The City of Henderson: putting it all together with STARS.

• Author: Cathcart, Mike
• Position: [PM.sup.2] Connections: PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT & MANAGEMENT

After nine years of working to align all levels of the organization through a comprehensive performance management process, the City of Henderson, Nevada, is putting the last piece into place--a system known as the Strategic Tracking and Reporting System (STARS). When it is fully implemented, STARS will become a repository for all the city's strategic planning elements and performance data. The application will allow the city to visibly link long-range performance plans to goals, action plans, performance measures, and employees.

Like many other entities, Henderson had a successful structured process in place for developing performance plans, but it lacked a uniform procedure for monitoring the progress of those plans over both the short and long term. There was also an issue of cascading the responsibility for executing the plans throughout the organization and instilling the idea that every employee's daily duties should contribute to the strategic direction of their department and the city.

City management wanted to ensure that long-term strategic plans were being addressed on a day-to-day basis. The city needed software that would help the organization track and report qualitative and quantitative performance information. Because department-level annual action plans were aligned with the city's strategic plan, the city also needed a standard format for communicating quarterly progress to city management staff.

The city had three main criteria in selecting a performance management system. First of all, the software had to be easy to use. It also had to allow departments to create the look and feel they wanted, such as including pictures and specific colors. (See Exhibit 1 for an example of the login page for the Parks and Recreation Department.) The system also had to provide a process that would allow users to develop paper-based reports for their quarterly performance discussions with city management.

THE OVERALL PROCESS

The city's performance management process is broken down into four basic parts, beginning with the organization's overall mission, vision, and values (see Exhibit 2).These elements are reviewed periodically to assess the services that are being provided, the types of additional or enhanced services that should be offered in the future, and the core values that guide the organization in providing services that aligned with the city's vision and mission. This piece of the city's strategic planning process includes a wide range of participants from within the organization, including elected officials, executive management, supervisors, and front-line employees. Participation throughout the organization engages as many employees as possible in aligning individuals' day-to-day activities with the city's long-term plans.

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The next step is to systemically address the other components of the planning process, which range from...