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Innovative Human Resources Project Grant ApplicationMasterpiece on the Mississippi TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager SUBJECT: Grant Application for Innovative Human Resources Project DATE: August 11, 2010 Dubuque kard NI- AmedcaCity 11111r 2007 Human Rights Director KeIIy Larson is recommending submittal of a grant to the International Public Management Association for Human Resources for funding to assist with the City's Intercultural Competency efforts I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council approval. MCVM:lw Attachment cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager Kelly Larson, Human Rights Director Michael C. Van Milligen Masterpiece on the Mississippi August 11, 2010 TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager FROM: Kelly Larson, Human Rights Director Andre Lessears, Training and Workforce Development Coordinator SUBJECT: Grant Application for Innovative Human Resources Project Attached please find an application to the International Public Management Association for Human Resources and CPS Human Resource Services for a grant in the amount of $25,000. The purpose of the grant is to recognize innovative human resources practices that contribute to quality, fairness, equity, and organizational needs in public sector human resources. We are proposing an addition to our intercultural competence efforts within the organization. The grant would allow us to do one -on -one development work with managers, including developing strategic plans and performance measures related to intercultural skills, conflict management, and recruitment and retention that are personalized to each department. This would better equip managers to lead intercultural efforts within their individual departments. In addition, the grant would provide funding to measure our progress since One Ummah Consulting first administered the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) in 2006. We would measure these changes both by again administering the IDI and through a questionnaire. If awarded, we will be required to implement the grant and begin measuring results within eight months of the grant award. We also would be obligated under the grant to publish our results in sufficient detail to allow others to use it as a model, and to present our results at the IPMA -HR International Training Conference. We recommend that the City submit this grant application. cc: Randy Peck Dubuque herd All4medcaCfty 1111 ' 2007 V a ■ r Please fill in the following information, and attach your proposal. Please mail or email (email is preferable) by August 13, 2010 to: CPS Human Resource Services Attn: Connie Champnoise 444 North Capitol Street, NW Suite 544 Washington, DC 20001 cchampnoise @cps.ca.gov (608) 536 -3590 Phone (916) 561 -8446 Fax Email submissions are strongly encouraged. If using mail or fax, include an electronic copy on a CD or 3.5 inch disk. Personal Data Name Andre Lessears Title Training and Workforce Development Coordinator Agency City of Dubuque Size of Jurisdiction (Number of Employees) 527 FT; 129 PT Address 50 W. 13 Street Address 2 City Dubuque State IA Zip Code 52001 Telephone Number ( 563 ) 690 -6126 Fax ( 563 ) 690 -6025 Email alessear@cityofdubuque.org Web Address www.cityofdubuque.org Proposal Title City of Dubuque Guided Intercultural Development for Managers Project Title: City of Dubuque Guided Intercultural Development for Managers History and Mission Statement of the Agency: The City of Dubuque is a unit of local government in a community of approximately 60,000 people on the banks of the Mississippi River in Iowa. Historically known for button making, boat building and logging, Dubuque today is known for its riverboat excursions and tourism, and offers career and business opportunities in pace with today's technology — driven economy. Dubuque is often recognized by national organizations for its leadership, business climate and quality of life. The City of Dubuque has a City Manager who reports to the Mayor and City Council, a seven - person group representing the wards in which they live. Our mission is to ensure that residents of all backgrounds have an equal opportunity to be served by their local government and to be actively engaged in the democratic process. Our work is guided by the following management principles: 1) we plan our work and work our plan; 2) we take advantage of the valuable input of employees and residents for department decision - making; 3) we approach issues by focusing on what can be done to solve the problem; 4) we develop partnerships across departments and with outside organizations; and 5) we act with a sense of urgency. We strive to embody our City Council's vision of Dubuque as an inclusive, progressive, sustainable city with a strong, diversified economy and expanding global connections. Current Human Resource Problem or Concern: The City of Dubuque employs 527 full -time and 129 part-time employees. The average age of our employees is 46, and over 14 percent of our employees are nearing retirement age. The gender, race, and ethnicity demographics of employees are as follows: City of Dubuque: Guided Intercultural Development for Managers 1 Pay Group Sex Race Total Full Time Female Black/African American 1 White 120 Female Total 121 Male Black/African American 2 Hispanic 3 American Indian /Alaskan 1 White 400 Male Total 406 Full Time Total 527 Part Time Female Black/African American 5 White 72 Female Total 77 Male Black/African American 1 Hispanic 1 White 55 Male Total 57 Part Time Total 129 Project Title: City of Dubuque Guided Intercultural Development for Managers History and Mission Statement of the Agency: The City of Dubuque is a unit of local government in a community of approximately 60,000 people on the banks of the Mississippi River in Iowa. Historically known for button making, boat building and logging, Dubuque today is known for its riverboat excursions and tourism, and offers career and business opportunities in pace with today's technology — driven economy. Dubuque is often recognized by national organizations for its leadership, business climate and quality of life. The City of Dubuque has a City Manager who reports to the Mayor and City Council, a seven - person group representing the wards in which they live. Our mission is to ensure that residents of all backgrounds have an equal opportunity to be served by their local government and to be actively engaged in the democratic process. Our work is guided by the following management principles: 1) we plan our work and work our plan; 2) we take advantage of the valuable input of employees and residents for department decision - making; 3) we approach issues by