Local Government
Industry Insights
INSIGHTS REPORT
Councillor Perspectives on the Council Meeting Process
How do Councillors feel about Council Meetings?
We conducted interviews and surveyed 40 councillors to understand the improvements that would most effectively support them in their roles.
In general, councillors expressed profound gratitude for the contributions of governance teams and endorsed their continual efforts to assist them in their roles. Additionally, our findings revealed:
-
7 out of 10 respondents felt that decision-making in council meetings was either 'somewhat transparent' or 'not as transparent' as desired.
-
The readability of extensive documents emerged as the primary concern for councillors
-
The implementation of easily searchable minutes and videos was identified as a key improvement to decision-making processes and information retrieval.
INSIGHTS REPORT
IPR and Technology
Technology is critical for successful IPR implementation but accessing the right information to make decisions on technology and systems can be difficult.
We interviewed 20 NSW councils to understand their IPR frustrations and uncover emerging best practices in terms of process, systems and technology. This report aims to present this data in a way that supports councils to manage this process and use technology to effectively support IPR activity.
The burden of data manipulation, validation and reporting: 68% of respondents said pulling reports easily vs having to do a lot of manual handling was their biggest challenge when it comes to reporting on IPR to external stakeholders.
Getting staff to take responsibility and ownership: 74% of respondents said getting staff to take responsibility and ownership was their biggest challenge when it comes to preparing and managing the suite of IPR plans.
INSIGHTS REPORT
The Unrealised Potential of Council Meetings
According to governance leaders, the council meeting process is one of the most important yet inefficient processes in council. We spoke to 40 council meeting administrators and governance leaders to fully understand the strategic risks and best practice opportunities the meeting process presents.
In this report, we highlight the common challenges and provide best practice insights to help councils:
-
Identify and mitigate key person risks
-
Ensure business continuity
-
Streamline the meeting process
-
Improve sustainability and alignment of council actions with environmental goals
-
Deliver a higher standard of transparency to the community.
INSIGHTS REPORT
7 Key Technology Risks Undermining Trust in Local Government
Modern governance technology helps councils manage the governance workload and build community trust by making key processes more transparent, engaging, and efficient. However, the most well-intentioned investments are unlikely to deliver promised results if councils don't take a “people-first” approach to solutions.
We interviewed 35 governance leaders across the country to uncover shared challenges and best practice to help councils around Australia maximise ROI on governance technology investments.
In this report, you will gain insights and tips on how to:
-
Make the council meeting process more efficient
-
Speed up the handling of informal public information requests
-
Get better participation and engagement around strategic initiatives
-
Avoid change fatigue + more!
