Last month, Mayor Cara Spencer highlighted the ingenuity of a St. Louis firefighter who’d developed a workaround after thieves stole brass valves from fire hydrants, rendering them inoperable. It’s exactly the kind of problem solving Spencer has been trying to encourage in the city workforce. Earlier this summer, she gave the city’s first-ever “commendation for excellence” to a Streets worker who acted swiftly to stop traffic and save a baby who’d been placed in the middle of the street in his carseat.
The city wants to encourage more than initiative in the moment. Six months ago, its Personnel Department introduced a new app to the platform used by city employees. Voice of the Workforce solicits city workers’ practical ideas for improving the workplace and city services as a whole.
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“They can click and submit an idea for improvement at any time, any day,” says Brian Light, the city’s director of personnel. “The idea is, How can we improve your workplace? How can we improve your culture? How can we improve the city for those living here? Those are some of the suggestions that come through.”
Spencer’s chief operating officer, Colonel Ben Jonsson, says the mayor is listening.
“One of the mayor’s statements on this was that some of the best ideas are probably going to come from within the organization. They’re not going to come from Room 200,” he says. “And I think she’s trying to tap into the talent and the experience and the dedication of these city workers, so many of whom have been doing these jobs for a long time and seen administrations come and go.”
Suggesting pent-up demand, the city notched more than 100 responses in just a few days. Three months later, the ideas are still coming in, and Light says his team regularly goes through submissions and directs them to the proper agencies.
Naturally, there have been numerous submissions about the sort of quality-of-life issues common to most workplaces. Employees have complaints about the parking offered to city workers, with gripes about everything from colleagues using short-term parking when they shouldn’t to “severe accessibility barriers” for staff with disabilities. Some people wondered whether the city could start providing a subsidy for employees using public transit.
The vending machines at City Hall also earned some complaints. “Current vending machine amenities offer limited food selections and lack nutritional options, negatively impacting staff morale and facility satisfaction,” the city’s summary reads.
But some of the suggestions were much bigger. Numerous employees complained about how the building used as an annex to City Hall, 1520 Market Street, was no longer being properly cleaned. City leaders leapt to address the issue.
Another suggestion pointed out that the city now uses plywood to board up vacant properties, which not only decay quickly, but also look bad. Why not use polycarbonate board-ups? And could the city provide better safety equipment to Animal Control officers, or working two-way radios to Corrections staff? Jonsson says those submissions are being looked at with greater urgency.
“Having an Animal Control officer submit something about not having the right equipment, that’s a big deal,” he says. “We have to be able to have employees that have the right equipment for the jobs we’re asking them to do, and that includes the Department of Corrections having functioning radios while they’re protecting detainees.”
He adds, “This is really what this is about: empowering employees to bring those best ideas forward, pursuing them, and actually giving them legitimacy and resourcing when they make the most sense,” he says.
Notably, the idea for the app came from a Personnel Department employee. Light credits public information officer Jamie McGeechan for suggesting it. Now it’s part of McGeechan’s job to follow up with department supervisors and make sure good ideas aren’t getting lost in the daily grind.
And that’s also the case for workers who are bringing initiative to their job. Tonight, the city will be honoring the inaugural winners of its Excellence in Public Service Awards, which focuses on the “dedication and outstanding contributions of the City’s more than 3,000 civil service employees.” The ceremony will take place beginning at 6 p.m. in the Rotunda at City Hall.
Says Spencer, “We are cultivating a culture of excellence and that includes recognizing employees who are going above and beyond to serve our City. I cannot wait to celebrate these honorees!”
