Performance Spotlight

We are working and living in a time of constant change and competing priorities. Now more than ever, it is important that cities assess how they work to ensure they continue to meet the needs of the public.

At the City of St. John's, we are focused on training and empowering our employees to apply continuous improvement tools and techniques to bring more value to our customers - our residents.

60% of our employees have at least introductory continuous improvement (Lean) training
We have over 50 Green Belt or Yellow Belt certified employees
More than 300 of us have participated on a project team, working together to solve process problems and implement solutions
We have successfully completed more than 55 process improvement projects since 2018.

Every process improvement focuses on what’s important to the customer and adding value for them. Whether large or small in scope, process improvements undertaken by our employees create clarity for customers simply by improving forms and applications, providing guides and checklists, setting standards that reduce variation and errors in processes, and streamlining steps in a process. Improvements also help reduce administration time. For example, a simple improvement in the Office of the City Clerk saw the implementation of Microsoft Office 360 electronic forms for conducting Council e-polls (used to collect Council votes on matters with tight deadlines between meetings). Over the course of one year, this improvement alone will save 70 hours of administration time; time that can be reinvested into other work that serves our valued customers.

In the Spotlight...

Read some of our continuous improvement success stories, as featured in the City Guide.

Non-profit housing decreases turn-around time, getting vacancies filled faster (Fall, 2022)

The Non-Profit Housing division in the Department of Community Services manages more than 400 housing rental units. On average, 65 tenant move-in or move-outs are processed by the division annually.

The challenge:

In 2019, the Residential Tenancies Act shortened the timeline for refunding a tenant's security deposits from within fifteen days to 10 days. This prompted us to look closely at our move-in and move-out process. At the time, our process was a manual one, with move-outs averaging 30 plus days.

Accessing affordable, suitable housing is essential to the health of individuals and is the foundation for a prosperous and healthy community. By streamlining and standardizing the move-in and move-out process, we would be better positioned to meet legislated timelines. More importantly, we can better serve our client’s housing needs by ensuring units are available without delay.

The solution:

A cross-departmental project team came together to apply continuous improvement methodology and tools with the goal of improving turnaround time and increasing the quality and consistency of the process overall. Each step in the process was thoroughly reviewed and documented; clearly identifying roles and responsibilities for all staff involved.

We implemented a software solution for unit inspections that helps us detail and collect information on the condition of units on move-in and move-out. This solution also helped eliminate paper use.
We streamlined information-sharing between City departments, reducing wait times.
A process checklist was created for move-in tenants.

How you benefit:

As a result of these improvements, turnaround time for move-outs decreased with 91% completed in less than 30 days. We will continue to monitor the process to identify gaps and seek opportunities for additional improvements.

Improving crack and seal processes (Spring 2022)

In October 2020, the actual quantities in the Crack Seal Program highlighted issues with the estimating process. The actual quantity was underestimated in some cases and exceeded the estimated amount by approximately a factor of 2 or 100%. Staff examined and improved the estimating process for this and other projects.

The Challenge

The goal was to improve the estimating process in the Crack Seal Program so that the estimated quantities were within 20% of the actual constructed quantities and to also improve on estimating quantities in other programs. This would improve both the quality and quantity of work completed to seal pavement cracks.

The Solution

The project team met to discuss the problem, objectives, and scope of the CI project. The current state of the
process was mapped and staff used CI tools to identify improvements to test and implement including:

measuring cracks after rainfall when they were more visible
while it is not possible to measure every crack for estimating purposes by foot, staff walked a few sites with a measuring wheel to double check the estimated quantity
clarifying which types of cracks need to be measured for estimates; some types of asphalt cracking do not benefit from crack seal
measuring the cracks during construction ahead of the crack seal crew
prioritizing streets to ensure they do not get left behind year after year

At the end of the project in 2021, estimated quantities were significantly improved and were in line with the
actual construction quantities which resulted in approximately 100% improvement in the estimating process.
Approximately 128 streets were completed compared to approximately 93 streets the previous year. Based on
this, the project was a major success. Staff will monitor and adjust solutions in future projects to keep the
improvement in place.

How You Benefit

Staff are able to complete more streets each year, there is reduced frustration, reduced administrative work of
completing costing and budgetary paperwork, staff time is better used and historical data will be more accurate which improves estimates in the future. Stakeholders that benefited from this project include the inspectors,
project managers, staff managers, contractors, finance and administration, procurement and the legal department. City residents also benefit by seeing more work completed with greater accuracy and efficiency.

