Sue shared that their main concerns, as far as the city of Englewood was concerned, was dealing with financial constraints. Recruitment it seems, was not a current issue. No one was leaving.

Responsible for recruiting, employment, training, risk management, compensation, employee benefits, labor negotiations, employee relations and policy development, Sue's current focus lay in working with their labour unions to keep healthcare costs low and compensation in line. "But once things settle down, when the financial situation improves, our main focus will be on training and our succession plan. We face an aging workforce, with the median age at 47 years. So, many are looking to retire shortly. Dealing with this proactively and looking at managerial training is something we need to focus on next year", she clarifies.

Sue argued that there had been some impact on the motivation levels and job performance of late; yet, it remained something very difficult to measure. "We will be looking for an answer on this from 2010 because that is when the salary freeze begins. There's a general feeling of low morale but it’s not something that we're currently tracking," Sue added.

Discussing some of these issues with Sue, our questions were aimed at finding out what her biggest challenge was, what she felt were the impact points and what the HR team planned on addressing.

HRM: What do you see as your biggest challenge in managing people at the moment? Why do you think this is so?
Sue : Our biggest challenge in managing employees at the moment is trying to reconcile economic reality (the revenues of the city have dramatically decreased) with employees’ “entitlement mentality”. As long time government workers (the average age is 47 years old and 10+ years average employment tenure), they are used to very “rich” pay and benefits. Now, they’re facing salary and hiring freezes and benefit reductions among other things. Even though they intellectually understand the financial crisis is universal, emotionally it’s difficult for them to forego some of what they’ve been used to. Morale suffers as a result of this conflict, resulting in increased challenges.

HRM : You've mentioned that one of your biggest issues right now is dealing with budgetary constraints. What kind of impact do you think that this constraint places on the HR function?
Sue : The budgetary constraints have disrupted the entire “flow” of our people processes! The hiring freeze has ground recruitment to a halt. Employees eligible for retirement are staying on, so those we’ve prepared for succession into their positions, are “stuck” and interest in training is diminished. Frozen pay rates have also weakened the link between pay and performance.

HRM : How do you believe the organisation is impacted by these financial factors?
Sue : We’re looking at our organisation from the bottom up in an attempt to continue delivering quality services to the citizens, which is really our core function. Since personnel costs are approximately 70% of our general fund budget, we have to realistically decide what services are a priority, as we’ll likely have to cut personnel, as we’ve already cut non-personnel costs to the bone.

HRM : If succession planning is next on your agenda, what is your priority in this regard? What is the first issue you plan to resolve and how do you see yourself addressing this?
Sue : Succession planning is a priority due to the fact that we are expecting (at least prior to the economic crisis) a significant talent drain via retirement over the next five years. We plan to focus initially on those departments most likely to be affected by the separations. As an organisation, we need to determine exactly what our succession philosophy is. Is our preference to develop our internal employees for promotion or is it to recruit from outside (especially tempting during these times of plentiful applicants) for key leadership positions? If our preference is to develop internal talent, how do we frame the training in such a way to avoid the general perception that certain employees are being “groomed” and that others need not bother to aspire to supervisory/managerial or director roles?

HRM : What are some of the key elements of your management training? What do you see as the primary objective behind any training initiative?
Sue : We have two levels of managerial training at the city. The first level is intended primarily for new supervisors and covers topics such as: Making the Transition to Supervision, Performance Management, Performance Evaluation, Legal Issues when Supervising Others, Budgeting, Selection and Hiring, Persuasive Presentations, Managing Effective Meetings, etc. The second level is our year-long leadership training programme (Englewood Leadership Institute) which includes monthly modules such as Self Awareness, Organisational Culture/Awareness, The Essence of Leadership (influencing others, goal setting, building trust and empowering others), Change Management, Ethical Leadership, etc.

I see the primary objective behind a training initiative as its relevance to the particular organisation and the transferability of the training material to practical, measurable use. Some actual examples of this in our organisation include: the promotion of a line employee into a supervisory position and both the hiring authority and the promoted employee citing participation in the leadership programme as the primary reason for his success; or the assertion by another participant in the programme that without his attendance, he would never have had the initiative to begin his degree programme.

HRM : In your opinion, how do you feel that your organisation is impacted by the financial crisis? What are some of the knock-on effects you've felt?
Sue : One impact is a declined emphasis on performance and lower morale. Since we're in the midst of a hiring freeze, supervisors and managers are more likely to endure poor performance rather than deal with a vacant, unfillable position.

HRM : What sort of measurement and metrics system is currently in place? What are these metrics tracking?
Sue : We participate in the International City Management Association’s “Performance Measurement” programme which tracks and compares metrics of many departments’ (not only HR) across the country. HR measures include : department information (how many HR staff per employee/citizen, number of functional responsibilities, cost of HR services per employee/citizen, etc.), recruitment data, compensation and benefits information, collective bargaining items (number of grievances, number of unions, etc.) absence measures (i.e., sick leave hours used per employee), employee turnover, performance evaluation timeliness.

HRM : What do you see as the HR community's biggest challenge in dealing with this financial crisis?
Sue : Dealing with matters that impact employees that are (hopefully) not part of our usual “routine”: layoffs, furloughs, salary freezes, benefit reductions, early retirement incentives, reorganizations, enlisting union “buy in” for these changes outside the normal negotiation process – the list goes on and on.

The City of Englewood is in Arapahoe County, Colorado and it has a population of 31,727 according to the 2000 Census. The HR department manages employment functions for the City of Englewood dealing primarily with internal relations and services.

The HR staff administer services in :-

• compensation
• employee benefits
• employee relations
• employee wellness programmes
• employee recognition
• labour relations and negotiation
• recruitment and selection
• risk management and
• training and development.