The morale within the ranks of the Park City municipal government can be a sensitive topic for officials, with the issue effectively impacting the entire institution at some level, from the elected officials to the managers and through the rank-and-file workers. The new Park City manager, Adam L enhard, addressed morale in an interview, saying it is good but also acknowledged he does not have a comparison from what it was in the period before he arrived. “Morale … is a symptom or a reflection of your company culture. Every company has culture, good or bad. Whether you’re talking about your culture or you’re ignoring it, it’s there, and it is very impactful to how your employees feel,” he said, adding that morale impacts productivity, employee retention and engagement. He noted there have been numerous newcomers to the municipal government recently. “I think we’re in a stage right now where our employees are really hungry, for lack of a better term. I would say excited for that. They’re looking forward to the future, and together we’re talking a lot about what can we build. The reason I think that’s important is because, I would say, this is a challenging time for our community. There’s some change. Change can be really hard. We have new political leadership, we have new administrative leadership … a lot of turnover, but we’re looking a few years ahead, and we’re saying this is a really meaningful and incredible opportunity over the next few years as we get ready for the Olympics. How is morale right now? … I would say it’s good,” Lenhard said. The municipal government has had various methods to measure morale over the years. At one point, more than a decade ago, an annual survey was conducted of the people who work for the municipal government. The results in 2010 were notable with the morale among the rank-and-file workers beginning to slip amid the recession era. The annual surveys were eventually discontinued, with officials saying surveys conducted anonymously can have reliability issues. Lenhard addressed how morale can be tracked saying “there’s some specific administrative tasks that we can employ, the surveys, the academic approach. There are also other signs that are going to reveal morale.” “Are you retaining your, your great people? Are you able to keep them here? Are they satisfied? Do they feel fulfilled in their work? Some of that is a little bit loose, and how can you accurately quantify, or even qualify those things? But are we retaining our best employees? Are we providing them opportunities for progress? Is their work product actively and positively contributing to the betterment of our community?” he said. “Those are all things that we’re going to be looking for, of course. Those formal things are internal surveys and things like that.” A municipal government spokesperson also provided a statement about morale that complemented the comments the city manager made in an interview. It said: “Since arriving, Adam has placed a strong emphasis on direct employee engagement. Within his first two months, he held citywide staff town halls focused on culture, teamwork and organizational priorities. He also announced a series of smaller employee roundtables, with members of the executive team meeting directly with staff across the organization to create additional opportunities for conversation and feedback. Employee engagement and organizational culture remain important priorities and we will continue evaluating the most effective ways to gather employee feedback and identify opportunities for improvement. To that point, we have not conducted a citywide anonymous employee morale survey under the current administration, though the concept has been discussed.” The post Park City manager puts focus on employee morale, citing benefits of engagement and need to measure progress appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less