The City of Vernon Shows the Value of Cooperation and Understanding.

• Author: Ludwig, Katie
• Position: FINANCE

"Life is short. Work somewhere awesome."

This phrase has become a tag line for the City of Vernon, British Columbia's talent acquisition and retention efforts. It's not just a catchy gimmick, though. City leaders embrace this philosophy and have cultivated a collaborative culture to not only ensure that all employees feel valued but also ensure that citizens are receiving the best service.

Raeleen Manjak, director of the city's Human Resources Division, explained why the city believes collaboration among employees across the entire organization is so important. "Without meaningful collaboration, I don't think companies are really able to maximize the potential of their employee groups," she said. She also believes that a diversity of opinion and ideas enhances the value of collaboration. "I think that when you can look at diversity to work through challenges, it provides opportunities for innovative thinking that really can boost creativity in a way that helps increase efficiency. And efficiency and effective service delivery is part of our mission statement."

The Human Resources Division has ten employees and is responsible for functions including payroll and benefits, learning and development, labor, employee care, occupational health and safety, and talent acquisition and retention. "Really, our function is to make sure that we provide the very best service that we can to our stakeholders, as well as our shareholders. We are inward-looking, but we have the philosophy that when we take good care of our people inside the organization, we will take good care of our people outside of the organization," Raeleen said.

"Our stakeholders are the people inside the organization, and our shareholders are our citizens because they actually are the people that pay tax to the corporation," she further explained. "We take care of the people who are delivering the service to the very best of our ability, making sure that everybody is well and healthy and able to be innovative and creative within their various positions, and I think that that creates a really good foundational atmosphere for people to provide the best service that we can to our citizens."

Debra Law is the director of the city's Financial Services Division, which has 21 employees and is responsible for managing the city's budget process, preparing financial statements and reports, accepting payments for fees and charges, procuring goods and services, and generating property tax and utility bills.

Debra believes effective communication is essential for collaboration to occur. She described a program organized by Raeleen and her team that brought all city managers, directors, and the chief administrative officer together to gain a common understanding of the issues facing the city. "We were all doing things differently, instead of being cohesive and having one message to all the staff, and I think it showed us as an organization, and me personally, how important it is that we all have that same language, that we all work in the same way, toward the same understanding," she said.

Raeleen explained that this program was specifically designed and customized for the city around strategic capacity leadership development. It initially consisted of 18 days of learning and engagement and has been renewed each year with a minimum commitment of four to six sessions per year. "This refresh keeps everyone moving forward and reminds us of the necessity for consistency and predictability around our common understanding," she said.

Debra elaborated on why she believes that these kinds of conversations are so important. "I really like the word 'understanding' because I think it is about understanding each...