Convincing your council or local government team to try something new? It can feel like wrangling a committee to agree on Friday’s lunch order – everyone has an opinion and there’s always a budget to watch.

But when it comes to adopting process management tools like Flowingly, a little extra effort upfront can lead to less admin pain, fewer headaches, and happier communities on the other side. 

Let’s dive into some simple ways you can inspire your council leaders, department heads, and colleagues to get excited about better ways of working.

Why Should Councils Even Care About Process Management Tools? 

Local government teams have a lot to juggle: community grants, building approvals, service requests, compliance… You name it. Where things get sticky is keeping track of all those moving parts, especially when you’re slogging through spreadsheets or chasing emails across departments. 

Enter process management tools. They take the chaos out of your daily grind, letting you automate the dull jobs (think: approval workflows, status tracking) and focus more on work that really helps your community. Not only does that mean faster response times and better compliance, it’s also less stress for everyone involved. 

But how do you get everyone on board? Start here.

1. Zero in on Your Team’s Real Pain Points 

Instead of bombarding folks with features and sales pitches, begin with what actually causes friction in your workflows. Does reporting feel endless? Are community requests slipping through the cracks? Are you stuck in a never-ending email loop for approvals? 

For example: 

• A rural New Zealand council might see grant applications sitting in limbo for weeks on end.
• An Australian metro council could lose hours consolidating compliance data for state audits. 

Pointing out these everyday pain points helps people see that process management tools aren’t just ‘nice to have’ – they’re a practical fix for the stuff that keeps you up at night.

2. Show the Money (and the Time, and the Headspace) 

Let’s face it: council budgets are tight and everyone wants to know, “What do we actually get out of this investment?” 

Be specific: 

• Show how moving from paper or spreadsheet-driven workflows to digital can save staff hours (and the grey hairs that go with them). 
• Share real numbers. “Automating building consent approvals could save 200 hours a month. That’s whole weeks’ worth of staff time, ready to put toward new projects.” 

The more you can point to actual hours, dollars, or improved service measures, the more convincing your case will be.

3. Share Stories from Councils Like Yours 

People trust stories from peers way more than flashy marketing stats. Do some digging: Has another council in NZ or Australia already taken the plunge with workflow automation? What changed for them? 

Huon Valley Council in Australia halved the time it took to onboard new staff by digitising their core processes. Otorohanga District Council in New Zealand found regulators breathing easier knowing LGOIMA requests were now processed in just five days instead of 20.

Even small wins at similar councils can help tip the scales.

4. Tackle Concerns With a Human Touch 

No one likes it when something new crashes into their daily routine – especially if it means learning yet another system. Address this early by being upfront and empathetic. 

Acknowledge the learning curve. Share how Flowingly (or your chosen tool) is designed to be easy for everyone, not just tech whizzes. Offer hands-on training, and let folks know there’s support around the corner if they get stuck. 

Frame it as a helping hand: fewer manual tasks and a clearer view of what needs doing. Not a “replace the team” scenario, just a better way to get the jobs done. 

5. Highlight the Wins for Residents and for You 

At the end of the day, local government exists to serve the community. Always circle back to how these tools help customers: faster permit turnaround, fewer mistakes, clearer communication. 

But don’t forget to remind your team what’s in it for them – less busywork, an easier time meeting compliance, and more bandwidth for projects that spark pride. 

For example: “Imagine if residents could lodge a service request online and check the status anytime, no calls needed, no chasing for updates. Or if your finance team could sail through audit prep instead of drowning under paperwork.”

6. Make Buy-In a Team Sport 

Don’t do all the heavy lifting yourself. Get enthusiastic peers involved and encourage champions across departments. Run short workshops to brainstorm process pain points, and be sure to celebrate (even the small) wins together. 

When people see colleagues getting excited about improvements, rather than just ‘management’ pushing change – it’s much easier to get them on board. 

When you speak your team’s language, focus on real problems, and bring a bit of humanity to the conversation, moving to better, smarter workflows isn’t just possible – it’s inevitable.

And as councils across New Zealand and Australia are starting to discover, these changes really do help teams deliver more for the people they serve. 

If onboarding is your council’s welcome mat, offboarding is the emergency exit – and it better work in a fire.

That was the big takeaway from our recent Flow & Tell session with Bay of Plenty Regional Council, where Senior Business Analyst Gill walked us through how they transformed their outdated leavers process into one of their most efficient, most visible, and most-loved workflows.

