Activities Completed Stakeholder (Customer) Interests

Transcription

1 To: Ms. Deanna Santana, City Administrator Mr. Fred Blackwell, Assistant City Administrator Mr. Arturo Sanchez, Deputy City Administrator From: Amy Cohen Paul, Lynn Dantzker, and Dan Marks Subject: Status Update of the Building Services Division Management Review Date: July 19, 2012 This document contains a summary of activities completed to date, a brief summary of stakeholder comments and employee survey results, and Management Partners preliminary areas of focus within five general themes. The items listed within each focus area reflect the issues that Management Partners believes need priority attention to position the Building Services Division to provide a timely and predictable development services process. This memorandum provides a status update. Activities Completed Conducted 14 individual staff interviews, 4 executive interviews, 2 group interviews with administrative staff Held six stakeholders/groups of stakeholders Reviewed a variety of documents Developed, implemented and analyzed an employee survey Reviewed business/technology systems (high-level) Held seven staff focus groups Stakeholder (Customer) Interests 1. Certainty and predictability in the development review process. 2. The same level of service as those customers who have established relationships with specific staff members and therefore can successfully navigate the process. 3. One point of contact for projects: someone who cares about and is responsible for moving the project through the process, addressing issues as they arise and helping the customer resolve them. (This already occurs with very large projects). 4. A problem-solving orientation by staff across all disciplines. 5. Ability to make appointments at the permit counter. 6. Building Services website that provides comprehensive, accessible and usable information regarding development services. 7. Well-trained and informed staff. 8. Online permitting (simple permits) and tracking system to monitor permits in process. 9. Consistency among building inspectors, particularly when re-inspections occur. 10. A stronger and clarified public works role in the development services process. 11. Integration of fire plan check into a predictable and seamless building permits process.

2 Oakland Building Services Management Review Page 2 Employee Survey The survey, completed by 49 of 90 employees (54% response rate), covered the following topic areas: communication, work and workload, and organizational culture. 1. Generally, employees like where they work, the work they do and the people with whom they work % (less than half) agreed or strongly agreed that Building Services management encourages open communication. 3. One-third of respondents believe there is good communication from management to employees. 4. Two-thirds indicated communication with other divisions that work closely with Building Services needs to improve 5. About 67% believe communication from management to employee s needs improvement. 6. Over half (57%) of respondents do not feel they receive enough support from management to successfully carry out their tasks. 7. Almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) believe that employees within the division work well as a team. Major Focus Areas A. Leadership and Management B. Organizational Culture C. Organizational Structure/Staffing D. Building Services Processes E. Business Systems/Technology A. Leadership and Management Issues Needing Attention 1. Affirmative leadership to establish the vision and mission, successfully integrate the team, and ensure accountability. 2. Leadership and management that encourages communication and collaboration within the management team and the line staff. 3. Effective lines of communication between divisions and departments to ensure a common set of service delivery values. 4. Improved and regular communication from management and supervisors to line employees. 5. Training in managing a customer-focused regulatory function for managers at all levels of the division. 6. Elimination of perceived constraints to exacting performance from staff across the division.

3 Oakland Building Services Management Review Page 3 B. Organizational Culture Issues Needing Attention 1. An organization and management team that supports initiative, change, and empowers its staff to deliver effective and valued customer service. (Fear is the biggest obstacle to positive change in any organizational change effort.) 2. A decision-making style and organization structure that encourages effective service delivery, problem resolution and process improvement. 3. Communication style and culture that empowers staff, values horizontal team work and mandates accountability, across disciplines. 4. An organization that recognizes line staff committed to making the system work despite challenges and dysfunctions. 5. Change as a result of planned continuous improvement as distinguished from a focused effort resulting from crisis. Leadership that values risk taking at the management and line level (the backbone of continuous improvement). 6. An integrated team with an agreed upon service delivery model responsive to customers and accountable to a management team responsible for its success. 7. Coaching, mentoring and professional development opportunities as organizational values. 8. Performance, accountability and productivity expressed as explicit mandates and priorities. 9. Performance issues addressed as they arise instead of marginalizing staff members who are not performing their duties and responsibilities. 10. An organizational culture which mandates efficient and effective processes to resolve issues across disciplines. 11. Significantly improving morale to address the disconnect between line staff and management regarding the state of the organization and its efficiency and effectiveness. C. Organization Structure/Staffing Issues Needing Attention 1. An organization structure which accurately reflects the chain of command. (As well as a culture that respects the chain of command) 2. Assure staff members are assigned to positions for which they are technically capable and able to perform the job. As a result of budget reductions some staff have been placed into positions for which they have not been trained. This situation needs to be rectified. Job descriptions should be reviewed and updated to reflect the new business model, service demands and customer service emphasis. 3. Resources to support ongoing training and technical/professional development to enable staff to make informed judgments. 4. Training to ensure counter technicians provide consistent information to customers. 5. Clear lines of authority/responsibility between Building Services (including inspection services), Planning and Engineering (Public Works) to eliminate duplication, provide a seamless operation to the customer and establish accountability. 6. Acceptable spans of control (within management) and actively monitored workloads and assignments.

4 Oakland Building Services Management Review Page 4 7. Consolidation of all building inspections services into one section in support of consistency and accountability. D. Building Services Processes Issues Needing Attention 1. A truly integrated development services function (inter-and intra-departmentally) that is procedurally seamless to the customer. 2. A seamless, customer-friendly integrated permit center supported by an efficient allocation of staff. 3. Establishment of a single point of contact for plan check and permitting processes ensuring consistent plan review comments across departments and resolution of issues across disciplines. (This is already done for large projects.) Doing so will eliminate the need for customers to act as their own project managers within the applicable review functions. 4. Reengineered civil plan check, permitting and inspection (on-site and off-site) processes within Building and Public Works in support of consistency, maintenance of standards and customer service. 5. Permit categories that reflect industry standards and plan review turnaround times that ensure predictability, timeliness and accountability. 6. Integration of Fire plan check and Public Works engineering into established turnaround times and standards. 7. A centralized and complete application submittal and resubmittal policy. 8. A simplified development fee schedule that can consistently be applied by staff and understood by the customer. 9. A fee and budget system that supports development services as a priority within Public Works. 10. A comprehensive plan review process (including electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits) reflecting best practices in the regulatory industry to reduce issues arising in the field and costs to the customer. 11. Standardized application forms reflecting current best practices with respect to checklists (application requirements), type, ease of use, and the potential for online or faxed applications. 12. Development services brochures and information handouts that are readily available in the Permit Center and are easily downloaded from the division s website. E. Business Systems/Technology Issues Needing Attention 1. Inclusion of two key development services workflow processes, Fire plan check and Public Works civil plan check, as part of the current phase of the new permit tracking system (Accela). 2. Utilization of an Interactive Voice Recorder (IVR) or similar system to accept and process building inspection requests to significantly improve customer service and reduce costs. 3. Indexing, scanning and managing the division s property and all building records to improve staff efficiency and provide access to the public.

5 Oakland Building Services Management Review Page 5 4. A robust and well maintained building services website with a customer service focus on: Information documents which are aesthetically readable, easily understood and able to be downloaded Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Online application information Comprehensive checklists