Page 36 - Donegal CC An Rpt 19

Donegal County Council Annual Report 2019
Staff Welfare
The Staff Welfare Office continues to provide support and assistance to staff. The Council provides access to the Employee Assistance Programme, which is a free and confidential service available to all employees and their immediate family members. A pre-retirement planning seminar also provided advice and information to staff in 2019.
In 2019 the superannuation section of the Human Resources Department processed 22 applications for pensions including retirements, preserved pension benefits, dependant pensions, Fire fighters gratuities and lump sum payments. MyPay now provide services to
local authorities in the areas of payroll and superannuation, through a single shared services arrangement, based in Portlaoise. As at 31st December 2019, there were 644 persons in receipt of pension benefits from the Council.
Customer Services Centre
The Customer Service Centre handles all incoming contact received from the public via the Council’s telephone number 074 91 53900 and online services ([email protected], Report
It, Fix Your Street, Facebook, Twitter). The Centre dealt with over 97,000 bilingual (Irish and English) calls in 2019; with an overall average answer time of under 20 seconds. The Centre also handled almost 6,000 online contacts to the Council in 2019.
Communications Office
The Communications Office continued to proactively promote the services, supports and activities of the Council, managing the Council’s online presence including website and social media sites, providing a media enquiry service and issuing official Donegal County Council comment to the media.
Social Media
The Councils social media presence continued to grow with the number of Likes on Donegal County Council’s Facebook page increasing 3,843 in 2019 to 23,306 and its reach rising to over 6.5 million marking a 25% increase on the 2018 figure. The number of engaged users also grew to 400,240 an increase of 22% on the previous year.