Page 19 - Nov/Dec Vol34 No5
P. 19
STATEWIDE By Nicholas Bradshaw 2016 CONFERENCE TECHNICAL SESSION
Integrating HR Concepts to Improve
Your Public Works Team
It is sometimes easy for busy Public City of Nashville Equipment Operator II and Safety Committee member Rickey McMurtrie (second from the
Works professionals to get so caught up right) presents a weekly “Toolbox Talk” to his crew. His topic is hearing protection. A “Toolbox Talk” typically
in managing projects, closing out work lasts 5-10 minutes and covers an important safety topic that is relevant to employees.
orders, providing basic services and facing
day-to-day challenges that they lose sight ary issues. It is about being present and Managers can empower talented employees by
of big picture concepts like organizational engaged with your workforce. A high level giving them responsibility for tasks, such as weekly
health and development. Traditional hu- of engagement allows leaders to have the safety talks. This is one way in which a manager can
man resource management concepts like pulse of the workplace and to anticipate lead employees to be more invested in their own
Proactive Problem Solving, Training and problems before they happen. Anticipating success and also receive helpful, regular safety
Development, and Health and Safety can problems allows you to act proactively to training.
be easily integrated into your Public Works solve problems before they have the chance often rely on simple on-the-job training
management approach to ensure that you to fester and grow. Public Works leaders for the development of personnel manage-
never lose sight of the big picture even who prioritize personnel management and ment skills. For example, it is unheard of
when you are stuck in the weeds. act proactively will find that they are far to assign an employee a technical engi-
less likely to be surprised or ambushed by neering task if that employee has had no
Compliance with important employment personnel problems. A small investment of training or education in how to complete
laws such as FLSA, FMLA, ADA, and oth- time and energy on the front end can pay the task. It is commonplace, however, to
ers is often the purview of Human Re- dividends by preventing major personnel assign the same employee management
source professionals, but Human Resource problems that can be costly in terms of or supervisory responsibilities when they
Management is about so much more than time, energy, and productivity. have had no training or education in the
simple compliance. Human Resource Training and Development area of personnel management.
Management represents a comprehensive
approach to managing an organization’s As Public Works professionals, we can The implementation of a successful
greatest asset – its people. It is a discipline all generally accept as fact that our City’s training and development program can
that can provide great value across a broad Public Works Department is only as good sometimes be a hard sell because it takes
spectrum of professions and not merely as the people we have working in it. Ad-
to human resource professionals. Many ditionally, if you polled a random sample Continued on page 21
concepts that are important to Human of Public Works leaders about their big-
Resource Management are especially valu- gest on-the-job headache, most would
able, yet sometimes under-represented in undoubtedly have “personnel issues” at,
municipal Public Works departments. or near, the top of their list. While the
Proactive Problem Solving importance of technical expertise and
development is easily acknowledged as a
The best approach to solving any major component in defining job success,
problem is to prevent the problem from the development of personnel manage-
happening. The best way to do this is to ment skills is not always as highly valued.
have a proactive leadership approach rather Employers often rely on formal education,
than a reactive one. Too often, managers training programs, or mentors to help
find themselves in “react” mode, consumed develop employee technical abilities, but
primarily with day-to-day operational
issues and reacting to problems. This is an
easy trap to fall into. Managers who fall
victim to this trap are often surprised when
personnel issues rear their ugly head. Reac-
tive managers will often think that they
know what is going on with their employ-
ees but they are often so consumed with
other tasks that they fail to notice minor
incidents or subtle changes in employee
attitudes or morale that can lead to major
problems down the line.
Human Resource Management is not
just about employee hiring and disciplin-
View online at tnpublicworks.com 19
