Survey results set City benchmarks

The City of Hobart will use data collected from two recent surveys to strengthen its relationship with residents and businesses, and build a culture of continuous improvement.

A Community Satisfaction Survey and Business Satisfaction Survey were conducted in late 2021 to gauge sentiment around City of Hobart services, economic confidence, and the city’s liveability.

“We have invited open and honest feedback from residents and businesses about how we can continue to make Hobart the world’s best small city,” City of Hobart CEO Kelly Grigsby said.

“The surveys were carried out independently and confidentially to achieve a genuine snapshot of community and business sentiment.

“The results provide an important and timely snapshot of the feelings within our community as we continue to navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will assist us in targeting our services and support going forward.”

The surveys, which were carried out by independent social research agency Metropolis Research, found that most residents and businesses were happy with the standards of kerbside waste collections, sport and recreation facilities, community events and festivals, and customer service.

“These results provide us with a solid starting point to let us know what we are doing well as an organisation,” Ms Grigsby said. “But we will continue to use these results as a benchmark for future assessment and to track our progress.”

Areas for improvement, according to the survey results, include parking availability and enforcement, traffic management, and issues around planning and development.

“These are operational areas that have long presented challenges for the City of Hobart and other councils,” Ms Grigsby said. “The ratings for these three categories are on par with those reported in most Australian cities, but we do recognise that there are improvements that can be made.

“The City of Hobart is working collaboratively with the other Greater Hobart councils and the state government towards integrated transport solutions that we hope will lead to increased satisfaction in this area.

“We’ve allocated additional resources to improve the City’s planning processes, including the introduction of our Welcome (Landing) Pad, Development Concierge and Business Concierge services.

“These findings will help to shape our strategic and organisational directions and lead to improvements in how we deliver services to residents and businesses in our city.

“It builds on the extensive engagement process we have conducted as part of a major organisational transformation program that aligns with the City’s vision, returns focus to key areas required to deliver the strategic directions, and ensures good public value.”

In addition, the City will prepare and implement a new Economic Development Strategy, focusing support on existing and emerging industry sectors. A key first step will be to host a series of round tables next month with a range of stakeholders including key industry, commerce, retail, and tourism groups to help inform the strategy.

The surveys will be conducted annually to provide up-to-date information around business confidence and community satisfaction that can be used to assess the City’s performance and drive ongoing improvement.

The complete Hobart Business Survey and Hobart Community Survey results can be viewed on the City of Hobart’s website.

Community survey (502 respondents)

Business survey (375 respondents)