Employee Owners or Employee Renters?
Employees are a lot like cars. The amount of care, attention to detail, and feelings of permanency we project toward our cars is comparable to the way employees view the employer-employee relationship. Consider this analogy. Employee Renters When we rent a car,...
Working Your Strategic Plan
Has your organization joined the many that are embarking on a strategic plan? Public sector organizations are turning to strategic plans en masse with the hope of defining a better future. Beautiful documents are being created to represent visions of a better...
Accountability Doesn’t Work
The outcry is loud and clear: public agencies must be held accountable! It follows that if the agency is going to be held accountable, employees who make up the agency should be held accountable too. As a result, public sector leaders are considering accountability...
Gaining Momentum
I’m part of a volunteer organization that went through a bit of a slump in the past few years. We found ourselves begging for board members and scraping by financially. Attendance at events was at an all-time low. The leadership team struggled to agree on a...
Focus on Employee Behaviors to Get Results
We all have an "attitude" problem at times. You’ve probably even had employees who you’ve described as having a bad attitude. However, focusing on the attitude of an employee while trying to influence his/her work performance is a bad idea. No one wants to be labeled...
Avoid Inherited Performance Problems
Have you ever received the "inheritance surprise?" No, not the one that comes after probate proceedings. “Inheritance surprise” is the surprise you get you get a new employee and find their performance is not up to expectations. Managers inherit employees in two...
The 4 Cultures of Employee Retention in the Public Sector
The reality of today’s job market is that workers are expecting more from their employers and are not afraid to move on if their needs are not met by your organization. How do great public agencies maintain low levels of turnover and high levels of employee...
Employee Engagement: The Best 11 Tips
Study after study has proven that engaged employees, employees who care, lead to increased productivity, better customer service, and increased commitment to the mission. As a result, efficiencies increase, waste decreases, and citizens are happier. If you don’t...
Challenging What One Knows in Local Government
Every organization has a set of beliefs, or norms, that guide day-to-day interactions and processes. Organizational beliefs help to frame our decision-making and allow us to be consistent and efficient. In local government, there are a lot of them. Sometimes,...
What’s Trust Got To Do With It?
Pension reform, budget cuts, restructuring, doing more with less. . . all of these modern-day public sector realities have had a tremendous impact on the level of trust in our organizations. Gone is the era of lifetime employment. Today, organizations consider...
Fielding Hard Ball Questions from Public Audiences
All the practice, preparation and knowledge in the world cannot prepare you for an audience who does not like you or your message. Many of my clients face public audiences who are hostile or who do not want to hear the message that is being delivered. At City...
Manage Employee Performance Through Conversation
The success of managers in government organizations is defined by their ability to achieve results and drive change. Results and change come about through conversation and it’s not always easy to initiate the conversations that are required. In fact, many managers...
The State of the Public Sector Workforce: Good News and Bad News
A recent IPMA-HR member poll reported some good news about the state of the public sector workforce. The poll had some bad news as well. The good news? In the survey 81% of the respondents said that their agency was no longer conducting layoffs. This is a welcomed...
Four Types of Performance Goals
This is the time of year when many public employees are struggling to set performance goals for the coming year. Are you staring at the computer screen wondering where to start? Here are four kinds of goals that you might consider when establishing your performance...
Is Public Sector Employment Tarnished?
The public sector has really been through the ringer lately and some are saying it’s only going to get tougher. Jennifer Schramm in the December 2013 issue of HR Magazine says there is a growing view among young job seekers that the fading security of public sector...
How to Set Meaningful Performance Goals: Do, Not Be
Are you a finisher? Do you love the feel of completing a task and checking it off your list? Goal completion is a strong human motivator. Yet, writing significant goals that have a positive impact on the work environment can be tough. Here’s a framework to...