Scarborough Borough Council
Winning Hearts
and Minds
Tim Readman
Image of change
•
•
•
•
‘Transformation’ associated with cuts
‘New ways of working’ scepticism
Staff morale impacted by austerity
Members ‘heard it all before’
Recognised this programme of change would
falter without ‘buy in’ from councillors,
management and critically, the workforce
Scarborough Borough Council
SWITCH programme is born
• Vibrant image –
subtly puts IT at
the centre
• Underpinned by
‘Making Life
Simpler’ mantra
– applicable for
residents and
staff alike
Scarborough Borough Council
Setting the right mood music
•
•
•
•
•
Staff survey undertaken – 300 responses
Evidenced the amount of ‘dead’ time
Heaps of double-keying, double-handling
Lots of time spent on mundane duties
One member of staff spent entire working
week just looking for documents
Survey established appetite for ‘new’ working
Scarborough Borough Council
Communications culture
Built project
website:• Latest news
• Team
• Vision
• Streams
• Quick wins
Scarborough Borough Council
Mood music to the subliminal
• Wanted to share the
‘art of the possible’
• Articles about channel
shift, mobile working,
web development,
internet usage, etc
• Affirmation SWITCH
was in-step with other
councils / public sector
Scarborough Borough Council
Communications channels
•
•
•
•
Regular updates on the SWITCH website
One-to-one visits to Services / individuals
Attended team briefings
Frequent ‘Noticeboard’ emails to staff and
Members
• Regular presentations to Directors’ Team and
Senior Unit Managers
• Updates at Member Briefings
Scarborough Borough Council
Highly visible – highly vocal
SWITCH team determined not to work as an
isolated unit ‘in the shade’
• Staff brought into project room to help design
and test processes
• Regular conversations with Services about the
information they needed
• Conversations with Customer Services –
improved data collected, as a result
Scarborough Borough Council
CRM launch - helping staff
Issues included:• Familiarity with Achieve Service
• Confidence using a new product
• Teething troubles – speed, integrations
SWITCH team ‘decamped’ to Customer First, put
dedicated phone number and email address in
place, fixed issues and grew confidence
Scarborough Borough Council
Launch of DASH
• Huge culture shock to some members of staff
– fear of change and working differently
• Some staff less IT confident than others
• Managing expectations – speed of change
presented some challenges
SWITCH team worked with Services to refine
processes and tackle issues face-to-face; no
hiding when things weren’t quite right
Scarborough Borough Council
The penny has dropped …
• A year of change at lightning speed has given
way to progress at a more measured pace –
without losing any ambition or drive
• Customer Services staff are happy
• More and more staff are seeing benefits and
‘art of the possible’ through DASH
• SWITCH team is now being pushed by Services
themselves – hugely positive
• Background noise is more harmonious
Scarborough Borough Council