Survey jolts council
A SCATHING survey of Cassowary Coast Regional Council staff who claimed they were being kept in the dark by a top-heavy management is believed to be behind a compulsory two-hour all-employee meeting.
The council will shut down on Tuesday morning – including libraries and customer service offices – between 9-11am so staff can attend the meeting at Tully.
Council chief executive officer James Gott claimed all-staff meetings were not unusual and the purpose was to provide an update on council activities to workers.
But one council worker, who asked not to be named, said that was not the case.
“They’re now panicking because the election is coming up next year and council workers, who are also ratepayers, are p----d off with being treated like idiots,” he said.
“There are too many managers saying what to do but not enough people to do what needs to be done.”
Mr Gott said the survey results would be discussed, but they would also be telling staff about improvements to “management processes”.
“We’re engaging with all of our staff so that we can keep them informed as to the work that we’re doing to improve our management processes to make our management processes more efficient and to ensure that what we believe to be appropriate with regards to the customer experience – how we deal with all of council’s customers including the community and all the other stakeholders – is consistent and appropriate,” he said.
“Part of the whole leadership piece and the management piece included some surveying which we’ll be talking to the staff about.
“We’ve actually gone out as part of the process and said to people within the staff, what are your personal values? What do you think our corporate values should be?
“I believe we’re already on a pathway towards providing a better customer experience for all our ratepayers.
“In saying that, I realise as an organisation we’re most certainly not perfect and there’s always room for improvement, which is exactly what we’re trying to do.
“It’s a very open, honest and transparent process and everybody will have the same information at the same time.”