Development Services program

Client: Unitywater

About the project

Unitywater provides water and wastewater services to one of the fastest growing regions in Australia, with 800,000 residents across Noosa, Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay. With an unprecedented level of property development taking place in the region to meet the urgent needs of the current housing crisis, the development industry is a small but important customer base for Unitywater. The Development Services branch supports the property industry, providing advice and approvals to connect new and expanded property developments to Unitywater’s service network. To address industry feedback regarding lengthy timeframes for connection approvals, Unitywater is working on a transformation program to streamline Development Services’ processes and systems. This includes:

  • Improving the way connection applications are processed and assessed;
  • Uplifting the performance of private sector certifiers who work on behalf of Unitywater; and
  • Developing an online portal to lodge connection applications.

Approach

As part of our work to provide stakeholder engagement support and advice, Whitelight Communications:

  • Developed a Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Plan for the function including a narrative for service improvement to help manage industry expectations;
  • Wrote communications collateral tailored to stakeholder interests, including a bi-monthly industry newsletter, web content, presentations and correspondence;
  • Carried out an external Stakeholder Impact Assessment to inform tailored engagement approaches for highly impacted stakeholders;
  • Helped facilitate a pilot for a streamlined approvals process for approving the connection of lower risk infrastructure to Unitywater’s network;
  • Designed and delivered engagement programs for key improvement initiatives including familiarisation sessions to build awareness of the portal, process changes associated with the portal, and a tiering scheme for private sector certifiers.

Outcomes

  • Established a coordinated approach to communications and stakeholder relations resulting in timely, consistent and meaningful messages to industry so that they are more informed of what Unitywater is doing to address issues and improve experience.
  • Improved relationships with industry bodies by identifying genuine opportunities for stakeholders to influence outcomes and supporting Unitywater leadership to engage with industry.
  • Receiving positive unsolicited feedback from stakeholders as a result of improved processing times for eligible applications from 10-12 weeks to 2 weeks via a pilot to streamline approvals.

Testimonials

Ayllie has a rare ability

Ayllie has a rare ability to get in ‘on the ground’ and work through challenges while still remaining strategic. She is able to bring people on the journey, gain the trust of senior leaders and establish collaborative relationships very quickly, often stepping in to a chief of staff type role. It was a pleasure (and life saver) having Ayllie in the team!

Anita Orr

Head of Corporate Affairs Victoria, Transurban

I called on Ayllie to help out the team

I called on Ayllie to help out the team in the capacity of Communications Director for an interim period. Her experience working in similar environments on large PPP projects as well as her understanding of government processes and priorities meant she could hit the ground running.

Ayllie has a rare ability to get in ‘on the ground’ and work through challenges while still remaining strategic. She is able to bring people on the journey, gain the trust of senior leaders and establish collaborative relationships very quickly, often stepping in to a chief of staff type role. It was a pleasure (and life saver) having Ayllie in the team!

Anita Orr

Head of Corporate Affairs Victoria, Transurban