New leadership structure for Taupō District Council
A new leadership structure for Taupō District Council has been announced by Chief Executive Gareth Green today.
Council staff have been informed about the process which aims to better align the organisation to meet current and future challenges, particularly in a post COVID-19 environment.
Chief Executive Gareth Green said he had been working with his executive team and external consultants since August last year to develop the new leadership structure which would better enable the organisation to deliver at an operational and strategic level.
“In a post-Covid environment, and at a time when we are delivering the largest capital works programme this council has ever seen, we need to be looking at how we can do things differently to ensure staff costs don’t continue to rise.
“A clear vision and direction, in partnership with reducing the management and leadership numbers in the organisation, alongside adding further resources at the delivery-level is what is required to meet these challenges.”
Mr Green said the first step of this process has been reducing the number of staff within the Senior Leadership Team from seven to four. These new roles will be recruited for immediately.
The next step in the process is working with the next layer of management, to realign functions and enable the number of staff in these roles to also be reduced, he said.
“The idea is to develop a much more strategically focused leadership where we are investing in, and putting faith in those people to get the job done, with less hierarchy. I have every confidence that we will be able to achieve this.”
The final phase will likely identify where additional resources at the delivery level can be included. This will take place once the new leadership team is in place.
“Essentially, we are likely looking at a higher overall headcount for the organisation, but investing at a level that will achieve the same or similar remuneration costs to the business as what we have currently.
“I understand that processes like this can be unsettling for staff and their families but it is an unfortunate reality as a result of the challenges we are currently facing. Every support will be provided to affected staff to support them through these changes in organisational structure.
“I am confident that this is a positive step for council and for our community and will result in a more efficient, effective approach to delivering on our promises,” he said.