I took a glance at the agenda for the Corporate Services Committee meeting on the weekend and immediately had to run to the liquor cabinet for a shot of Forty Creek.
There are two things I have learned to hate over the years, death by Powerpoint and those pat yourself on the back annual state of the union reports. The committee will have to sit through, not one, but two of these on Wednesday. Kelly Pender must be giving evening lessons on PowerPoint and on being a magician. Fluff and misdirection are key to avoiding the probing questions that are never asked or answered.
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| Powerpoint, fluff and deception, and a pretty face |
First up is Lisa Smith, Director of Organizational Development and Strategy. Now that’s quite a handle. I keep a telephone list from 1996 pinned up on my wall at the office and back then we had a payroll clerk, Carol Caskenette, that’s it. Lisa will probably hit the Sunshine list this year or next. We’ve come a long way from one payroll clerk to an entire division of people but of course with so many wrongful and spiteful dismissals you are bound to build up some internal expertise in areas beyond working with the TD Payroll system.
I digress. Back to presentation. Someone decided back in 2011 to do a staff ‘engagement’ study and of course once you’ve done it once you might as well do it again. I refer to that as BoHica, or bend over here it comes again. 8 questions were asked and yes that requires 9 identical slides (identical except for balloon captions for each of the 8 questions separately) to show the results. The good news is that 80% of the staff are engaged in their work, up from 74.8% in 2011. Might that have anything to do with the fact that 9 or 10 people knew they were, or were going to be, squeezed out in 2011 and have now been replaced with people happy to have a job with the Town.
Let’s see if I can cover off in 9 lines what 9 Powerpoint slides tell you. First I know you have all done a lot of surveys and unlike Lisa who lumps the ‘strongly agree’ with the ‘agree’ results to calibrate her positive results I prefer to concentrate on the ‘strongly agree’ results. I like people who are willing to take a stand and be strong with their convictions and are willing to be ambassadors for the organization. So here is my humble analysis. I’ll show the question and then the 2012 % followed by the 2011% for those who ‘strongly agree’.
1. I am willing to give extra effort to help the organization - 50%, 53%
2. I would recommend the Town as a great place to work - 24%, 27%
3. I feel I am valued in this organization - 32%, 24%
4. I would prefer to stay with the Town even if offered a... 31%, 35%
5. I am proud to tell people I work for the Town of Huntsville - 33%, 33%
6. Overall, I am satisfied in my work as a Town employee - 35%, 36%
7. I am satisfied with the quality of supervision I receive - 43%, 17%
8. I like what I do - 68%, 48%
Very interesting results. Number 7and 8 are noteworthy, being the largest variances. This does reflect well on supervisors who have learned to balance the carrot and the stick and may reflect some of the new employee’s attitudes.
Tomorrow we’ll look at the second pat yourself on the back piece and the establishment of a community based committee to look at election reform. Council has probably determined that they are in a no-win or stalemate position on election reform so why not turn it over to a lay committee to try to wrestle to a workable solution.
Have you received your invitation to the Golf Course Road ‘Open House’/invitation meeting?
Here’s a little quiz. Can you name the four ‘Town Hall’ employees remaining from 1996?
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