Employee Engagement Activities

This article on TheRecord.com, a news site for the Toronto, Canada, area, raises an interesting question: In a worldwide credit crunch that is leading to budget and revenue issues for both businesses and municipalities, is a taxpayer investment in workplace team building justified?

TheRecord reports that half of Waterloo, Ontario's 600 city employees recently attended a staff appreciation day which included a catered lunch and dinner. The cost to Waterloo's citizen's was $12,000.

Waterloo's mayor certainly thought the investment was worth it. "Our biggest investment is our employees. It's about staff development and good team building," Mayor Brenda Halloran is quoted as saying.

One of the event organizers, Karen Scian, agreed:

It's important that our employees are motivated, work well together and know things about our city. They are ambassadors to our community when they interact with the public.

I agree with the mayor and the organizer. Even though we typically associate employee engagement activities with private organizations, public entities have just as much to gain from an investment in them. The associated benefits typically include:

Improved employee engagement and communication
Longer employee tenures
Lower turnover
Lower absenteeism
Greater productivity

In an economic climate in which services and the workers that make them possible in many cities are stretched to the breaking point, we need people who are more committed than ever to the mission (providing excellent service to citizens) and who work well with their coworkers to make that happen.

What do you think about taxpayer investment in team building activities for those who work for your city or town?