CEO Hits the Road
Tablelands Regional Council’s CEO Dr Nikola Stepanov has hit the ground running with her first CEO Staff Roadshow in Ravenshoe.
The purpose of the roadshow is for Dr Stepanov to connect with staff across the region over a barbecue lunch and an opportunity for the staff to ask questions.
Dr Stepanov is hosting the events four times a year in different locations so she can interact with as many staff as possible.
Staff who can’t make the roadshows can join online or watch the recording later.
When addressing the assembled and online staff, Dr Stepanov spoke about budget development that is currently underway.
‘For a Council we’ve only got a small number of ratepayers — under 14,000 — and we cover a huge area of 11,000km2.
‘We got just under $800M-worth of assets that are ageing so we’ve got to come up with plans for maintaining our assets and look at what we are and aren’t keeping.
‘We need to work to strike the right balance in terms of setting rates, which is quite a difficult task,’ she said.
Dr Stepanov then spoke about the Customer Relations Management system that is used for the community to raise requests, ask questions and receive responses.
‘We actually have a really, really low complaints rate of less than 1%.
‘We’ve had 13,000 customer requests so far this financial year so we’re putting in a huge effort and it’s really important we respond to our customers in a timely manner.
‘Sometimes it can be a bit difficult because you don’t want to commit to something you may not be able to deliver, and providing bad news can also be hard.
‘It’s not easy to meet expectations from community but it’s really important to go back with the correct message, and accept that sometimes people aren’t happy with the responses we provide,’ said Dr Stepanov.
Dr Stepanov then referred to her plans for an organisational restructure to look at efficiencies and how similar functions and teams together can work together.
‘There will be no redundancies so don’t think we’ll be offering any — we’re not doing that kind of a review.
‘We’re just looking at getting the best out of the teams that we have and increasing staff numbers in particular areas if that is what is required,’ she said.
Staff surveys and organisational culture were next on Dr Stepanov’s agenda, with an annual survey to commence next financial year.
‘The survey will be conducted by an external company on a confidential basis, which means when you respond to the survey, you can every confidence that none of us will have access to your information or be able to identify you.
‘We’re doing this so we can get an accurate understanding of what you think about working for us, whether you feel safe and valued in the workplace, whether you think supervisors and leaders do a good job, and that the things we do align with our values.
‘We’ll use different platforms and we want as many of you responding as possible, so we’ll make sure wherever you work you have the opportunity to provide a response.
‘This will benchmark the Councillors’ and Leadership Team’s understanding of how well we are doing for you and areas you want us to improve in.
‘The staff culture here is pretty exceptional — I’ve worked in a lot of Councils and organisations and it’s one of the things I don’t have to address here in great detail, although we have some small pockets where the culture doesn’t align with our values.
‘My expectation is that we have zero tolerance for bullying, name-calling, leaving rubbish in trucks, not respecting each other and abusing members of the public.
‘This is our opportunity to make sure we have the culture we want.
‘I don’t want anyone to fear coming to work, fear interactions with particular people, fear being targeted, fear not getting good jobs or any of those kinds of things.
‘If you see something then please say something — escalate it to your supervisor or those above.
‘You can consider that a directive from the CEO,’ Dr Stepanov said.
The CEO then went on to talk about her compliment postcards that staff can write on and give to people to say thanks and recognise great work.
‘These come in hard copy and electronic form and, for some people, the only compliment they may get is in the workplace.
‘So if you see someone doing something good, and it could just be they turn up to work every day and are really committed, or it could be that they do something really exceptional that day, or it could be a team.
‘Giving one of these cards could be the thing that make someone’s day, week, month or year because it might be the only positive feedback they get.
‘It’s such a small thing to do and to make someone feel valued,’ she said.
Dr Stepanov will include a regular ‘Between Two’ segment in her roadshows and this roadshow’s segment was Between Two Gardeners with Jason and Wayne.
‘Jason and Wayne described their roles with TRC, how they appreciated the compliments they receive from the community, the favourite and toughest parts of their roles, and the piece of advice they would give their younger self about working for TRC.
‘It was great to hear from Jason that he is getting paid to do something he loves, and that Wayne believes you need community spirit to work with TRC,’ she said.
Dr Stepanov combines her staff roadshows with regular depot visits across the region.