2022 and 2023 budget: Designing and delivering better City services

The City of Guelph is making strategic investments in digital transformation; enabling employees to improve processes and deliver better services.

These investments are guided by Guelph’s strategic direction Working Together for our Future:

• delivering effective, fiscally responsible, and trusted local government with engaged, skilled, and collaborative employees
• improving how the City communicates with residents and delivers services

Through Council-approved investments in the 2021 budget, we have:

• Moved all employees to the Microsoft 365 platform; enabling people working in the office, at home or in the field to connect and collaborate.
• 583 front line employees were given access to email for the first time, improving how we are connected and communicate with these employees
• Upgraded the Guelph Permit and Application System to enhance many features, including online application and payment for about 2,100 permits annually and inspection booking for approximately 30,000 inspections annually and soon online business licensing payments will be launched streamlining about 1,400 manual payments annually; creating value by reducing administration for both businesses and City, increasing accessibility of City services and reducing in-person lines at City Hall, and generally improving customer experience for users.
• Being an industry leader by transitioning the court system to a virtual platform to allow for remote appearances that will replace about 5,000 in-person court proceedings annually, saving travel time and expenses and enhancing flexibility and accessibility of the court system
• Launched new On-demand transit service offering riders more direct and flexible service while increasing ridership, broadening transit coverage, and lowering costs for the City; already over 15,000 trips in five months saving 67,900 kilometres of driving and 232,000 kilograms of CO2 from the environment.
• 14,798 service requests have been submitted via Report an Issue map in 2021 reducing call volumes into the City.
• 315 forms have been digitized either into a fillable form or web-based forms reducing paper and allowing citizens and staff to interact with the City from the safety of their homes.
• Improved, more automated payroll and attendance management platform for 628 employees, saving an estimated 10,000 hours of time throughout the City; further employee groups onboarding through 2022 and 2023.
• 340 employees are now using an online performance management application, improving goal setting consistency and enabling better communications between leaders and teams, reducing time spent on manual performance reporting and saving about 2,700 printed pages.
• Automated and integrated expense management software will reduce time spent printing, manually submitting and reconciling more than 4,000 expense reports and reimbursements a year.

Becoming a more customer focused, performance driven, digitally enabled organization

As Guelph continues to grow, it must increase capacity to serve more customers who expect fast, easy, convenient service online, by phone and in-person. That means reviewing and redesigning City services, including the processes and tools we use to deliver them, measuring performance, and using that data to continue making improvements. This isn’t about eliminating jobs, it’s about creating capacity for agents to serve more people and businesses, training and providing opportunities for employees to continue improving service and performance in all departments, across all channels.

It’s about making sure the City’s workforce is future-ready.

Digital isn’t always better. Better is better.

Using modern tools and technology is critical for designing and delivering better services, but it’s just part of Guelph’s continuous improvement journey.

To achieve the goals set out in the City’s strategic plan: Guelph. Future-ready, the Council-approved customer service strategy: Service Simplified, and Guelph’s digital and technology master plan, Guelph must continue making strategic and sustainable investments to support a more customer focused, performance driven, digitally enabled workplace culture.

Before choosing a digital solution, it’s important to understand the problem from the customer or user’s perspective. Reviewing a process from end to end helps find ways to improve internal operations and customer experiences first, to optimize the process before digitizing it.

2021 highlights

Guelph is using Lean Six Sigma continuous improvement strategies to reduce waste, increase capacity, and provide better service to more people and businesses as Guelph continues to grow.

During the City’s first Lean Yellow Belt Certification Program, 11 successful projects were identified and prioritized by leadership. Each project was led by an employee working within the process or service, supported by training and coaching from certified continuous improvement staff within the organization.

This approach improves specific processes, creates common language, and encourages a culture of customer-centric problem solving; all are essential skills for successful digital transformation, customer service and process performance improvement.