City of Gold Coast Council has endorsed a major restructure of its administration that it says will improve customer experience and save the organisation $5 million per year.
Mayor, Tom Tate said the sweeping reform was the most significant change to the organisation since 1995, when the Albert Shire and Gold Coast Councils merged.
“Every decision in the creation of this draft structure has been focused on how we can improve our services to the Gold Coast community,” Mayor Tate said.
“This will enable us to allocate an extra $5 million a year into infrastructure, programs and initiatives that are important to the ratepayer.”
He said the new structure would also see a new department dedicated to environment, heritage and resilience.
“You have told us time and time again that the natural environment is what is most important to you, and we have listened,” he said.
Council CEO, Tim Baker said the new structure features seven new departments, each with a clear mandate.
“Importantly, there will be no job losses among our 4,000 staff employed under the Local Government Award as part of this proposed organisational structure,” Mr Baker said.
“This is about putting the right functions in the right teams to get the best outcome for the community,” he said.
Mr Baker said the City workforce had been loud and clear about the need for change.
“A staff culture survey conducted last year clearly identified that the current structure was a fundamental barrier to creating a cohesive work environment; and resulted in silos and significant duplication of work.”
He said the changes had been informed by 12 months of internal workshops with staff, industry analysis and best practice advice from external consultants.
Staff were informed of the draft structure once it was endorsed by Council. A five-week consultation period will begin on 7 June at which time staff will be provided the full detail of the change.
“We want to get this right, so it’s important we capture as much feedback from our workforce as possible.”
The new departments are: Infrastructure Gold Coast; Service Gold Coast; Environment, Heritage and Resilience; Planning and Regulation; Invest Gold Coast; Strategy, People and Performance and; Business Services.
