MAYOR LAUBAUGH CREATES EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH AWARD

BY KATIE ALLEN

In addition to Mayor Laubaugh’s Workforce Initiative, this March she added a new award of Employee of the Month to be awarded to any city employee each month. This Workforce Initiative, which first started over the summer, brings focus to five areas: the Onboarding Program, Compensation, Communication, Better Feedback on Performance, and Recognition and Reward. The start of this employee of the month award will be in addition to the Recognition and Reward area of focus.

“Basically the workforce initiative has five different perimeters within the initiative,” Mayor Laubaugh said. “One of them is Recognition and Reward, so awarding an employee of the month is one of the ways of recognizing employees for the job that they’re doing.”

Although this initiative originally started this summer, new aspects are continuously being added towards it. Since starting it, Mayor Laubaugh believes that the initiative as a whole has already had a positive impact on the city and employees within it, being successful in showing them that they are valued.

“The whole purpose is to make sure that your employees feel valued and that they recognize that we are appreciative of their hard work and effort that they do everyday to provide a service for the citizens of Wadsworth,” Mayor Laubaugh said. “Our goal is to retain them because we value them, we want them to continue working here because they are doing a good job.”

The requirements to receive employee of the month is limited to the employee must have worked in the city for at least a year. Then, anybody can nominate an

Mayor Laubaugh’s Workforce Initiative:

Onboarding programFocuses on helping a new employee be successful as he/she starts employment in the City of Wadsworth.

Compensation-

Making sure each employee is being paid fairly for the job they do.

Communication- employee whether it’s their coworker or supervisor.

“This is an opportunity for us to highlight or to honor an employee such as Bobby [this month’s employee of the month], that is an individual that goes above and beyond their normal duties to be an excellent employee and to help provide a service to the

Focuses on improving communication with employees. An example of this is the new monthly newsletter. In the newsletter each month we highlight a department. We also have a section to “get to know” an employee. There is a section that tells a little about employees that just joined the city, as well as a section for the Employee of the Month.

Better Feedback on PerformanceNew evaluation system providing better feedback to help an employee be successful.

Recognition and RewardShow greater appreciation for positive feedback and employee of the month honor.