SAVE Commission's findings - La Follette School of Public Affairs ...

Public employees have a unique vantage
point in that they are simultaneously
citizens, taxpayers and employees.
During August and September
1994, some 40 state employees
participated in focus groups designed
to identify their key issues. During
October and November, state employees—all
75,000 of them—were
“Let the people know that state
employees do work.”
State employee
invited to respond to a
survey. By November 9,
some 15,759 employees,
more than 20 percent,
had completed the
survey. Responses continued
until year-end.
Their composite message about their
workplace was:
“We like our jobs. We don’t like the system
we’re in.”
Public employees want to make systems
better and they have ideas on how to do it. They
support streamlining operations such as personnel
paperwork (78 percent), reducing layers
of management (71 percent), and reducing
the red tape of purchasing (69 percent).
In addition to supporting streamlining,
public employees are flexible. They are willing
to move within their geographic location (71
percent) and some are also willing to move outside
their geographic location (26 percent) if
the job required it. They are even open-minded
about transferring to other agencies (34 percent).
Not only are public employees flexible,
they also want to be accountable. They support
a pay system based on skill and performance
(79 percent), are willing to be judged
by both their peers and
supervisors (52 percent)
and are comfortable
in having their
performance reported
to the taxpayers (49
percent). To keep their
performance sharp,
they want to stay up to date. They support the
idea of having a state fund for training (50 percent).
In short, public employees want to be part
of a successful operation and have a good idea
of what a successful operation looks like. One
employee put it this way:
“All agencies should have a mission, vision
and strategic plan. All agencies should
know how to survey customers. All staff should
be empowered to own their processes. We need
to think of state government as a system instead
of individual kingdoms. When one agency
suffers, the whole state suffers.”
CITIZEN • COMMUNITY • GOVERNMENT — WISCONSIN: THE 21 ST CENTURY 9