In 2016, I brought forward a motion at Norfolk County Council calling for detailed operational reporting on overtime, absenteeism, and workforce trends.
Today, municipalities across Ontario routinely use KPI dashboards, attendance management reporting, overtime analytics, and operational trend analysis as part of modern municipal management.
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
Back in 2016, Norfolk County had the opportunity to begin building those systems earlier.
Norfolk County Council Motion – February 16, 2016
Res. No. 22 – Moved by Councillor Haydt
WHEREAS, attendance management is a significant issue in many areas of an organization contributing to increased overtime costs;
AND WHEREAS, overtime usage may not be the most efficient manner to achieve objectives;
AND WHEREAS, Council has a role in policy development which extends to setting in place controllership practices;
AND WHEREAS, a thorough review of overtime usage and rules that govern usage is deemed required to allow for Council to make appropriate policy decisions in this area;
AND WHEREAS, current budget documents do not provide a separate line item to highlight overtime costs, nor draw correlations between overtime, absenteeism or special projects.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
THAT staff be directed to prepare a report outlining all current policies and collective agreements in place regarding the area of: sick leave related absenteeism;
AND THAT the staff report provide an overall analysis of and estimated cost associated for lost time in this regard for the County for each of the years of 2011-2015;
AND FURTHER THAT the staff report provide the overtime costs by County division for each of the years 2011-2015 along with analysis of trends.
Status: Defeated
Looking back now, the motion was clearly ahead of its time. Municipal governments across Ontario now routinely publish the type of operational reporting and workforce analytics that Norfolk County could have started implementing years earlier.
Smaller and mid-sized municipalities across Ontario increasingly use:
overtime reporting, absenteeism tracking, KPI dashboards, departmental performance metrics, and multi-year trend analysis.
Examples include:
City of Stratford — publishes operational and HR reporting despite being a relatively small municipality.
City of Woodstock — uses departmental KPI and financial trend reporting.
City of Kawartha Lakes — uses operational dashboards and performance measures in budgeting and strategic plans.
Town of Innisfil — heavily adopted digital government and operational analytics despite being a smaller municipality.
Town of Collingwood — uses strategic KPI reporting and operational performance metrics.
Municipality of Chatham-Kent — tracks overtime and staffing analytics publicly through reports and budgets.
I was not asking for something radical or unrealistic.
I was asking Norfolk County to start moving toward:
Measurable management, modern operational oversight, and data-driven budgeting before many comparable municipalities fully embraced it.
What many municipalities now consider standard operational management, Norfolk County could have started implementing years earlier.
This was never about targeting employees or simply cutting costs. It was about improving accountability, identifying operational pressures earlier, and giving council the information needed to make informed decisions.