Management

GENERALIST HELPFUL TIPS:

• Please click here for manager/supervisor resources.

SUCCESS STORIES:

After reviewing the Employee Survey Results, we reached out to department directors who met one of the following criteria:

• Their department's score was higher than the County average in this category.
• Their department raised their scores from previous years scores.

They provided us with insight, feedback, and suggestions for departments who would like to improve in this area.
 

"We recognize that our work is stressful and prone to secondary trauma for our staff. We believe in showing up when someone needs support, working as a team, and having a common purpose. We encourage our staff to be open and honest with each other and we strive to create an environment that invites discourse and solicits input, regardless of job title. We believe communication is paramount to a successful and healthy work environment."

Kate Ashby, Victim/Witness Division Manager

"Internal communication became our focus this year. We wanted our employees to have the same experience and receive the same message, regardless of the division they worked in. We increased our communication with employees with daily videos and emails to staff, and moved our manager meetings from quarterly to monthly. Secondly, we're currently working on a decision matrix for our department. We believe it's important to empower our employees and push decisions down to the lowest level possible. Our hope is this matrix will clearly define roles and decision making responsibilities, empowering our employees to make the decisions they can and elevate decisions when needed." 

Heather O'Hayre, Human Services Director
 

SUGGESTIONS & TIPS:

• Have the difficult conversation, address the performance issue without making it personal.
• Be willing to accept criticism and open to new opportunities for growth.
• Leave job titles at the door. No one is better than another, our job titles just dictate our roles and our levels of decision making.
• Do the right thing for the right reason. Don't go for the easy answer.
• Over-communicate with employees. Seek out how employees prefer to receive news and communication.
• Solicit feedback from employees, share how that feedback will be used. Address why or why not feedback has been implemented.
• Empower employees to make decisions by outlining expectations and next steps. Trust your employees to do their job.