"The results of a Governing survey paint a portrait
of a public sector hard-hit by budget cuts, pay freezes and a lack of
advancement opportunities. But employees have reasons for optimism."
In the latest edition of Governing Magazine, Mike Maciag's article Work Happy: How Governments Are Innovating Their Workforces paints a most
fascinating description of one of the more "unintended benefits" of
Priority Based Budgeting. With special attention on PBB
implementation in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio and the City of Boulder,
Colorado, Governing has unveiled the link between implementation of Priority
Based Budgeting and improved employee engagement, improved morale and increased
innovation in the workforce.
City of Cincinnati, Ohio's Implementation of Priority
Based Budgeting
From the article, Maciag writes "Providing employees platforms to
voice opinions and participate in decision-making are crucial to workforce
engagement. In Cincinnati, the city initiated a new priority-based budgeting process that it jointly developed with citizens. As part of the process, small
teams of city employees evaluated how well all city programs met one of seven
priority areas.
Lea Eriksen, the city’s budget director, says this has
allowed employees not only to contribute to the city’s overall functioning, but
also to learn about other areas of city government. Sewer department employees,
for example, assisted in assessing goals for safe communities, while police
participated on a commerce review team. In July, the city convened a meeting of
employees and residents to find ways to further increase engagement for the
next budget.
The department of city planning and buildings also sought
employee input as it crafted Cincinnati’s long-term comprehensive plan -- the
first such plan in more than three decades. Staff in departments throughout
city government contributed their expertise and participated in public meetings
as part of the three-year process. “It was fun to see excitement from other
city staff,” says Katherine Keough-Jurs, a senior city planner, “because
they’re not always asked what they think.”
Engaging Employees in the Peer Review Process
The article also points to the general impact of the
"Peer Review" step in the Priority Based Budgeting process, drawing
on Cincinnati's experience as well as the City of Boulder, Colorado's.
"Bob Lavigna, the University of Wisconsin’s director
of human resources, says that while there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,
senior leadership must play a key role in ensuring workers stay fully
engaged. One such way is to incorporate their feedback in decision-making.
The cities of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Boulder, Colo., for example, used
peer-review teams as part of the budgeting processes. “There’s a tremendous
opportunity to improve the effectiveness of government if we can move the
needle of engagement,” says Lavigna, author of Engaging Government Employees: Motivate
and Inspire Your People to Achieve Superior Performance."
As Priority Based Budgeting has been implementing in over 40
organizations, it's clear that the impact of Peer Review in the evaluation of
programs is truly special and unique. Through the scoring phase, it is
essential to give departments the opportunity to first score their own
programs, relative to your organization’s Results and demonstrate why they
believe their programs are influential in achieving those Results. This gives
departments the chance to provide their own unique intelligence on their own
programs which no one else but the program providers would have known. Not only
does this help solidify organizational buy-in but at the same time provides a
more thorough and complete understanding about everything the organization does
and how those programs help achieve the identified Results (i.e. “why” we offer
the program).
The Peer Review phase then provides for an authentication
process to validate (or question) the department’s belief that their programs
are indeed relevant to your organization’s Results. Several organizations have
commented that, unlike other more conventional approaches to performance
measures, Peer Review provides a forum for a far better discussion that leads
to a clearer understanding of how programs truly influence Results.
Furthermore, departments gain an organization-wide perspective about programs
being offered across your organization, which has led to the uncovering of
program redundancies. This step in the process has led to cross-departmental
collaboration, as departments find out that they provide similar programs to
other departments. This process has also contributed to changes in organizational
culture as departments are tasked with the duty of objectively analyzing
programs that aren’t their own (i.e. a “jury of their peers”).
The effect of Peer Review has been remarkable, not only for
the purposes of Priority Based Budgeting, but for bringing an organization
together to look at the programs they offer in the context of how they
collectively achieve the Results that citizens find meaningful. In a sense,
Peer Review begins to break down the old departmental “silos” and lets staff see
the world from a more global perspective. Ultimately, it is through this step
that more accurate program scores emerge, that a better understanding of
programs is developed, and an assurance that the outcome of the entire process
is objective and valid. For the long-term, this phase in the process
sparks the discussion of how to determine what measure or metric will
substantiate the fact that a program’s desired outcome is achieving that
objective.
We congratulate the City of Cincinnati, Ohio and the City of
Boulder, Colorado for the much-deserved recognition in GOVERNING's survey. And
we celebrate the impact of Priority Based Budgeting on the overall improvement
of employee engagement, morale and workforce innovation! Thanks to Governing
Magazine for such a great article!
If you're thinking of jumping into the world of Fiscal Health and Wellness through Priority Based Budgeting we would certainly like to be part of your efforts! Contact us to schedule a free webinar and identify the best CPBB service option(s) to meet your organization's particular needs.
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