Today’s Morning Buzz is by Jessica Hoffman, Assistant City Administrator, City of Wentzville, MO. Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn.
What I’m Reading: Building a winning culture in government, Patrick R. Leddin, PhD & Shawn D. Moon
What I’m Watching: A LOT of HGTV (Rock the Block, No Demo Reno, Good Bones)
Public Service Recognition Week is celebrated the first week of May since 1985 (beginning on the first Sunday of the month) to honor the people who serve our nation as federal, state, county, local and tribal government employees. Learn more about this from the Partnership for Public Service here.
Something that we have decided to focus on this year, as an organization, is to take the time to “Celebrate Wins!” As public service providers, as a group, we are not great at celebrating ourselves. We are not great about bragging about our accomplishments or celebrating things we do for our community. We need to take the time to recognize our accomplishments and the accomplishments of our colleagues not just this week but beyond! Here are a few ideas to help you celebrate, not just this week but every week!
- Create a social media campaign celebrating employees! If you don’t know where to start, NO PROBLEM. You can utilize resources from the Partnership for Public Service toolkit that includes prewritten social media posts and graphics to utilize. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #PSRW.
- Bring in a food truck. Everybody loves a good food truck! Connect with a local food truck to come onsite for employees. (The coffee truck was a huge success here in Wentzville.)
- Do a Proclamation. Work with your Board or Council to do a Public Service Recognition Week Proclamation and invite employees to participate (in-person or virtually).
- Say thank you! Thank you notes are not dead! A personal handwritten note goes a long way. Brag about your team or colleagues’ accomplishments in every way you can. Channel your inner Leslie Knope and celebrate the wins and thank people for everything they do!
- Nominate a colleague or employee for an award! We all have someone in our organization or our field who is underappreciated and hasn’t been celebrated. Take a few moments to say thank you and then nominate them for an award!! It’s not as time-consuming as you think and the payoff is amazing!
- Finally, if you are still stuck, ask your team what they want. Instead of guessing, ask your employees what they would want to be recognized. A staff meeting offsite at a favorite breakfast place, a teambuilding activity, bring a dog to work day… the possibilities are endless!
I hope you find the time to celebrate your team and colleagues wins and don’t forget to celebrate yourself! We have all been working incredibly hard over the past year to try to ensure we are providing the best service possible to our community. So, let me be the first to say “THANK YOU” for everything that you do! Have a great week!