Vaughan Wins National Municipal Professional Development Award

Vaughan.snapd.com
July 2, 2019

The City of Vaughan is being nationally recognized with the 2019 Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) Professional Development Award, in the over 100,000 population category, for Vaughan Innovators -- a new employee engagement program. The Vaughan Innovators program began with an active pursuit to engage City of Vaughan employees in a meaningful way to advance the foundation of the organization’s Service Excellence Strategic Plan. Vaughan’s approach to Service Excellence is characterized by three interconnected strategic initiatives: Citizen Experience, Operational Performance and Staff Engagement. Styled like CBC’s Dragons’ Den, the Vaughan Innovator's program offers staff an exciting opportunity to present their ideas on how to improve processes and procedures in their everyday work. The voluntary program was designed with staff engagement in mind: staff could bring forward any idea -- no matter how big or small -- within an investment limit of no more than $10,000. Time and resources (through training and working sessions) were provided for idea development. With help from a selection panel made up of peers, the winning idea is selected and granted funding and resources for implementation. Staff engagement is a measure of an employee’s emotional and intellectual commitment to an organization and can be characterized by the discretionary effort put into the organization to help it succeed and excel.