It seems like there is no way this number can be real, but the Census Bureau has counted more than 89,000 different local governments across the United States. These governments range greatly in size from New York City, which employs more than 300,000 workers, to Midwestern cities and towns with just a handful of workers.
In total, local governments employ more than 10.6 million people, a number that increases to 14.1 million when state governments are added. These numbers are important as citizens rely on these governments for an endless list of services from pest control and trash removal to education and public safety.
Creating a Positive Workplace
Just like the federal government, higher education, non-profits and the private sector, these local governments want to ensure they provide positive working environments where workers feel cared for and respected. To do so, these governments will want to ensure they have a strong employee grievance process in place – something that too many organizations neglect.
Employees file a grievance when they are upset with an aspect of their job. It could be that another worker’s actions make them uncomfortable or threatened and a supervisor that has treated them in an inappropriate way or something more serious like unwanted sexual advances. In all of these cases, employees want their grievance to be heard and appropriately dealt with but too often these grievances become lost in an administrative shuffle or downright ignored.
This can be especially true in governments with overburdened human resources staff that must manually enter these cases into an outdated system. The length of time it takes to attend to these cases can have adverse effects. Employees may become disillusioned with the workplace and leave for another job. In other cases, they may retaliate against those they feel have wronged them. In both of these examples, the wronged employee made an effort to have the situation resolved only to see it not handled appropriately.
In order to change this process, state and local governments will want to look toward grievance management systems like Advocate by Symplicity. For the past 25 years, we’ve helped government organizations, higher education institutes and Fortune 500 companies manage the employee grievance process.
A Better Solution
With Advocate, organizations get a system purposely built to manage the grievance process. Employees filing a grievance enter the information into the system, which is then sent to human resources, the employee’s manager, and any other concerned parties. The system will send updates and reminders to schedule next steps and keep an action of any progress – or lack of progress – that has taken place. This not only speeds up the process but ensures that grievances remain top of mind for those involved.
As a result, the employee will see their grievance case seen through. That not only shows respect to the employee that their case was treated seriously but makes the backend handling of these cases easier for staff. Symplicity’s system also includes easy data collection and reporting features for governments to use to either show compliance or improve programs.
With so many people working now in government and unemployment at a 50-year low, governments will want to take extra care to retain employees. Respectfully handling their grievances in a timely manner is an important step in that effort.
For those interested in learning more, email info@symplicity.com.