Finding the “right” staffer in the development and building services arena who fits not only the professional qualifications, but also the “feel” and “new attitude” you are trying to create amidst process improvements may seem like a near impossibility. The other scenario is the new staffer that is trying so hard to fit in that they are absorbing all the bad habits of the entrenched staff and are not grasping the new development processes as fully as you would like, making the shift to the new that much more difficult.  The Human Resource function is so much more than filling a position; it’s making sure you have the correct tool or resource for the job.

One of the first things to consider is the job description for Development Services. Often, the HR departments of your city or county creates a job description from a canned questionnaire that was created by a 3^rd party consultant. This ends up as a job description that does not fully match the job that is being filled. Start by asking for the job description and the root of that description. Go through it with a fine tooth comb considering not only what the current role is going to be, but also what the future position will morph into. You may be pleasantly surprised and end up with a higher pay classification allowing you to hire better qualified staff.

Secondly, consider the environment this person will work in. What are the most important traits you want to emulate from “excellent” staff, or what are things that are going to be important in the future of the organization. For example, it does not take a crystal ball to see that technology is rapidly changing and you must find a team member who is not only a professional in their respective field, but is also highly proficient in many other areas. In the midst of a changing business process, it’s important to look for characteristics and traits that show this potential team member can think their way out of a box. This can show up as taking voluntary or “acting” assignments during the course of their employment or it can show up as participating in various civic or professional organizations. Often these types of team members are looking to soak up as much information as possible. They don’t come along very often in the development arena, so when they do, it’s important to snatch them up as soon as possible.

Lastly, one of the most significant pieces of the staff or team puzzle, is how well the “fit” with the other members of the organization. You may hire the best qualified person for the job who looks great on paper, but can not seem to get along or work well with other members of the team. Its important to remember you will hire the personality as well as the person and neither change very easily.

Whatever the scenario, it’s important to remember that change happens incrementally and people move out of their comfort zones much more slowly that you would like. Help your team along by working closely with your HR department to understand what the job descriptions entail, ensure they are accurate and clearly depict what is actually being done, and help your HR department understand what work your team does. Often it’s a lack of communication and clear understanding of the importance of your department to the City’s overall success.  Don’t be afraid to push the envelope with HR.  In the long run, if you don’t, your position classifications will not meet your process and customer service needs.

The “suspend disbelief” mantra is more than a catch phrase in the change process; it is the frame of mind that the management and staff must both embrace. This is difficult to achieve when the staff have experienced many changes in leadership and policy direction. When there is no real understanding of the process, it is hard to encourage staff to take the leap of faith and make small, incremental changes to move the “pea up the hill” or the change process forward. In order to get buy-in the change must be not only attainable, but sustainable. It is easy to slip back into old habits and do what is comfortable; however, this will not help complete the change. Change must be incremental at first, so the old is not so far away, yet consistent, so small changes make dramatic leaps forward before you know it. The change must also be successful to the customer. The customer must “feel” the change in order to remain positive and make positive comments to staff that are often starved for positive feedback.  Sustainable change will become a solid foundation for improvement. Sustainable support from executive management will go a long way towards staff taking the change not only seriously, but also applying it consistently.

We have undertaken significant improvements to the development processing system.  No matter how good a plan is to address customer service culture issues ….we found that the plan did not meet expectations.  We had good intentions by having full participation by a Staff Action Team, made up on representatives from departments, to develop and move improvements forward. We also had executive management and political leadership say that change MUST come or else, however, the truth of the matter is that unless the culture is changed from both top down and bottom up, the plan WILL NOT work.

The culture is engrained and entrenched.  The attitude of staff that, as most government employees, has seen policy stances range the whole gamut each time a City Council or City Manager change is made.  As one mid-level manager told me, “I’ve seen studies and consultants come and go, this will be another one on the shelf. Give me the handouts to fill out, and the survey to take; in the end, when the new city manager comes on board or the new council is elected, we will change this one too.”

If I had one thing to do over, it would be to create small vignettes of a typical customer interaction wrought with problems and show how the process changes can make a difference and how they can impact this very situation.

