Boosting HR’s Strategic Capability-1

Client

NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA)

Challenge

Navigating workforce transition while maintaining stability.

Solution

A people-centred Career Transition Programme.

Outcome

  • Greater workforce resilience
  • Supported career confidence
  • Maintained operational continuity

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A strategy that needed the right organisation behind it

 A new CEO joined the council as the organisation entered an important period of change. 


The council had a clear strategic vision. The question was whether its existing structure and operating model could support it. 


Leadership accountabilities, workforce capability and the way functions worked together all needed consideration. Any changes also had to reflect the realities of local government. Essential community services needed to continue while the council managed operational complexity, governance requirements and community expectations. 


The council needed more than a new organisation chart. It needed a clear view of how the organisation worked in practice, where constraints existed and what needed to change. 


Davidson Strategy & Performance partnered with the council to build that evidence base and translate it into a practical organisational design.

Understanding how the organisation really worked 

The first priority was to understand the gap between the council’s strategic direction and its current operating model. 


Over six weeks, Davidson combined workforce data and organisational analysis with broad employee engagement. This helped identify where the existing structure supported performance and where clearer alignment was needed. 


An organisation-wide survey explored culture, engagement and perceptions of the operating model. Virtual focus groups gathered perspectives across service areas and business units. Senior leaders contributed through one-on-one consultations. 


Open drop-in sessions gave employees another way to share their experience and ideas. 


Together, these inputs provided a broader view of the organisation than structural analysis alone could offer. They brought operational experience into the design process and tested leadership assumptions against how work happened day to day. 


The approach also gave employees multiple opportunities to contribute to a change that would affect how the organisation operated. 

Four coworkers collaborate around a laptop in a modern office, smiling and focused.

Turning evidence into design decisions 

As the analysis progressed, consistent themes emerged around decision-making, accountability, service delivery and organisational alignment. 


These findings shifted the focus from reviewing individual roles or reporting lines to a more fundamental question: what operating model would best support the council’s priorities? 


Davidson worked with council leadership to establish a practical design logic for the future organisation. This provided a basis for decisions about functions, leadership responsibilities and reporting structures. 


The resulting recommendations focused on clearer leadership accountability and decision-making pathways. They also considered how teams and functions could align more closely with strategic priorities. 


Workforce sustainability, collaboration and organisational capability were part of the design. The recommendations also addressed areas of duplication, complexity and operational risk identified through the review. 


Importantly, the proposed model had to work in practice. It balanced the council’s strategic ambitions with its operational responsibilities, governance obligations and community-facing role.

From organisational review to a clearer way forward 

The review gave council leaders a clearer evidence base for decisions about the organisation's future design.

A new organisational structure was put in place, creating stronger alignment between strategic priorities, operational delivery and leadership accountability. 


The work also gave the council a clearer view of how its structure, leadership capability and operating model could support its longer-term direction. 


For the leadership team, this created greater certainty about the path forward. Rather than approaching organisational design as a structural exercise alone, the council could make decisions informed by workforce evidence, employee experience and its strategic priorities. 


The result was a practical foundation for the council’s next phase: a structure designed around clearer accountability, stronger organisational alignment and the demands of delivering services to its community. 


For local government leaders facing similar change, organisational design is not simply about where roles sit. It is about creating the conditions for people to make clearer decisions, understand accountability and deliver against the organisation’s priorities. 


Davidson Strategy & Performance helps organisations turn strategy into practical organisational structures and operating models built for lasting performance.

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