in all category scores across Council.
Emlyn says the process of developing and instilling the vision and values enabled staff to discuss questions like, ‘when are we at our best?’ and ‘what does success look like?’
“Ultimately it always came down to people working together, and wanting to do our best for the communities we serve.
“We have long term plans, strategies and policies that tell us what we need to do, but this process gave our people the opportunity to talk about who we are, and why we do what we do.”
“It’s so important to look after the people who look after our communities. The values we’ve created together such as ‘Toitū te Taumata – We’re always learning and improving; and Toitū te Tangata – We put people at the heart of everything we do, have given us a common language and common focus for all that we do.
The Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards are held annually to recognise programmes, projects, and approaches that demonstrate professional excellence in local government management. The format enables councils to share best-practice examples across seven categories. A key factor in award success is that the project is able to be easily replicated by other councils wanting to make similar improvements.
“We’re thrilled to be leading the way for Aotearoa New Zealand in such an important area,” notes Emlyn. “It really is all about people.”
A record 43 entries were entered into this year’s awards, which were held in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington on Thursday, 8 June.