Council scoops prestigious award

29 November 2013

Waipa District Council has joined an exclusive group of New Zealand organisations recognised today by the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation.

At a function at Mystery Creek, Council was awarded silver status in the New Zealand business excellence awards. Other award winners included Spectrum Care Trust and Western Bay of Plenty District Council (both gold awards) and Bay of Plenty District Health Board (bronze award).

This is the first time the Waipa District Council has entered the awards based on the US-based Baldridge criteria. The criteria measures levels of performance across all areas of a business and is based on international benchmarks for performance.

Gold status award winners can claim to be among the best in the world. In the past 14 years only four gold level awards have been presented - to New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Ltd (2007), Vero Insurance Ltd (2008), the Royal New Zealand Navy (2009) and Hutt City Council (2011).

Waipa District Council chief executive Garry Dyet said for the organisation to win a silver award in its first attempt was outstanding and a credit to staff.

There are no short-cuts in this process. The Royal New Zealand Navy won bronze twice, and then a silver before finally getting to gold status so I'm very, very happy with how well we have done.

Mr Dyet said it was not always easy working in local government but was rewarding in terms of the contribution councils can make to a district or city and its growth.

This award is a strong indication that we're doing the right things in terms of providing the best that we can provide with the finite funds we have available.

Waipa had been working towards the award for three and a half years and the process had involved total commitment from the entire organisation, he said.

We want to be the best we can be. It's really that simple. Our ratepayers clearly deserve the best we can offer and our staff deserve to work somewhere where they can grow and develop and where their contributions are recognised. Waipa offers an incredible lifestyle for its residents and we play a big part in that.

Minister of Local Government, Hon Chris Tremain, congratulated both councils on their awards.

It's important that we celebrate success in local government. We need a culture of continuous improvement within the local government sector. This requires councils to benchmark themselves against others, to compare and contrast, to identify excellence and to replicate it.

New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation chief executive, Mike Watson, said the local government sector is leading the charge in terms of continuous improvement.

In our experience, local government is very focussed on being the best and measuring their performance.

For more information contact:

Jeanette Tyrrell (on behalf of Council) 027 5077 599