Making it easier to talk to us

Hand in hand with our commitment to creating better places to live for Western Australians has been our drive to make the Department as approachable as possible. This fits within the customer and market focus category of our Business Excellence Framework.

In the past 12 months we have made improvements across the Department, aimed at making it easier for people to talk to us.

These reforms go beyond letting people 'have their say'. They kick-start a dialogue - effective two-way communication. This helps the Department understand what people want, so we can continually improve services and develop initiatives that meet expectations.

Our emphasis on community participation has seen people and planners come together at landmark forums such as Dialogue with the city, local community events, workshops and committees, all supported by a huge range of public information through advertisements, leaflets, brochures and displays.

Improving our public face
Our community relations program has seen a range of initiatives during the year:

• An overhaul of the Internet site to make it easier to find information, with a simple community feedback system;
• A quarterly newsletter, Creating Communities, to keep people informed about what the Department is doing across Western Australia;
• New, simplified complaints management and community feedback initiatives to ensure the Department is able to identify and resolve problems, and then make improvements to prevent them happening again;
• Customer-first telephone handling standards, providing fast and courteous responses to phone inquiries and making each staff member accountable for solving problems;
• Informative on-hold messages to help customers find out more about what the Department and portfolio offer; and
• Improved office signage at locations around the state to more clearly identify the services offered.

Supporting community consultation
During the year our focus has been to strengthen community consultation through workshops, community forums and major initiatives such as Dialogue with the city.

A review of committees, forums and advisory bodies was undertaken in 2004 to provide more people with increased opportunities to participate in the planning of the future of Perth.

Reflecting the Department's increased emphasis on maintaining effective two-way communication with the public, the Communications and Community Relations unit reports directly to the Corporate Executive and Director General on all strategic and operational issues.

Internal communications
We have comprehensively overhauled internal communications to ensure all staff are properly informed about Department initiatives and their impact on the community. Staff can now take advantage of a new, user-friendly Intranet site that features a daily news service, home pages for divisions and branches, a library of policies, standards and guidelines, staff register, organisational structures and a file of all branch business plans. We also have a revamped monthly newsletter, Infralink, which provides interesting profiles of major staff achievements.

Read More...
Read more about Business Excellence Framework under Corporate Management and Governance