Skip to main content.

Reducing Demand for Planners - Rodney District Council Case Study

Lloyd Barton

Introduction to Rodney

  1. Growth
    • Significant growth
    • Approximately 21 planners, plus 4 new positions
  2. How has the shortage of planners affected us?
    • Extended time frames for both resource consents and making Proposed Plan operative
    • High work load
    • Reduced quality of work
    • Complaints from applicants
    • Increased costs from consultants
    • Reduced morale

Solutions

  1. Making the most of the planners you have got
  2. Getting structure right - number of staff/career development
  3. Off shore recruitment

1. Making the most of the planners you have got

  • Re-allocating work
    • Front line customer advice - Development Advisory officers
    • LIMs - Administration officers
    • Building consents assessment - Technical officers
    • Tree applications - Arborist/Ecologist
  • Case management
    • Experienced planners

2. Getting structure right

  • On-going career development important
  • Integrated consents and policy formulation
  • More opportunity for consent planners to do policy work and policy planners to do consent work
  • Takes into account 4 well beings (social, economic, cultural and environment)
  • Joint KPIs between consents and policy mangers
  • Career progression, 3 steps between graduate and senior planning level
  • Graduates from planning related fields
  • Number of FTEs to match workload

3. Off shore recruitment

  • Adds to pool of experienced planners in NZ & avoids ‘poaching’
  • Successful in 2004
  • UK job fairs in 2005

Conclusion

  • No quick fix
  • Wise use of planning resource important

Last updated: 16 January 2009