focusing on what can be done to solve the problem; 4) we develop partnerships across departments and with outside organizations; and 5) we act with a sense of urgency. We strive to embody our City Council's vision of Dubuque as an inclusive, progressive, sustainable city with a strong, diversified economy and expanding global connections. Current Human Resource Problem or Concern: The City of Dubuque employs 527 full -time and 129 part-time employees. The average age of our employees is 46, and over 14 percent of our employees are nearing retirement age. The gender, race, and ethnicity demographics of employees are as follows: City of Dubuque: Guided Intercultural Development for Managers 1 These employees are responsible for serving an increasingly diverse public as our community demographics shift. From 2000 to 2005/2007 the American Communities Survey estimates a 72.3% increase (from 700 to 1,206) in the number of African - American residents, a 48.5% increase (from 390 to 579) in Asians, a 43% increase (from 553 to 791) in community members of 2 or more races, and a 23.1% increase (from 911 to 1,121) in the Hispanic population of Dubuque. We anticipate that the 2010 census will continue to show significant shifts in our demographics, as we witness a more national and international focus amongst some of our largest employers (John Deere, IBM, Prudential, McKesson, Sedgwick). In addition, more than one million tourists visit Dubuque annually. As a local government whose primary goal is to serve residents of all backgrounds living in our community, we recognize that it is critical for our workforce to reflect the community we serve and to develop the skills to interact effectively across cultural differences. We also anticipate that as baby- boomers retire in larger numbers, we will be competing to attract, recruit, and retain new workers who will likely be younger, more culturally and individually aware, and more racially, ethnically, and regionally diverse than our current workforce. We expect these employees to be Tess hierarchical in their work habits and more input- oriented. Finally, we are concerned that systemic barriers remain in some of the procedures and structure of our organization, interfering with the ability of traditionally underrepresented groups to be successful in our workplace and community. These factors raise the question of how best to address diversity issues in an organization and a community. Traditional approaches to diversity have focused either on forcing complete assimilation of the newcomer or assuming everyone is the same, thus masking cultural differences. We are pursuing what we believe is a more effective approach premised on developing intercultural skills. Our approach is research based and focuses on the point at which cultures interact. The approach suggests that as we learn more about cultural differences, we can improve our ability to predict when miscommunication and conflict might arise and adapt our behavior accordingly to improve communication and problem solving. In short, such an approach focuses on mutual adaptation and on creating systemic change so that the benefit of cultural differences is maximized. We see development of these skills as a necessity in a pluralistic democracy, particularly amongst public servants. The challenge facing us is the development of these skills which will, in turn, permit us to better serve the public and to attract, recruit and retain a diverse workforce. Innovative Human Resources Program: Our innovative human resources program would provide guided development of intercultural skills for our management team members. In 2006, we hired a consultant to conduct an initial assessment of the intercultural skills existing throughout our organization, and to provide us with an Intercultural Sensitivity Report and Recommendations. A baseline of our staffs intercultural skills was established using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), a City of Dubuque: Guided Intercultural Development for Managers 2 statistically reliable, cross - culturally valid measure of intercultural competence adapted from the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. The Report and Recommendations contained long term goals around developing staff skills and addressing systemic issues that are affecting our ability to attract, recruit, and retain employees reflecting the diversity of our community. We define diversity as any difference that might make a difference to productivity, safety, cost, legality, and serving the public. Since 2006, our internal Steering Committee has worked with the report and recommendations to develop a strategic plan and to develop support from the top of our organization. The focus of the new project proposed in this grant would be to build support and skills amongst department leadership within each individual department. In order to meet our goal of an inclusive work environment, managers must intentionally promote skill development and inclusivity, rather than simply assuming that diverse groups of people will automatically know how to work successfully with one another. There is research that indicates that diverse groups often perform worse than homogenous groups unless those leading the groups have strong intercultural skills. With strong skills, the value of diverse groups is maximized and they outperform homogenous groups. With that research in mind, the project we would undertake with this grant would be specifically designed to develop the intercultural skills of managers, recognizing that until our managers feel confident in their own intercultural skills, they are limited in their ability to provide the leadership we expect of them on elements of the strategic plan. Methodology, Results and Measurement: We will use the following methodologies to develop, implement and promote the program. The Intercultural Development Inventory and the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity are the primary foundational elements of the work we will be doing with managers. This methodology is cross - culturally relevant, meaning that the approach and measures have application beyond race and ethnicity to various demographics (gender, sexual orientation, disability, socio- economic status, etc.). Our work under this grant would include the following pieces: 1) we would administer the IDI to as many of the original 150 employees as possible in order to measure the progress we have made across the organization since the 2006 baseline measure; 2) we would administer the IDI to all of our management team members; 3) we would offer each management team member individual feedback on their individual IDI profile and on the group profile for their department, making