Colleagues,

This month, the leadership team and I been working on “action plans” to address the areas of focus that were identified in our division’s engagement survey results. (Read more about the areas of focus in this article).

Regarding creating career opportunities for staff, the Human Resources team will launch some new programs this year that I think will address some of these concerns. As a leadership team, we will pay more attention to this issue and ask managers to keep us informed on their actions to increase opportunities and growth for all staff.

One of the other areas you expressed interest in improving was “getting to know the officers” and having more direct interaction with the leadership team. At the officers meeting on May 8, each of us committed to making some immediate behavior and/or process changes. For example, all of us will be sharing our 3Cs objectives with our teams (and asking managers to share theirs as well). We believe that knowing our objectives will help you better understand how we make decisions and prioritize work projects. We also will be sharing background information about ourselves that you may not know (see my profile as an example).

We also will strive to give you more opportunities to ask questions and share your input. Our individual approaches to this may vary according to our teams’ particular needs and our own personal styles, but expect to see the following:

• officers sharing more information and encouraging your questions
• more instances of informal conversations as I will encourage officers to get out more and talk with staff
• more detailed information regarding decisions and why they were made

There’s more to come this summer on the division-wide action plans. In the meantime, let me or your officer know what you think… and feel free to ask us what commitments we’ve made.

Make It a Great Day!!!

Michell