Assessment process review (Winter 2022)

Assessment is the process of establishing a market value of property for taxation purposes. Completing assessments on more than 50,000 residential properties is time-consuming and in previous years, staff had to work significant amounts of overtime to ensure property assessments were completed by the legislated deadline. The goal of this project was to improve the quality and consistency of the assessment roll, reduce rework, and reduce costly overtime.

The challenge

Completing the property assessment process within the tight legislated timelines while ensuring accuracy and
uniformity within the assessment roll.

The solution

The project involved a review of the residential reassessment process. Staff first mapped the processes currently being used by each assessor, known in the CI world as the ‘current state’. Then they identified where ‘waste’ in activities was occurring. This would include any defects in information or rework that was happening. Staff then looked at where they needed to be (known as the ‘future state’). Using these three pieces of analysis, standardized work processes were created to reduce time spent on reassessment, increase accuracy and thereby reduce the number of appeals.

How you benefit

Overall, implementing this process has resulted in a reduction of overtime during the most recent residential
reassessment. The core of the work was completed during regular work hours with limited overtime required. At this time, estimated overtime savings are approximately $60,000. Staff also identified fewer errors during the reassessment review which resulted in less rework, and the number of residential assessment appeals was notably reduced from the previous cycle. Learning from this project has been applied to the commercial reassessment process as well

Managing assets to get the best value from our services and investments (Fall 2021)

In 2020, our Council adopted an asset management policy and began developing a formal plan. The goal is basically to coordinate activities so that we get the best value possible from our services and investments. “Assets” include everything from our buildings, artwork and fleet to our water, sewer and road infrastructure and even include the methods we use to deliver services to the community.

The challenge

Our project involved mapping the current business processes of 11 types of assets including buildings and sewer infrastructure through their lifecycle – from pre-construction and purchase to disposal or replacement. We needed to document how each department interacts and the information needed for decision making.

The solution

Using a variety of C.I. tools including what is called a ‘swim lane diagram’ (image above), we have created checklists for building acquisition that better track warranties and ensure a preventative maintenance program so that buildings and their systems are not prematurely replaced. For sewer infrastructure, we now have a plan in place with our Planning, Engineering and Regulatory Services Department so that paving and underground work are coordinated, saving time and money.

How you benefit

The Public Works Department has exceeded our expectations and made significant strides in improving data collection, which means we have a better understanding of our assets and a better plan for their maintenance and eventual replacement. Preventative maintenance allows for a more efficient use of public funds and although we are early in evaluating this program, already we have seen future cost avoidance of about $380,000 for two streets alone in 2021!

Recreation staffing (Summer 2021)

The City’s Recreation Division manages 100+ staff seasonally at five aquatics facilities:

Paul Reynolds Community Centre
H.G.R. Mews Community Centre
Bannerman Park Pool
Bowring Park Pool
Rotary Park

A recent continuous improvement project reviewed and improved our process for seasonal shift listings, daily call-ins, coverage and shift replacement, reducing scheduling errors and ensuring staff are on site and available for the public.

The challenge

Aquatics staff are mainly students and their personal and work schedules change frequently (up to 6 times per year for core shifts and more frequently when they are looking for a shift change). The existing system for scheduling staff was manual, time consuming and inefficient, often leading to rework when the paper-based system could not keep up with rapid changes. This could lead to frustration for staff and, more importantly, the potential for shifts not to be covered – affecting the ability to meet quality and safety standards. The City’s Recreation Division manages 100+ staff seasonally at five aquatics facilities: - Paul Reynolds Community Centre - H.G.R. Mews Community Centre - Bannerman Park Pool - Bowring Park Pool - Rotary Park

The solution

Working with the Information Services team, the division replaced the manual process with an electronic staff scheduler which also keeps track of staff certifications and other important data for the aquatics team, removing a cumbersome manual process. The Recreation team is looking at how this new tool can be used in other divisions throughout the organization that also have similar scheduling issues.

How you benefit

By reducing rework, errors and manual processes, the organization improves its efficiency, meaning human resources can better be used to focus on improving services for you. Most importantly, scheduling in real time ensures staff are in place when you want to visit one of our pools, improving overall safety supervision standards.