Let's Communicate, Let's Engage

The Communication and Engagement Strategy was formally adopted by Council in 2020.

The Strategy provides a new direction and a more considered approach to communication and marketing of Council services, business units, events and activities, community engagement and decision-making. It is the result of extensive consultation with Council’s many stakeholders and will help Council maintain an environment where the voice of the community is at the heart of the services and infrastructure that Council provides.

Thank you to everyone that has already provided feedback, where possible your ideas and aspirations have been reflected throughout this exciting new Strategy.

The Strategy was endorsed for Public Exhibition by Council on 17 March 2020, following this period the Strategy was formally adopted by Council.

We are now working on a framework that will deliver the priorities and actions mapped out in the Strategy. Our communications and engagement actions will align with three clear aims:

• Our communication is creative, innovative and engaging. We are proactive, while maintaining responsiveness.

• Our interactions are genuine and human. We listen to our communities, respect their views and respond openly and transparently.

• Our staff and Councillors are informed and empowered to communicate effectively. We strive for continuous improvement.

How did we get here?

Last year we began the process of developing the Communications and Engagement Strategy.

We heard from members of our community, customers, Councillors and staff to discover the importance of communication and engagement channels, techniques and delivery. This was carried out across 3 stages:

Stage 1 Desktop research of recent prior engagements.

This stage analysed feedback from our community and customers about specific focus areas including youth, customer service, events community priority areas. This analysis allowed the development of a communications and engagement specific campaign to identify the gaps in knowledge obtained through these previous consultations.

Stage 2 External Engagement run through the successful ‘Ideas Lounge’ as well as online through the Let’s Chat portal. This stage built an understanding of how the community currently accesses council information, how they would prefer to access council information and compared that to how they access information from other sources including current affairs, other events and activities and general information from business, not for profit and private enterprise.

Stage 3 Internal Engagement and analysis of recent staff survey results. This stage saw a combination of face to face interviews with senior leaders, drop-in sessions for Council staff as well as detailed analysis of online engagement projects run with staff. This built an understanding of what methods staff currently use in their day to day operations, what they felt were the key areas of improvement, what training and resource development are required as well as identifying the key areas of improvement for internal communications and engagement.