The information as presented is very good, but overwhelming; couple that with staff who are fidgeting because they have been pulled away from their normal work assignment; and you will be lucky to get 20 minutes of actual listening time.

Breaking the information into small vignettes will help not only the learning process, but also show staff how indeed this process can work for them. We are all selfish creatures in the end and really want to know “how will this help me?” which is in direct conflict with the customer’s perspective, “how can you help me?”

At a recent meeting with development-related staff, the newly elected Mayor, who is also a large commercial developer, expressed his concern over staff’s perceived attitude of indifference. He explained carrying cost, land cost, interest, etc. Staff listened intently and did not raise any questions. The short meeting was over and as soon as the Mayor walked out of the room, staff came alive with discussion and was very perturbed that the Mayor would discuss financing with them. Is he not aware that is the developers’ risk, and the higher the risk, the higher the payoff, so why complain to staff?

One of the most difficult areas in process changes is one of ingrained institutional culture of tenured staff who are often the only “movers and shakers” in a department, although are not doing any moving or shaking anymore. I refer to some of these staff as “lifers”. Lifers are vested into the retirement system, have made decent reputations for themselves, and often are earning a comfortable living and are just trying to make it to retirement. When this makes up a good portion of senior or mid-level management staff, no wonder it’s difficult to make any positive changes towards integrated and project-oriented processes that address customer needs.

One of the only ways to begin to turn the tide is to first “show” these staff how the improved business process can make their life much “easier” so they can therefore sail off to retirement in their twilight years with little or no interference.

This is a critical balance because the lifers can and will crush your improvement processes or steps toward change. Small incremental changes with their buy-in will pay off in the long-run when all of the small changes add up to big returns over the course of a year or so. Be patient with these folks. Often, they have not kept up with technological changes and are hesitant to try anything “new”. Make it as easy as possible by creating checklists, standard operating procedures, and a training manual with screen shots and easy to understand instructions will go a long way to help bring them along. It will not be an easy process, but it can happen.

In government, it is imperative to measure our performance.  We all agree on that.  However, if nothing else, it is a defensive and protection mechanism during the budget process.  Usually it is not much more.  I think performance measurement should be a real asset, not just a work task. So, why does it seem to be a worthless exercise in futility?  Let’s examine.

Performance measurement is usually a hodge-podge of measures derived from other “best practice” communities or some ideas from a national, professional organization.  Or, it is some overly simple program for a “dashboard” view of the organization.  But, do we really measure what is important from the customer’s perspective and what we need to?  Or do we just meet the next “flavor of the month” or what those benchmark cities or counties have done.  Do we even relate real customer perceptions into the measurement program?  My guess is….probably not.  Well, I say bunk.

My philosophy is that a true performance measurement “program” should have two very clear, comprehensive objectives:

1. Measure customer satisfaction with the development processing system: How do they feel about various aspects of service delivery for information, project processing, etc.?
2. Measure real timelines of all components of a customer’s project timeline and then more about workload and efficiencies.  Customers really care about time.

Without both these elements a part of a performance measurement program, how do you know you are meeting customer needs?  One part tells you the customer’s perception…the other part the actual, numerical data about how the process is working.  So, if the customer generally perceive that services are good and staff is meeting all their goals….life is good.  However, if staff is meeting all their goals and customers perceive that services are a problem…what then?  Perception vs. calculated times or efficiencies has to be the result we compare.  Otherwise, we measure the calculated time and we meet it and it is a false comfort level of existence.  If customers perceive problems, are we really successful?  I say no.  A comprehensive measurement program is an opportunity to gauge perception with reality.  Will we fail at this test or are we up for the challenge, the real test?

Horizon Centre has been successful at working to create development performance measurement programs for clients with surveys to gauge satisfaction and a compliment of measures to determine timeliness and efficiencies of processing all stages of projects.  Every community is different, but most communities face the same type of measurement challenges.  Above all…think through measurement as a means to determine whether your process works, not just an exercise for finance.  It can be useful, but you have to go back to basics…what does the customer feel are the success factors.  Measure that!  If you meet that challenge, then measurement will truly be worthwhile and not just an exercise.