SHOALHAVEN City Council general manager Russ Pigg believes the Transformation Task Force Restructure of the organisation is necessary and on track.
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“I’m fairly pleased how it is progressing,” he said.
“We have got a target all up of around $4.7 million in savings this current financial year through the transformation program and operational changes and we are on track to meet that.
“To the end of February we were up to $3.9 million in savings.
“To achieve those savings takes some hard decisions and management in general take a view of what’s best for the organisation in total in moving forward.
“Some individuals may get impacted by those decisions but the management level of any organisation has got to make those tough decisions for the overall good of moving the organisation forward.”
He said most of the restructuring of positions had been completed.
“Most were done in the first 12 months but there are still some areas we are looking at,” he said.
“I can understand people feel threatened through any restructure process.
“On the other side of things, nothing really stays static in this day and age.
“We’ve got to be reviewing our service delivery right across the board.
“All our different services and functions to ensure they are as efficient as we can make it. To that extent it is an ongoing process.
“But in general, the structure is pretty much bedded in.”
Mr Pigg said the other part of the review involved “drilling into current work practices and operations”.
“For example, drilling into how staff overtime is managed in the organisation,” he said.
“Through that review we found some work practices that had been going on for years that were deemed not good business.
“There were better ways of doing things.
“We are changing work practices to reduce the circumstances where some staff are able to work over time.
“We are starting to do that to make it more efficient and cost effective.
“At an individual level, that can be a hit in the hip pocket nerve of individuals and their total salary gets impacted.
“As directors, we have a responsibility to the ratepayers to look at all these things on a continual basis, to make sure we are running as effectively as we can.”
