City Manager and Employee Engagement: Taking Action to Strengthen the Bond Between Leadership and Employees

We know the scenario too well. Turnover in top management, inconsistent leadership, and before you know it the culture of the organization takes a hit. It can be difficult to restart and reengage employees, and we know that it's absolutely critical in order to build a welcoming and safe environment for employees to thrive.

Fostering a positive workplace culture can help ease the transition of change, and may help push the team into new areas that can enhance the organization's performance. Taking action will surely take effort, and the rewards are boundless.

City Manager Christopher Lopez- Employee Engagement

Tip #1 - Leadership: employee listening to foster engagement

Since joining the Livingston team, one of the core actions I take is to stay connected with the rank and file. This means starting conversations in the breakroom with employees, talking to them while in the gym in between workout sets, and at every opportunity that presents itself.

Tip #2 - City manager role: take action

One morning, I was in my office which happens to be outside of an employee breakroom area. Employees were talking about how fun it would be to bring employees together and do events since the holidays were coming up. Since it was the month before Halloween, I knew that there was more than enough time to plan for a Halloween event, and then use that as the springboard to launch the remainder of the Holiday activities. I immediately assembled a committee of the employees who were talking about the activities, and folded in Human Resources and one more staff member to comprise the committee who would be tasked with planning and coordinating the activities.

"Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers." – Stephen R. Covey

Tip #3 - Leadership lesson: lead from behind

Once the committee had been established, my role was simply to ask the types of questions to ensure that the committee had planned for the appropriate contingencies and also ensure that we were doing things consistently and folding in all operations. With three different employee work places (Police Station, City Hall, City Yard) we needed to plan for employees and ensure that we weren't leaving anyone behind. The ideas of what to do to foster employee appreciation and engagement were directly imagined by the committee and I served only to help support their ideas. By having the manager involved at the committee level, the leadership viewpoint will be embedded within the committee.

Tip #4 - Elevate and take to the next level

In organizations that have not had employee engagement, it is recommended to start off small and build off of previous successes. What started off as the first employee engagement event of a Halloween costume competition eventually developed into a full blown employee appreciation luncheon with over 80 participants, and eventually a month long Christmas/Holiday celebration with various employee appreciation events coordinated for December. The role of leadership in all aspects cannot be underestimated.

Tip #5 - Evaluate and continue the progress

After each employee event, the Committee came together and discussed what worked, what could be better, and then focused on the future events. This meant a constant evaluation and also a desire to make each event better and better.

Take Pictures!

One of my proudest contributions to the team was being the volunteer photographer for all of the events. I uploaded the pictures to a shared drive and shared them with all the employees.

The feedback from employees seeing themselves participate was one of the greatest parts of our efforts.