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Carrie Hoff

January 2010 - The Public Manager

Strategic Procurement Training in San Diego

Carrie Van Deale offers some strategies for using questions to promote a productive discussion in your next meeting.

Run Interference For

Carrie Van Daele offers some strategies for responding to different performance appraisal situation.

What Is Your Response?

Carrie Van Daele offers some strategies for dealing with difficult employees—while you continue to work with them.

You Do Not Fire a Difficult Person

Employee engagement is one of the most talked about issues in government today. Amid falling engagement levels across government, and a presidential mandate to improve them, managers and agency leaders are taking a hard look at what works and what doesn’t when it comes to boosting morale. The Social Security Administration (SSA) may have a few answers to that question. The agency’s talent development policies have made it one of the few in government that can boast the highest levels of employee engagement—all while continuing to serve the nearly 59 million Americans who depend on more than $863 billion in Social Security benefits. At the helm of that effort, SSA Commissioner Carolyn Colvin has prioritized training and leadership development to keep engagement levels high despite increasing workloads, decreasing resources, and high attrition. In an exclusive interview with ATD’s The Public Manager, Colvin identified three major factors that have contributed to SSA’s success when it comes to cultivating a culture of engagement. First, training is a top priority for the agency, said Colvin, noting that giving an employee the tools they need to feel confident in their ability to do their job is one important first step towards creating engagement. “Even in this austere budget environment, SSA emphasizes training and development. It’s a natural tendency to cut training when you have budget challenges, but I think that’s the absolute last thing that should be cut,” said Colvin. Second, SSA closely monitors engagement surveys and follows up with departmental action plans designed to identify and address factors that could hurt engagement. “When we get the results of the federal engagement survey, we break it down into its various categories, and each agency component is required to develop a plan of action to raise those engagement scores,” she said. Colvin added that an important follow-up step SSA takes is to actively communicate what the agency is doing as often as possible. And the third way SSA addresses engagement is to take a close look at how, and where, its employees work. With employees in offices around the country, addressing talent needs by moving competent managers and other workers with specialized skills may not be a viable option. Instead, said Colvin, one way to promote growth and prevent attrition may be to make the workplace itself more flexible. “SSA is really implementing telework, and we’ve had a lot of good experience with that strategy. I hope it can give our workforce some flexibility,” Colvin said. Read the full interview with Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin in the debut digital issue of The Public Manager in September. Not a TPM subscriber? Sign up here to receive TPM, the only journal of its kind—an opportunity for public managers and executives to write and share ideas about critical public management issues.

Answering the Engagement Question: Three Basic Steps from SSA

ATD's Government Workforce: Learning Innovations is a training activity in accordance with 5 U.S.C., chapter 41.

OPM Approves ATD's Government Workforce Conference

As a result of the financial crisis of 2008 and the recession that followed, most companies now operate with fewer workers, relying more on automation and technology. At the time, reducing the workforce made sense; the supply of workers cost more than the demand for workers. But to successfully meet the talent demands of today’s business climate, companies need to maximize the effort of their remaining workers. Insightful talent development practitioners know that they need to leverage the ingenuity, creativity, and tribal knowledge of these workers.
For example, say your company reduced its talent supply by 20 percent during the economic downturn, leaving it with 80 percent talent demand in 2016. Consequently, your company may have reduced its talent supply of tribal knowledge by 80 percent because the 20 percent reduction of workers took tribal knowledge with them. This is called the law of diminishing returns effect and the Pareto principle.
To fill the talent demand, you must consider your remaining workers an off-balance sheet asset, your supply to shrink the skills gap. No longer is it acceptable to label your workers a liability or a burden. This is your only option for your company to expand in an age of limited talent.
During this webcast, you will be given insight into your 80/20 talent by addressing these questions:

Who is my talent?
How is my talent capitalized and utilized?
How is my talent providing business innovation?
How is my talent providing operating performance improvements?
How is my talent training others?

You’ll learn how to:

Shrink the widening skills gap.
Maximize your company’s talent.
Calculate earnings from talent.


The Scarcity of Talent Affecting Your Company

Spring 2015 - The Public Manager

Top of mind for the federal government is uncovering best practices for training and retaining federal employees. Patty Gaul offers insight from several sessions at the Association for Talent Development’s 2014 Government Workforce: Learning Innovati

Training Is a Bit Brighter for the Federal Workforce

Whether a team member is working hybrid, on-site, or from home, building team cohesion is essential for success in the workplace. Finding ways to create a shared experience can be challenging yet rewarding. Hosting a company book club can be a powerful way to build a sense of connection and promote learning and development simultaneously.A Book Club for Learning and DevelopmentA book club can be a powerful L&D tool, creating team growth by building skills, communication styles, and work processes that align with organizational goals—whether it’s adopting Scrum for faster, high-quality work, or learning StoryBrand to clarify brand messaging. This shared learning creates smooth processes for teams to build knowledge they can apply directly to their roles.Employee feedback surveys are an invaluable and sometimes underused tool to guide book club choices and address pain points in the company. If employees report dissatisfaction with meetings, a book on productive gatherings could be valuable. Similarly, a book on emotional intelligence can improve both workplace relationships and client interactions. Tailoring book selections to team needs and goals makes the book club initiative more relevant and effective.Practical Steps for Starting a Book Club in Your OrganizationEach workplace is unique, but consider a few of these vetted steps that can lead to starting a successful book club. You’ll want to tailor them to your employee and cultural needs: Survey employee interests and needs: Before selecting a book, consider conducting a short survey to gauge employees’ interests. This helps to align the book club's content with the topics employees care about most and maximizes engagement.Choose accessible formats: Offering the book in multiple formats—audio, e-book, and print—can ensure it’s accessible to a broader range of employees. A platform and app like Libby is your go-to for multi-format reading.Set a manageable schedule: To ensure the book club doesn’t feel burdensome, set a reading schedule that’s manageable for everyone and is something that special that everyone looks forward to.Create discussion questions: To encourage participation, consider preparing discussion questions that prompt reflection and open dialogue. Cut through information silos across departments: Consider opening the book club to employees across departments. This not only broadens perspectives during discussions but can also break down silos and cross-departmental understanding.Book Clubs as Connection Points in a Flexible, Remote WorldIn a time when remote and hybrid work can make employees feel isolated from their coworkers, a book club offers a simple yet effective way to reconnect. For employees who may not work together daily, it provides a structured opportunity to interact and build rapport. Imagine that employees are reading a follow-up book on their DISC assessment types. In the discussion afterwards, one participant states that their communication style is more direct than another’s preferred way of emailing or speaking. Then others realize the challenge communicating wasn’t what they were saying, but how they might have said it. These interactions can make employees feel more engaged and less isolated, creating a sense of belonging and camaraderie that carries over to other aspects of their work.Building a Stronger, More Cohesive TeamWhether it’s developing new skills, enhancing communication, or simply connecting on a human level, a company book club has the potential to strengthen teams and create a more cohesive work environment. Encourage employees to get involved in book clubs to foster their professional growth, deepen connections with one another, and inspire them to think outside of the box. 

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