Five Tips for Mentoring Assistant Managers In preparing to be a City Manager or Administrator, Assistants need to be well rounded with experience in operations as well as human resources, communications, oral presentations, information technology, etc. We find that many Assistants are developing these skills. We have noticed some areas where Managers/Administrators could further developRead More
Sustainable Approaches to Public Safety in Today’s Environment Heidi Voorhees sent me this graphic and it instantly resonated with my experiences as a career local government professional. Police Departments have been saddled with responsibilities well beyond that of peacekeeping. As laws and societal issues have become increasingly complex, local police officials have been asked toRead More
Avoid These Five Mistakes When Recruiting for Talent GovHRUSA is often contacted by clients who have tried to recruit for positions on their own but have been unsuccessful – here are some common issues we’ve seen with unsuccessful recruitment processes. 1. Overly Restrictive Job Descriptions Does the person really need a bachelor’s degree orRead More
Reducing or Flattening Payroll Costs in a Post Pandemic World Many of our local governments have been impacted negatively from a financial standpoint as a result of the pandemic. We have seen reductions in 2020 and expect to see more in 2021 and beyond. We have been told that 2021 may be worse than lastRead More
Checklist for New Managers ICMA provides resources for people at all stages of their local government career, but first-time administrators have unique challenges as well as new opportunities. The first thing first-time administrator should do is read the First-Time Administrators Handbook: https://icma.org/blog-posts/icma-resources-first-time-administrators In addition to this resource provided by ICMA, GovHR has prepared the listRead More
Can Organizational Culture Sabotage Your Business Strategy? Does culture really eat your business strategy for breakfast just as Peter Drucker said? Does culture even have the power to swallow up your strategic plan as its own meal? Peter Drucker was actually directing our attention to the importance of aligning a well-defined people and process strategyRead More
Reflections, Resilience and Reinvention Like many of you have experienced, the current pandemic has created downtime in my schedule that I have not had in years, which has given me an opportunity to reflect on an almost 25-year career in public service and think about the next 15. Reflections: I have had a wide andRead More
Why you should have a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) In addition to having a current Emergency Operations Plan designed to respond to emergency incidents, local government should be positioned to respond to threats on its own operations through a well-defined Continuity of Operations Plan. Known as a “COOP”, the Federal Continuity Director 1 (FCDRead More
Why should you implement digital performance review? (How PRISM can meet your goals.) Performance review is an important opportunity for managers to provide feedback to their employees and receive feedback as well. The goal of performance review is to identify employees’ strengths and weaknesses so that as a manager, you can develop their strengths andRead More
Emergency Preparedness—Planning For Action That usually means that when incidents occur and response and mitigation are critical, Police, Fire, EMS, and Public Works departments are expected to have the knowledge, ability, training and plans to address these emergencies. The scope of this article is a focus on the National Preparedness Goal established by the FederalRead More
