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PRINCIPLE FOUR: Invest in Worker Training to Improve the Delivery of Services and the Quality of These Services

The difference between the old command-and-control management system and the new partnership model is best illustrated by the money spent on worker training and development. Governments on average spend less than one percent on training-most of which goes to mid- and upper-level managers. Private sector firms that have moved to the new partnership model devote as much as three percent-more than three times what governments spend.

Because the command-and-control system treats workers as replaceable parts, managers see little reason to train workers. Most front-line public employees are asked to do little more than fill out forms, follow rules, execute narrow tasks or pass someone on to another window where another routine or compartmentalized job is performed. The current system neither respects nor rewards the insights and experience of front-line workers.

In a redesigned workplace, job descriptions will broaden and front-line workers will be asked to assume more responsibility and manage more technology. To ensure that workers have the knowledge and skills to keep up with the changing needs of these newly designed jobs, it will be necessary to train them.

All workers feel frustrated by overly compartmentalized tasks-especially front-line public workers, who know how to get a job done but instead must follow agency procedures and then explain to the public why another form must be filled out or why a repair took so long. These workers want meaningful jobs that can help the public, and they are eager to be trained to perform them.

In Illinois, a career advancement program operated by the state and the union has become one of the most valued benefits offered to employees. Since it was established in 1989, almost half of all eligible employees have met with a career counselor. The result: a better-educated and more highly motivated workforce serving the public.

In New York, 911 emergency operators and dispatchers developed a training program to improve communications skills. The outcome was so pronounced that the police department asked the union to help train new clerical workers.

Buying a new computer or vehicle is considered an appropriate investment in productivity. Training is no different. It too is an investment-in worker productivity. In a public sector that depends on personal interaction, technological know-how and problem resolution, a skilled and motivated workforce can often mean the difference between serving and frustrating the public.

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