WHY do so many staff leave Wellington City Council?
The turnover figures outlined in the council’s 2009 Annual Report show that on average, over the past three years, 23.3% of staff– almost a quarter of the organisation – have resigned every year.
The cumulative staff turnover level since the 2005 annual report is 103% – more than the entire Wellington City Council staff roll.
Rodney Dawson, the CEO of business consultancy firm Leaders With A Vision, was surprised by the figure.
“[The council’s] turnover is high. A lot of companies I work for have a 5-10% annual rate, which is acceptable,” he says. “When you get that high, that’s something you need to look at.”
Jim Candiliotis of government watchdog Council Watch, says he was told by the council’s former Chief Financial Officer Neil Cherry that the cost of this turnover was $8 million a year. Cherry has since left the council.
“Over five years that’s $40 million. The average business hates to see more than 10% turnover a year otherwise you lose continuity and institutional knowledge,” says Candiliotis.
He says the figures reflect a culture in council where the people who “do nothing” stay, and the go-getters become “frustrated and disenchanted” with what they see, and leave.
“It’s not just the people at the bottom [leaving], it’s the policy analysts and people at the top, and that’s [a loss] of knowledge,” says Candiliotis.
Wellington business development coach Christopher Millar says for large firms an optimum turnover rate is between 15-20%.
This is far lower than the 27% the council reached in the 2008 year.
“That would be an upper limit that you’d reach in a period of change, but from a stability point of view, the sweet spot is 15-20% so you’re getting new blood in and exiting people who’ve been there for too long,” Millar says. “If they’re not going through massive change, you’d have to ask how engaged the staff are.”
Council CEO Gary Poole didn’t return calls at the time of print, and Mayor Kerry Prendergast doesn’t comment on staffing matters.
However, Charles Finney, the CEO of Wellington Chamber of Commerce says Wellington is one of the best performing councils in New Zealand, and it’s staff look attractive for other councils to poach.
He suggests Wellington also has more jobs available than other parts of New Zealand. “Likewise, we’ve got to see good people kept. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to go much more above the [turnover] levels we’re talking about,” Finney says.
But mayoral candidate Allan Probert says the council needs to look at the running of the organisation itself, rather than worrying about the cost of service delivery.
“If I was running a business with 103% staff turnover in five years I’d be broke. This is a bloated, out-of-control bureaucracy,” he says.
Councillor Bryan Pepperell says he hasn’t compared turnover figures recently, but it’s an issue he’s been concerned about in the past.
“We were losing institutional memory. I have noticed people disappearing, which has been a concern for me,” he says. “I think it’s a difficult environment to work in because there’s the potential for politicisation of officers and sometimes I wonder if we’re getting neutral advice.”
The Ministry of Economic Development released a workplace structure report from Statistics New Zealand in 2008, which showed that the average national staff turnover for firms with more than 500 employees in 2006 was 13.9%.
A 2009 council report by Greater Wellington Regional Council stated, “the annual turnover rate for Regional Authorities in 2008 was 14.1% and for Local Authorities was 13.8%”.
It begs the question, how can WCC staff turnover be approaching double the national average?