Wrestling with the challenges of increased stakeholder demands, constrained resources, maximized workloads, a stove-piped organization, top-down management issues and disengaged workers, in 2001, the City of Montgomery realized that it had to begin to work differently to continue to deliver quality services to its citizens. With the advent of technology and increasing demands, there was simply no way to continue to work the way it had in the past. Given these challenges, the City embarked on an approach to work that moved from the traditional industrial model to one that recognized and required employees to demonstrate leadership, management, technical, and team skills, participate in the work of the organization through teams, and to truly understand the direction and cultural values of how the organization desired to operate.
All HR tools were revised to ensure they reflected the concepts of the High Performance Organization Model and contributed to a holistic approach to work. Job descriptions were modified to include leadership, management, and team skills for all positions in addition to the “traditional” technical skills. Performance appraisals were redeveloped to mirror the expectations defined in the revised job descriptions and provide examples of positive behavior and performance. A 360-degree peer feedback process was developed to afford co-workers the opportunity to discuss an employee’s performance in a face-to-face setting with the emphasis on how the employee performs from a peer’s point of view. A Pay for Performance system was utilized to reward high performers while showing low performers the direction that they need to pursue. Lastly, the hiring processes were changed to utilize hiring teams and incorporate non-traditional methods to hire individuals who meet the intent of the job description and not just based on their technical skills.
The City also worked to develop both vision (long-term strategic direction) and values (how we treat each other) and has developed innovative and creative approaches for this work. Lastly, it has made creative use of teams and developed tools that are applicable to everyone to ensure high performance and effective employee work teams.