What started as a clunky, eight-year-old process sitting in Objective is now one of the most-loved workflows at the council—complete with automated handovers, built-in visibility, and zero manual emails.

So why should your council automate employee offboarding? Here are four reasons to make it your next automation project.

1. Offboarding is a Compliance Minefield

Offboarding is packed with compliance and security responsibilities. If a step gets skipped – like revoking system access, it opens the door to unnecessary costs and data risk. For many councils, there’s no single source of truth for tracking where the process is at or what’s been done.

By automating the offboarding workflow, councils can ensure that nothing gets missed. Built-in task assignment, visibility, and escalation paths mean every box is ticked, even if someone’s on leave or working remotely.

2. It’s Prime Real Estate for Automation Wins

At Bay of Plenty Regional Council, the team rebuilt their leavers workflow in just a few days using Flowingly. Most of that time wasn’t spent building – it was spent aligning with stakeholders and updating the content. Once live, the process eliminated a heap of manual tasks, especially around email creation and follow-ups.

Pre-configured emails now go out automatically. Staff no longer have to copy-paste template text from Outlook or remember to send internal notifications. Everything flows in the background, triggered by a single form submission.

3. Visibility = Less Risk, Less Stress

One of the most frustrating parts of offboarding is the follow-up. HR teams end up chasing ICT for updates, reminding team leaders about final dates, or nudging people who’ve forgotten to complete their steps.

With automated nudges and status visibility built into the Flowingly dashboard, HR can now keep things moving without awkward follow-ups. Delegations are easy to apply, tasks can be reassigned instantly, and no one’s wondering, “Has that laptop been returned yet?”

4. You Don’t Need to Be a Tech Wizard

The kicker? BOPRC’s team didn’t need developers or a giant IT project to get this done. They used Flowingly’s drag-and-drop builder, updated the workflow themselves, and can tweak it any time without calling in the cavalry.

That’s the kind of no-code empowerment councils need – especially with shrinking budgets and growing audit pressure.

👋 TL;DR: Offboarding isn’t just paperwork. It’s a critical, high-risk process that deserves automation love. If Bay of Plenty can turn it from bottleneck to breeze, you can too.

Need help getting started? Steal their offboarding workflow from our Process Hub or watch the Flow & Tell session where Gill walks through it here.

If you’re working in local government, there’s a good chance you’ve heard it before: 

“Only Carol knows how that works.” 

Maybe it’s Rates. Maybe it’s building consents. Maybe it’s the customer onboarding process for new dog registrations. Either way, it’s stuck in someone’s head – and everyone’s relying on them to remember. 

The real problem? Ownership. 

We’ve worked with dozens of councils across New Zealand and Australia. And one theme shows up again and again: there’s a process, but it’s invisible. 

Sometimes it’s documented in a 42-page PDF buried in SharePoint. Sometimes it’s been passed down verbally between staff for years. 

And when that happens, it’s fragile. 

When people leave, processes walk out the door with them. 
When systems change, workflows grind to a halt. 
When audits happen, teams scramble to explain how things “should” work. 

Mapping ≠ documentation. It’s delegation. 

Here’s the difference: 

• Documentation tells you what someone did once. 
• Mapping shows you how something works now – and who’s responsible for what. 

When a customer service team maps out their complaint-handling workflow, they’re not just drawing boxes.

They’re capturing the “how” behind the handoffs. They’re identifying gaps. They’re flagging pain points.

And most importantly – they’re giving their colleagues a shared, reliable reference. 

Ownership makes onboarding easier 

Process ownership isn’t just about risk reduction – it’s a huge win for onboarding too. 

Instead of asking a new starter to shadow Dave from Finance for two weeks, you can walk them through the mapped journey, complete with key responsibilities, supporting documentation, and embedded knowledge (👀 more on that coming soon). 

And when that’s paired with automation? Even better. But mapping is the first – and arguably most important step for teams struggling with process. As we love to say – automating a crap process won’t make it good, it’ll just emphasise how crap it is. 

What great ownership looks like in practice 

From fragile to futureproof 

Your goal isn’t to write the perfect SOP. It’s to make it easy for someone else to step in and succeed. 

The best time to document was yesterday. The second-best time is when your team can do it together – visually, collaboratively, and easily. 

That’s what Flowingly is built for. 

💡 Want a practical guide to protecting your council’s process knowledge?
👉 Read the Ultimate Guide to Protecting Process Knowledge →