Improving Local Government Performance in Louisville: ‘It’s All About The People’
Louisville, Kentucky Todd Taulman / Shutterstock.com
The deputy director of performance management in Kentucky’s largest city shares some tips about developing and keeping talented staff.
This fall, Route Fifty is periodically featuring some videos of presenters from the 2015 Code for America Summit , which took place Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in Oakland, California.
Daro Mott takes a keen interest in finding ways to help the local government in Louisville, Kentucky , develop great employees.
“It's something which is a deep passion of mine,” said Mott, who is currently deputy director of performance management and chief of staff of the Office of Performance Improvement , within the Office of Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer. Mott was speaking earlier this month during a presentation at the 2015 Code For America Summit , which was held in Oakland, California.
He pointed to a six-point “staff development system” that Louisville uses in its effort to cultivate and retain talented staff. The six components of the system include: assigning project portfolios, establishing core competencies, as well as using individual development plans, training matrices, professional development calendars and employee performance appraisals.
During his talk, Mott devoted special attention to several of these items.
One of was the project portfolio. “It is really simple,” he said. “We help people structure exactly what they’re working on, we help them identify the sponsor, who’s that senior executive who needs to be made happy, what is its scope in terms of the project and who is the client.”
Another item he highlighted was the training matrix. The matrix is a tool that helps score where an employee stands from a training perspective. For instance: Are they in training? Can they do their job with limited supervision? Can they do it on their own? Can they train others?
But Mott added: “What’s really important to me is that we actually schedule, and pay for, and invest in the training.”
Tied to employee training are the individual development plans. Employees provide key information that helps shape the plans. “We ask: ‘what are you passionate about? What are you actually good at?’” Mott said. Also outlined in the plans are employee goals in terms of compensation, training and the experience they’d like to get.
“That is on one page, and we update that on a regular basis,” Mott explained. “But, most importantly, we provide the experiences to all staff so that they can truly go from where they were to being awesome leaders throughout our city-county government.”
Mayor Fischer, who is a Democrat, is known as a strong advocate of performance-based and data-driven local government.
Mott believes the Louisville Metro Government is on a track to becoming one of the best run jurisdictions in the nation. “But it’s a journey of learning and continuous improvement,” he said. And he added: “It’s all about the people.”
Bill Lucia is a Reporter for Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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