By Staff
July 26th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
City council got a briefing from the Director of Human Resources on how she is building a 21st century workforce.
The big picture is the building of a 21st Centry city that will have a 21st Century work force that is expected to result in an exceptional quality of life in Burlington.
It is a lofty and laudable goal.
How are we doing so far? That is a question for which there isn’t an answer.
There was a time when senior management at city hall created opportunities for staff to socialize and take part in community fund raising. The photographs shows staff supporting the United Way at a BBQ in Civic Square.
What we do know is how the city is planning to achieve the goal which is part of the Strategic Plan.
The municipal sector is not one that takes in new people at senior levels – everything about municipal government is complex and at times obtuse. Private sector, bottom line focused executive talent doesn’t fit the municipal mold.
Senior management tends to come from within the sector. A look at the CV’s of most of the senior people will show that they have been in the sector most of their careers.
The Human Resources department believes that if they focus on developing skills, providing learning opportunities and creating a work environment that supports innovation, respect, and creativity, employees will be better engaged in the work they deliver to the community and this will have a positive impact on the service they provide.
As part of the 2011 United Way fund raising event there was a costume contest. The Clerks department came out the winner – do they give everyone that funny look all the time?
When employees are engaged and supported and when they understand how their work contributes to the quality of life by residents, they better serve the community. Simply put, look after your employees and they will look after your customers.
According to a 2013 article from the Harvard Business Review entitled Employee Engagement Does More than Boost Productivity: “Organizations with a high level of engagement do report 22% higher productivity”. Organizations with engaged employees, have lower turnover because they see the direct connection between what they do and the positive impact to their customer. “People want to come to work, understand their jobs, and know how their work contributes to the success of the organization.”
Additionally, labour market risk has been identified in the City’s Enterprise Risk Registry as one of the top risks the City is currently facing. Building a 21st Century Workforce is focused on attracting, developing and retaining the best workforce so that we better serve our community and thereby mitigate the labour market risk. Building a 21st century workforce is a good business strategy.
The City’s approach to developing and implementing workforce initiatives has been to engage employees from all departments, roles and perspectives so that the outcomes will be inclusive, meaningful and sustainable. To that end, the following groups are examples of the approaches taken at the City of Burlington:
1. Four Culture Teams (comprised of a total of 45 employees):
• Staff Investment: This team is working on a new employee recognition, award and mentorship programs.
• Innovation Team/Innovation Cafe: Innovation Café, developed through the Mohawk Future Ready Leadership Program, is a way for staff to bring new, innovative ideas forward. The Innovation Culture Team developed the “Think Tank” which is a mentorship program for those who wish to submit an idea to the Innovation Café and are interested in receiving assistance/feedback with their idea.
• Values: A staff team focused on the development of organizational values and behaviours.
• Communications: This team acts in an advisory role with Government Relations and Strategic Communications and act as a resource to the other culture teams.
When Kim Philips was City general manager for Budge and Corporate Services she worked to make staff a part of community events. Here she is part of a tug team – the fire fighters won this one.
2. Mohawk Future Ready Leadership Program (MFRLP) Teams – (50 participants):
The MFRLP is a leadership development program designed to teach staff leadership through project management. Seven teams have now completed this program and three more are in process. Projects have included:
Electronic Documents Management Strategy
Creation of an Urban Design Advisory Panel
Innovation Café
Volunteer Management Strategy
Inclusivity Framework (Internal)
New Site Plan Approval Process
Corporate Vehicles – Process and Policy Alignment
Design Awards
Reducing Corporate Waste
Welcome to Burlington
In addition to the work being completed by the Culture teams and the Mohawk participants, work is also being undertaken by various departments, project teams, supervisory/managerial staff and the leadership team.
In her report to council Laura Boyd, Director of Human Resources, said: ”There is a lot of great work being accomplished by employees across this organization to make our workplace and employees the best. As we enter an era where retirements will rise and where we will be competing with public and private sector companies for talent, it is important to recognize that by building of a 21st century workforce, we are investing in a good business strategy, one which will provide us a competitive advantage into the future.”
What is equally important is the city’s reputation as an employer. Is Burlington a place where people in the municipal sector want to work?
We will follow up on how Burlington is working to polish the brand.
COB – employees get an indexed pension with benefits – gold level benefits – a couple of bucks per hour – compare that to what private sector gets with no pension – you need to look at the whole picture – what we do in the private sector with 3 people and 2000 dollars take the public sector 15 people and 15 thousand and most are protected by a union – if working for the city is such a hardship – it is a free society – they are welcome to leave – I am not asking staff to leave however I have known to many people leave from the private sector to the public sector – just sayin
And you’re free to join too, Norman – ‘just sayin’. “What we do in the private sector with 3 people and 2000 dollars take the public sector 15 people and 15 thousand”. Keep on drinking that Koolaid!
Norman,
Re: …”what we do in the private sector with 3 people and 2000 dollars take the public sector 15 people and 15 thousand…”
IMO your apparent pride in the private sector is not justifiable. While the private sector does some things very well, unfortunately it suffers from the same incompetence as other human endeavours, exacerbated by greed and especially the pressure to generate big bonuses for executives. Consequently, often there are scandals and spectacular failures such as: Bre-ex, Enron, Nortel, Sears, WorldComm, Valeant, Texaco, Livent, Target, Adelphia, Arthur Andersen, Lehman Brothers, Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, the Ford Pinto, etc., which have caused serious damage (and even deaths) to the lives of those affected.
This was a modest sample. There are many more at (e.g.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporate_collapses_and_scandals
1) As a CoB retiree, Most front line outside worker jobs pay a lot less than even Oakville and Hamilton, Jobs like Truck drivers, equipment operators, Landscapers etc, all pay $3-5 dollars and hour less than the CoB. There’s a retention problem in some skilled areas now.
2) The majority of my former co-workers did not live in Burlington, including myself, because it’s too expensive. The joke was, only Senior Management could afford to live there, sad since I grew up there but could not afford to live there, $$$$
Is CoB a place where public sector employees want to work? As on public sector employee myself, and a Burlington resident, I would absolutely love to work at home serving my fellow residents. HOWEVER, the City seems to believe that they do not need to pay competitive wages to what other municipalities offer for the same position. For example, in my line of work CoB pays their Service Lead the equivalent of what an intermediate role would pay in say Hamilton, Kingston, Brampton, Toronto, etc. The key difference is those intermediate roles have zero responsibility for overseeing staff, budget & business planning, working with leadership, or even City Councillors. So why would someone move to CoB to oversee a Service Area when they can go work a bit further from home in a job that pays the same (if not more) and has significantly less responsibility, stress, etc. Lets not forget our great City is also one of the most expensive places to live and raise a family in the GTA. To attract the best you don’t need to pay the best but your culture will only attract people to a certain point. In the end everyone has families to support and that will be the final factor