How to Implement New Ways of Working in Local Government
New ways of working in local government entities may be needed because of changes beyond the control of any governing body. Changes that influence the ways we work include accelerating globalization, expanding environmental concerns, changing demographics, evolving management practices and the increasing impact of technology and tech-savvy workers. Cost-effective provision of services citizens need requires elected officials, managers and employees to work together in new ways to prevent changes from overwhelming us.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Identify new ways of working that can solve potential problems. It's reasonable to assume that police officers, code-enforcement personnel, city planners and other local government employees have the information they require to do their jobs. Assess their ability and willingness to understand and adapt to changes that their daily work routines may require. Job descriptions change as complex electronic structures for managing paperwork more thoroughly integrate individual input into organization-wide systems.
-
2
Form an employee working group that includes all departments. Add experienced volunteers from the community and academics with appropriate expertise. Review with them published studies relating to government units similar to yours. Use the working group to help prepare assessment devices that seek data on current, less suitable ways of working and ideas for new methods and procedures. The devices can include questionnaires relevant to departments, group and individual interviews, sampling of citizen comments and exchanges of information with other governing bodies.
-
-
3
Examine the information you gather and organize it into sections dealing with groupings of individuals, departments and issues internal and external to your government entity. Review your findings and proposed procedures with your working group, senior management and elected officials. Inform personnel of the changes and the reasons for them. Explain how the changes will benefit them and the citizens they serve.
-
4
Prepare relevant training for proposed short- and longer-term changes and a timeline for conducting the training and making the work changes. Prepare follow-up studies to help ensure employees don't slip back to the old ways of doing their jobs.
-
5
Implement the training, make the changes and follow-up on the changes to ensure they're successful, continuing implementation. Look at the new ways of working as if they were now old ways and might need to be revised again.
-
1
References
Resources
- Photo Credit at the office image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
