Exclusive Content: Human Resources

Celebrating Public Service – and Public Servants

Posted on May 4, 2022

This guest commentary is by Bob J. Lavigna with CPS HR Consulting. Bob is the author of the book "Engaging Government Employees," and director of the Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement, a division of CPS HR Services, an independent government agency. This year, May 1-7 is Public Service Recognition Week. Since 1985, this...

Creating a People-Centered Culture at City Hall

Posted on April 15, 2022

Today’s Morning Buzzer is Matt Horn, the Director of Local Government Services for MRB Group. Catch Matt on LinkedIn and Twitter, and anywhere that Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs are sold… In my first weeks as a City Manager, I sat down with each of my leadership team members to be sure I understood their professional...

Bring the Drucker + ELGL Public Sector Leadership Certificate Program to your Organization in FY22-23

Posted on April 14, 2022

Over the last two years, we have facilitated two successful certificate programs open to local government leaders across the United States. In FY-22-23 we now have the capacity to provide training at the organizational level. If you're looking for a way to combat burnout and rebuild staff capacity, the Drucker + ELGL Public Sector Leadership...

Orienting New Elected Officials

Posted on April 11, 2022

Today's Morning Buzz is by Melissa Cantarero Weiss, Deputy City Administrator, for Wauwatosa, WI. Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter. What I'm Reading: The Flip Side What I'm Watching: Lord of the Rings - we are introducing the kids to this series What I'm Listening to: Brene Brown on various podcasts In Wauwatosa, we have 16...

So…What Do You Do as a Chief of Staff?

Posted on April 1, 2022

This article was written by Justin Amos, Chief of Staff for Gaston County, NC as part of the So...What Do You Do? Writing Series. Connect with Justin on email, LinkedIn, or Twitter. See all the articles in the series. ELGL has asked me to tell all of you wonderful #localgov people out there about my...

Zen & the Art of Culture Management

Posted on March 22, 2022

Today’s Morning Buzz is by Greg LeBlanc. Connect with Greg on LinkedIn. What I’m Reading: Off the Map: Lost Spaces, Invisible Cities, Forgotten Islands, Feral Places and What They Tell Us About the World by Alastair Bonnett What I’m Watching: The Newsroom What I’m Listening to: “Don't Stop” by Sonny Cleveland In the corner of...

Picture of two firefighters looking at the camera

Replacing a Government Employee Can Cost 150% of Worker’s Salary

Posted on March 21, 2022

This guest commentary is by Bob J. Lavigna with CPS HR Consulting. Bob is the author of the book "Engaging Government Employees," and director of the Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement, a division of CPS HR Services, an independent government agency. This article originally appeared on RouteFifty. Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS, a...

picture of a building with a sign that says who you are becoming is more important than who you've been

Feedback is a Gift

Posted on March 17, 2022

Today's Morning Buzz is by Melissa Cantarero Weiss, Deputy City Administrator, for Wauwatosa, WI. Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter. What I'm Reading: Diana Gabaldon's Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone What I'm Watching: Madam Secretary on Netflix What I'm Listening to: the podcast We Can Do Hard Things Let’s talk about feedback. Leading...

What I do in #LocalGov Meme Human Resources

So…What Do You Do as a Human Resources Manager?

Posted on March 1, 2022

This article was written by Kylie Bayer, MPA, SHRM-SCP (she/hers) as part of the So...What Do You Do? Writing Series. Connect with Kylie on LinkedIn and Twitter. See all the articles in the series. I’ve found a fulfilling career in human resources, and you might, too! Here’s an example of my workday. Hit me up...

Free Workshop – Employee Onboarding: What Every Great Manager Should Know

Posted on February 23, 2022

What outcomes are we trying to achieve with new employee onboarding, and who is ultimately responsible for achieving those outcomes? Effective onboarding has been shown to be a major factor in long-term work satisfaction for employees, and it is strongly correlated with likelihood of turnover in the first year on the job. Despite its importance,...

We Want You with finger pointing at screen

How to Win the Talent Wars as a Local Government

Posted on February 21, 2022

This article was written by Pavani Peri, Acta Solutions Co-Founder. Connect with Pavani on Email, LinkedIn or Twitter. Throughout the pandemic, there has been high turnover and shift in people’s jobs. More and more, people are moving around workplaces—trying to find a well-suited job with good culture, remote work opportunities, and mission-aligned work. What does...

Three people talking in an engaging manner

Government Needs to Rehabilitate Its Image to Attract and Retain Workers

Posted on January 27, 2022

This guest commentary is by Bob J. Lavigna with CPS HR Consulting. Bob is the author of the book "Engaging Government Employees," and director of the Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement, a division of CPS HR Services, an independent government agency. This article originally appeared on RouteFifty. Nearly every sector of the U.S....

Tips for Interviewing a Potential Employer

Posted on May 31, 2021

This Morning Buzz is brought to you by Kayla Barber-Perrotta, Budget Manager, City of Brighton, CO. Connect with me on LinkedIn. What I'm Reading: Think Sideways by Tamara Ghandour What I'm Re-Watching: Friends-That reunion triggered some serious nostalgia. What I'm Listening To: Whatever comes up on "all songs" next. This morning it ranged from old school Taylor...

Go Forth and Facilitate

Posted on May 20, 2021

This Morning Buzz is brought to you by Ariana Adame, Planning Manager. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Website. What I'm Reading: Dare to Lead, Brene Brown What I'm Re-Watching: The Soprano's What I'm Listening To: Butter by BTS (I live with a teen and a pre-teen) Have you ever explained what...

