The Model Municipal Methodology -
Relying on Employees
For several years the Norwegian
Union of Municipal and General Employees (NUMGE) has been
working to improve the municipal sector through participation in
various projects – both to improve public services and to avoid
privatisation. Their experience with traditional reorganisation
projects was that they were short-lived, expensive and bureaucratic.
They engendered insesurity because they did not get worker buy in, and
the desired results inevitably failed to materialise. NUMGE created its
own model for improving public services, and this led to increased
productivity as well as higher job satisfaction levels amongst
staff.
The idea behind the model
municipality experiment - the actual conceptual basis - is
that employees themselves know work processes best, along with job
culture; co-operative relationships and consumer expectations .
Therefore it will most often be employees who have the best ideas
for change, and ways to improve work and the range of services on offer.
It is to achieve these goals that
the Modern Municipality methodology ought to be used. It
is a worker-centered change management process. It consists of the
following principles:
Bottom up
Working in
this new way involves working with both cases and processes.
In keeping with the conceptual basis, it is critical to create a
bottom-up process. Start with the cases that individual employees in the
workplace are concerned about, and with their suggestions for
improvements. All employees have ideas about how work can be done
better: for the users; for those in charge; and for the employees as
individuals.
Rely on employee
strengths
At all workplaces there are
a number of challenges. In order to master them and to improve work, the
workplace, and the range of services offered, rely on employee
strengths. Employees should be taken seriously and given opportunities
to show and make use of their skills. Those who lack certain skills must
be willing to improve their competence in order to be able to tackle new
job tasks.
Tripartite cooperation
In order to create
a good basis for this development, there must be a well-balanced
co-operation between the political leadership, management and labour
organisations. A collaborative body must be established that will be
responsible for the whole process. This body must be based on equality
and mutual trust among these three parties.
Consensus
Decisions should be based
on consensus. Matters should not be decided by voting, but by discussing
until an agreement has been reached.
Working groups
Working
groups should be developed around the ideas that emerge, and the
group should make a decision whether to follow an idea or
not. These teams should collaborate with the person who made the
suggestion to survey, study, develop and implement the experiment. This
work should be done in collaboration with the responsible manager at the
workplace.
The development
supervisors
All of the working groups
should have at least one development supervisor. This
person’s role is to supervise the group in the process in
which they are involved. Along with their work in the working group,
which gives them practical experience, the development supervisors are
simultaneously given professional training in supervision. The
supervisors are recruited from all levels of the municipality’s
own staff. As their competence in the supervisory work increases, the
supervisors become an extremely important resource.
No competitive tendering or
privatisation
During the period in which the
individual experiment is underway, the municipality should
agree not to use competitive tendering or privatisation as policy
instruments. The experiments need the respite that this allows, and
it helps give the employees the security they need in order to make positive
contributions to the process. Competitive tendering and
privatisation also show a lack of confidence in employees – the
model municipality methodology entails trust. And that is what modern change management is all about,
isn’t it?
The method can be used everywhere
The model municipality
method was initially developed in the union’s efforts to create
alternatives to privatisation and competitive tendering. The evaluation
that has now been submitted shows that the method functions well in this
context, but the method itself can be used everywhere.
Labour – Management co-operation
works
The model
municipality experiment has been evaluated by a commission
from the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development in
Norway. The evaluation was carried out by the Norwegian Institute for
Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) and Asplan Analyse. From
NUMGE’s point of view, the results are extremely positive and give
the union a very good tool for the ongoing efforts, e.g. in the change
and development of workplaces.
The main report draws the
following conclusion, amongst others:
Competence building
Competence building is
necessary in order to improve the quality and the range of services
on offer, and the idea of starting with employees’ ideas has
proven to be tenable, though rather slow in the
beginning.
Satisfaction
To begin with, the
experiment generated considerable satisfaction. In addition, it seems to
have made an initially good situation even better, and in this way it
has helped achieve the goal of the experiment.
The development
supervisors
Development supervisors have become an important part of
the experiment. Some of them have been used extensively, while there has
been difficulties in other municipalities.
Collaborative steering group and working
committees
The tripartite co-operation
has functioned well. This form of working has affected the collaborating
parties in several ways. Politicians, managers and trade unions have had
to arrive at shared solutions and stand together behind
them.
Economic efficiency
The experiment shows that it is possible to achieve increased
productivity and cost saving by using the methodology. There are few
sub-projects which demonstrate cost savings, but this is
probably related to the fact that none of the sub-projects had this as
one of their secondary goals.
Better provision of
services
The experiment has helped
meet the objective of a qualitatively better provision of services in
the municipalities. The form of work has also enhanced and developed
social skills in relation to accepting each other’s standpoints
and roles; tackling disagreements; and working to reach a consensus from
different points of departure. Through their work, the development
supervisors have helped promote a qualitatively better provision of
services.
Vital
On the whole, the
experiment has guided two of the municipalities in the right direction
towards more efficient utilisation of resources and improved service
delivery. Examples have been found of changes in services and the ways
they are provided which will continue after the experiment. Both of
the municipalities have decided to continue to refine this method of
working.
The Model Municipality
methodology seen in relation to competitive tendering
This methodology and
competitive tendering are both policy instruments. They promote
increased efficiency and/or increased quality of services. Both of these
methods require extensive processes. If the Model Municipality
methodology is to become a genuine alternative to competitive tendering,
the requirement of increased efficiency must be included in the
experiments before they commence. Assuming this is done, it is possible
both to increase productivity and save on costs. The methodology is
a somewhat slower adaptation process than competitive
tendering, but it has the advantage that it can be implemented
in all municipalities regardless of their size and geographical
location.
Some examples from
municipalities using the Model Methodology
1. Sorum
Municipality (Population 12,133)
This Municipality did not have enough places for children in
their kindergartens. The employees suggested a solution. Why not relax
the rules for enrolment and let the parents choose if they wanted a
part-time or a full-time place for their child?
The workers knew that many parents only
needed between one to three days for their child to be in the
kindergarten, but this was not allowed by the municipality. They
had to take the whole week. Because of the MM agreement, the local
authorities now said ok, let’s try and see if this will give us
more children in the kindergartens. It worked –
21 new places were filled without any investment or increased
expense.
2.
Steinkjer Municipality (Population 20,459)
To avoid privatisation the employees in the renovation
service decided to increase efficiency. They knew there was
better equipment available on the market, and they asked the local
authorities to buy a car which could be operated by one person instead
of two. The workers tested the car and found it invaluable
- today the renovation service in Steinkjer is the best and
cheapest in the whole area. The relationship between politicians,
management and employees fostered by the MM agreement made this
possible. The key thing about this story is that it was the
workers who had the idea and took the initiative – and the
local authorities listened to them and let them try it
out.
3.
Porsgrunn Municipality (Population 32,892)
Usually there are a lot of desks to visit if the
inhabitants need to get something done by the municipality. This
relates to questions about health care, age care, schooling,
kindergarten, building a new house, water and sanitation, and so on.
After having signed the MM agreement in Porsgrunn, both the employees
and the management wanted to make changes to this (sometimes bad)
service. They wanted to make it easier for the inhabitants to get the
help they needed, and they wanted to use the staff more efficiently.
They ended up with a Service Center: one counter and one telephone
number. The employees were recruited from different departments and this
enabled them to answer all kinds of questions. If they could not
answer, they knew who was the right person to ask. More efficient
resource utilization and better service delivery, together with higher
user and staff satisfaction, were among the
results.
For more
information, please contact Oddvar Överbömoen, advisor
NUMGE.
E-mail: oddvar.overbomoen@fagforbundet.no
Tel.: +47
23062606
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