3 days ago
Phase One Milestones In Shaping Our Future Programme Achieved
Press Release – Nelson City Council
Council Chief Executive Nigel Philpott says the change will enable the organisation to improve the delivery of services and projects for its customers and community.
Nelson City Council has unveiled a new organisational design as it moves into Phase 2 of Shaping Our Future, a five-year internal programme that will modernise how the organisation operates and ensure we deliver even better value for money for our community.
Council's current five Group Manager roles will be disestablished and replaced with four new Executive Director roles:
Executive Director Delivery: Leads integrated operational services and infrastructure delivery
Executive Director People & Customer Experience: Leads strategic transformation, customer experience and people strategy.
Executive Director Strategy & Planning: Leads strategy, asset management, and long-term planning.
Executive Director Corporate Services: Leads centralised core corporate functions
Council Chief Executive Nigel Philpott says the change will enable the organisation to improve the delivery of services and projects for its customers and community.
'This new structure will better integrate the various functions across Council, enhancing collaboration across services and moving us away from working in siloed groups into a 'one council' approach that puts the customer at the core of our business.
'We'll be better organised to focus on our long-term goals and have the breadth and depth of capabilities needed to provide good value for money for our community now and in the future, both at a strategic and operational level.'
The various business units across Council will be reorganised to align with this new Directorate structure.
Nigel says the changes aren't about downsizing the organisation but spending Council's people budget to better effect.
'We've got great staff doing a lot of good work, but as Council has grown into a complex organisation managing over $2.5 billion in assets, so have the expectations.
'These changes are about rising to those expectations and making it easier for staff to work more efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the community, and maximising value for money.'
The new organisation design is one of the outcomes from Phase 1 of Shaping Our Future, a programme based on two years of data, analysis and feedback indicating a strong case for change.
'Through staff workshops; surveys; interviews with elected members and external stakeholders; and feedback from the 2024 City Revitalisation Summit; it became clear that the time is right for our Council to modernise so it can meet the changing needs of our community. We know there are things we do well and areas where we can significantly improve, and we now have a much better picture of what that will look like.'
Entirely funded by an internal loan, which ensures the programme remains cost-neutral and has no impact on rates, another key outcome from Phase 1 of Shaping Our Future was a new Operating Model.
' The Operating Model is a blueprint that defines how our people, processes, technologies, and decision-making align with our strategic goals to deliver value for money, and it's what we used to develop our new organisation design,' Nigel says.
The model was developed by the Operating Model workstream, one of seven staff-led workstreams tasked with reviewing aspects of the organisation.
Creation of the model involved input from Council staff and key stakeholders. In March, 91 staff took part in workshops to explore how Council could work most effectively in the future, which helped to shape the model.
'The model will guide the way Council serves Nelson in the future and is what staff will refer to in Phase 2 when we start making tangible changes to the way we operate to create a more responsive, customer-focused organisation,' says Nigel.
Other Phase 1 workstream highlights include:
Service Portfolio: reviewed all of Council's services and explored interactive tools for using this data to inform future decision-making and how to get the best 'bang for the buck'.
Purposeful Delivery: introduced a project prioritisation framework and began establishing a Programme Management Office (PMO) to better co-ordinate the work delivered across the organisation with a prime focus on value for money delivery.
Customer & Community: mapped customer journeys to see where services could be made easier to access and tested these journeys with external focus groups.
People: sourced a new Human Resource Information System (HRIS) to update Council's internal systems and significantly increase efficiency.
Achievable Long Term Plan (LTP): revising Council's Long Term Plan process to ensure transparency, affordability and strategic alignment with community priorities.
'Shaping Our Future is about asking what's working, what's not working, and then making gradual, sustainable and meaningful improvements to our service,' says Nigel.
'We want to provide lasting value for our community now and in the years ahead.'
What's next
In July, the Transformation Management Office (TMO) workstream, which facilitates the Shaping Our Future programme, organised an Expo for Council staff to reflect on Phase 1 and look ahead to Phase 2. Nearly 200 staff attended.
'What we heard was clear: our staff are ready to tackle what's ahead and further develop the ways in which this programme will improve the way we work,' Nigel says.
While Phase 1 was about information gathering and setting the future direction of the organisation, Phase 2 is all about how the organisation gets there.
'This next phase is about bringing the Operating Model to life and embedding it throughout the organisation,' says Nigel.
'Implementing the new organisation design will be a crucial first step, which will position us to make real changes that improve how we work and serve the public.
'Over time, people will see the difference: an achievable Long Term Plan that prioritises care of our existing infrastructure and services, the smart co-ordination of project delivery through a Programme Management Office, and, following a technology business case that will be put to Elected Members, more self-service options that make interacting with Council easier,' Nigel says.
'This programme is ultimately about ensuring Council does its part to help Nelson thrive —now and in the future.'
Phase 2 of Shaping Our Future officially begins 25 August 2025.