Findings from the New Normal Survey: COVID’s Lasting Legacy on Local Government

Posted on May 4, 2021

599 local government officials and staff from across the country recently took “The New Normal Survey: COVID's Lasting Legacy on Local Government,” which was conducted in partnership with The Atlas, ELGL, CivicPulse, CivicPlus and RouteFifty. It is a follow-up to a survey from June 2020. Last year, we asked local government leaders how public services...

DEI in Local Government: Ensuring Transformative Pragmatism

Posted on April 13, 2021

Today’s Morning Buzz is brought to you by Aline Alves da Costa, Content Creator at the Wyoming Liberty Group. You can connect with her via LinkedIn, Twitter or follow her life adventures on IG. What I’m reading:. I am reading Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey, I am reading The Power of showing up (a great book for parents!),...

Remote Work – Is It Here to Stay?

Posted on April 7, 2021

Today’s Morning Buzz is by Melissa Cantarero Weiss, Director of Administrative Services at the City of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Connect with Melissa on Twitter or LinkedIn. What I’m Reading: A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary What I’m Watching: I am mostly skipping TV currently... What I’m Listening to: The podcast Laughter Permitted with Julie Foudy ...

The COVID-19 Workplace: Employees Want to Be Heard

Posted on March 19, 2021

This guest blog is by Robert J. Lavigna with CPS HR Consulting. The pandemic has changed how and where most of us work. With millions of employees now working remotely, including in government, organizations have struggled to communicate effectively with their employees. Even before the pandemic, communication was a major challenge to managing a remote workforce....

Successful Local Gov Internships Part 3: Budget Request Evaluation

Posted on November 5, 2020

This is the final part in a three-part series about designing successful local government internships. This series is authored by Pat Madej (LinkedIn | Twitter) and Molly Gaskin (Email | Twitter). We spoke briefly in our GovLove episode about Molly’s evaluation of our budget request forms which served as her flagship summer internship project. This post dives...

Successful Local Gov Internships Part 2: The Virtual Intern Experience

Posted on October 26, 2020

This is the second in a three-part series about designing successful local government internships. This series is authored by Pat Madej (LinkedIn | Twitter) and Molly Gaskin (Email | Twitter), and is presented in conjunction with his recent GovLove podcast episode on local government internships. I was all geared up to start my internship mid-March right as...

Successful Local Gov Internships Part 1: Designing the Internship

Posted on October 14, 2020

This is the first in a three part series about designing successful local government internships. This series is authored by Pat Madej (LinkedIn | Twitter), and is presented in conjunction with his recent GovLove podcast episode on local government internships. Step 1: Plan and Pitch Back when ELGL’s own Ben Kittelson and I created our office’s summer...

Why Are We Still Talking About Succession Planning in 2019?

Posted on January 31, 2019

This guest blog is by ELGL member Jeff Hoye with CPS-HR Consulting. Does it feel like we’ve been talking about succession planning in the public sector forever? Consider the compelling case for succession planning. Beyond mandates that may require a succession plan for some government agencies, an effective succession plan: is one of the most useful...

Video: Understanding Implicit Bias

Posted on January 25, 2019

On January 23, 2019, Jenine Jenkins from CPS HR Consulting presented this webinar on "Understanding Implicit Bias." View the full webinar in the ELGL webinar library at Members.ELGL.org.

Attributes of Exceptional Leaders

Posted on January 22, 2019

Today's guest post is by ELGL member Larry Iverson PhD with the Institute for Advanced Development. Implementing Exceptional Performance To be a world-class organization in the 21st century requires a new set of beliefs and abilities for all involved. The abilities that are required are strategic and concern how we approach work, the people we...

Podcast: The Business Case for Employee Engagement

Posted on January 18, 2019

Bob Lavigna Director Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement LinkedIn | Twitter Measuring employee engagement. Bob Lavigna the Director of the Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement at CPS HR joined the podcast to talk about why organizations should take employee engagement seriously. He argues that there is a business case to keeping employees engaged at...

Employee Retention: What You Need to Know (Part II)

Posted on January 16, 2019

This guest blog is by ELGL member Melissa Asher, the Director of Training and Recruitment for CPS HR Consulting (full bio below). Read Part I of this post! Training and Development This brings us to strategy four – training and development. This has emerged as a huge retention factor for today’s workforce. Employees recognize the need...

Employee Retention: What You Need to Know (Part I)

Posted on January 15, 2019

This guest blog is by ELGL member Melissa Asher, the Director of Training and Recruitment for CPS HR Consulting (full bio below). Two years ago no one was talking about retention in the public sector. Sure, we were collecting and reporting on turnover metrics, but retention wasn’t a big concern. In fact, during and after the...

Webinar: Understanding Implicit Bias

Posted on January 8, 2019

Webinar: Understanding Implicit Bias Wednesday, January 23, 2019 Noon PST FREE! RSVP/Registration required Join ELGL and CPS HR Consulting for a free webinar on understanding implicit bias. Use this webinar to train your new employees, or refresh you staff's understanding of attitudes or stereotypes that affect your local government's performance in an unconscious manner. Webinars are...

Attract, Develop & Retain Local Government Talent

Posted on January 8, 2019

This guest blog is by Robert J. Lavigna with CPS HR Consulting and is reprinted with permission from Governing Magazine. It's become an article of faith in government that improving employee engagement will drive improved performance and service. That's not surprising, given the documented successes of private-sector firms in engaging their workers and reaping the financial...

Jam of the Month

Posted on August 6, 2018

Each month, ELGL will feature a "deep dive" into a local government topic with the help of our partners. These opportunities will build out our content, webinar, podcast, and graphic libraries to provide our members with helpful and meaningful information that will improve their local governments. If you're interested in learning more about how you...