FEATURE
PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF WINTER HAVEN
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INNOVATION
Improvements Through Gainsharing
Winter Haven program brings creative ideas for city operations by Kelli Gemmer Florida League of Cities
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lorida’s cities are committed to continuous improvement, and sometimes all that takes is a bright idea. This entrepreneurial spirit is the essence of the City of Winter Haven’s Bright Ideas Innovation Program. The new program, which launched in April, involves the practice of gainsharing, where employees are incentivized to share ideas that benefit an organization or community. “The employees closest to the work know best how to get that work done,” said City Manager Mike Herr. “Gainsharing is a way of rewarding employees for ideas that improve customer service, save money or create efficiencies.” Inspiration for Bright Ideas came from a similar program that Herr led when he served as County Manager at Polk County. It was named the Suggestions Help Increase and Nurture Excellence (SHINE) employee suggestion program. Bright Ideas was formed as part of Winter Haven’s commitment 40 QUALITY CITIES | THIRD QUARTER 2022
to becoming a city that can tap into the innovative capacity of the people who live and work there. This commitment began three years ago when the City completed a strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis to identify key areas the City could improve on. As a result, Winter Haven formed five teams of employees, called Key Result Area (KRA) Teams, tasked with shaping the future of the City. Team Two, dedicated to process improvement and innovation, included staff members from different departments, from police to fire to planning. They collaborated to create Bright Ideas. “Gainsharing has been a focus with private companies, but I think it is a revolutionary concept for local government,” said Rob van Druten, Business Technology Support Manager and KRA Team Two Leader. “We’re trying to build that entrepreneurial spirit and culture by innovating and being progressive in our initiatives.” To collect these shared ideas, the City has partnered with
