If you are rating employee performance on a five-point scale, it may be time to rethink your process. The traditional approach to employee performance management, which scores employee performance, is being replaced with an increased focus on coaching and development....
J. Michael Wilkes, City Manager of Olathe, Kansas recently facilitated a fascinating session on organizational culture at the Alliance for Innovation’s Transforming Local Government Conference. The event brought together the best and brightest local government leaders...
Creative, motivated public leaders say interesting and thought provoking things when you put them in a room together. I have the privilege of eavesdropping in on many conversations between public sector leaders at the conferences and meetings where I speak. At a...
In a recently released report from the Center for State and Local Government Excellence on State and Local Government Workforce Trends, staff development and employee morale were listed as the most important workforce issues facing government agencies today. To me,...
The regularly scheduled one-on-one (O-o-O) has been called the most powerful management tool available. Yet many managers are not having regular one-on-one meetings with employees, and it impacts the work environment. To make the O-o-O effective, it should be...
My father, William Finley, and I recently compared views of the world of work. When Dad was the President of SCF of AZ, the workers’ compensation agency of the State of Arizona (he retired in 1987) there were certain "rules" that everyone in the workplace lived by. ...
The nature of public employment is changing rapidly. With threats to public sector pensions and reduced benefit packages, recruiting and retaining top talent is more difficult than ever. Long-term employees are expected to do more with less, in an increasingly...
According to the New York Times, the public sector has shrunk by 706,000 jobs, since the post-recession peak in April 2009. Agencies are seeking ways to provide needed services with a smaller workforce that may be less engaged than ever before. Nearly all state and...
When you talk about an employee’s pay during a performance evaluation discussion, you are no longer talking about performance. Pay adjustments should follow from your assessment of the employee’s performance. However, when you discuss pay in the evaluation meeting, it...