suggestions for personal development to improve their skill levels and the skills department -wide; 4) after providing this individual feedback, we would meet with managers within each department as a group and develop a strategic plan for the department based on the skill levels of the managers and the overall profile for that department. This strategic planning piece would include performance measures to track progress on meeting intercultural goals, as well as recruitment and retention goals, within that department. We will promote these efforts with a management team meeting prior to beginning the process, and a second reporting session when the IDI group profile becomes available. City of Dubuque: Guided Intercultural Development for Managers 3 We expect the following outcomes from this program: 1) improved intercultural skills throughout the organization, particularly amongst managers; 2) more employees developing the ability to accept and adapt to culture differences over time, as measured by the IDI; 3) a more diverse applicant pool, and more successful hiring and retention of employees from traditionally marginalized communities; 4) a shift in the culture of our organization beyond compliance only and towards actively working to create a more inclusive work environment around issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, etc.; 5) improved employee relations across differences; 6) an increase in staff ability to deliver culturally appropriate service; 7) an increased understanding of our intercultural development program and the ability to work actively towards goals and objectives established by our steering team. These outcomes relate to our goals and strategic plan in the following ways. First, this approach allows us to meet our goal of engaging individual department and organization leaders in our systemic change efforts. We know that our intercultural program can only be successful if it is understood and implemented at all levels of the organization. Second, this approach will help us meet our goal of more effective conflict management in the organization, whether between employees or with members of the public, by increasing the understanding and skills around communication and conflict skills that are culturally influenced. Third, this approach will meet our goal of effectively responding to discrimination and harassment issues at the lowest possible level of the organization, increasing the ability to intervene before conflict escalates to the point of needing disciplinary action. Fourth, this approach will help us meet our goal of having a workforce that reflects the community we serve, because it will help us create an inclusive environment where the contributions of members of diverse backgrounds are valued, thus making it more likely that we can recruit and retain a broad range of individuals. Finally, this approach brings us closer to our goal of creating a learning organization, because it allows us to work proactively with managers on leadership and skill development. We will measure and quantify the program's success in a variety of ways. First, the IDI will provide a measure of progress that has been made since the first IDI was administered in 2006. In addition, the IDI will help us identify strengths within various departments, allowing us to target development of additional leadership. Second, we will conduct qualitative interviews with managers towards the end of this project to determine: 1) their view of the progress that has been made overall since we began working on intercultural skills generally in 2006; 2) how helpful they have found the guided development we provided during the year and how they expect that to impact their department; and 3) ways in which they have specifically changed their way of operating in order to be more interculturally competent. If possible, we will add qualitative interviews with employees asking similar questions, and also asking whether they have witnessed any change in the management within their department. Third, because an element of this plan includes the creation of a strategic plan for each department, the progress made on meeting the elements of the strategic plan items will provide us with another measure of success moving forward into the future. Finally, we are in the process of implementing an on -line application and recruitment system that City of Dubuque: Guided Intercultural Development for Managers 4 PROJECT ITEM AMOUNT DESCRIPTION Intern Stipend $10,000 Scheduling, logistics, printing, report writing, administrative work Intercultural Development Inventories $6,000 Purchasing of on -line inventories and associated profiles and reports Goal Setting Sessions $3,000 Food /location costs for individual goal setting session for approximately fifteen departments Printing /Binding $2,000 Goal setting binders, surveys, reports, presentation proposals Qualitative Survey Development $2,000 Work with local college statistician /sociologist to develop qualitative survey Miscellaneous $2,000 Additional training needs, overtime, unforeseen expenses will ultimately enable us to run reports measuring changes in the diversity of the applicant pool, interviews, and hiring for various positions over time. Start and End Dates: The project will begin on 10/01/10, or as soon as the grant is awarded, and end on 9/30/11, or one year from the date of the award. Within eight months of receiving the award the program will have been designed and implemented to obtain measurable results. Publicity Plans: Upon receipt of the grant, we will issue a media release outlining the grant award and the program details. We also will place this information on our City of Dubuque website and our local government cable channel. Upon completion of the project, we will submit a presentation proposal for at least one of the following conferences: 1) Intercultural Development Inventory Conference; 2) Summer Institute on Intercultural Communication; 3) Iowa League of Cities; and /or 4) League of Iowa Human Rights Agencies. Project Budget: Additional Funding: Additional funding for this project will come from the City of Dubuque. The City allocates an annual budget of $10,000 for intercultural work that can be used to continue to train our training team, to cover costs of associated employee training, and to pay community members who assist our training team. In addition, the City will contribute the salaries of four staff members who will lead these efforts, as follows. • Training and Workforce Development Coordinator (1/3 time): $17,624 • Human Relations Specialist (1/4 time): $14,721 • Human Rights Director (1/4 time): $22,588 • Intake Specialist (1/8 time): $5,684 City of Dubuque: Guided Intercultural Development for Managers 5