Nebraska's Continuous Improvement Journey
Method: Consultation
Topic: Organizational Development
In the late 1990s Nebraska Workforce Development Department of Labor (NWD-NDOL) embarked on a continuous improvement journey that has continued to transform the organization today. NWD-NDOL's Commissioner Butch Lecuona strategically organized all of their agency initiatives under a continuous improvement framework that still shapes the agency's direction. All activities support the mission, vision, and strategic goals of the organization and all staff - frontline to senior leadership - are responsible for creating the implementation strategies.
To align the system's work with the agency's vision and objectives, Sandra Hastings continues to work with NWD-NDOL to:
- Create the continuous improvement framework
- Develop and implement a succession plan
- Conduct annual internal customer satisfaction surveys and implement changes to address common staff concerns
- Implement a new performance appraisal system
- Institute a 360% feedback system
- Design and deliver bi-annual leadership meetings
- Integrate agency-wide continuous improvement teams
- Establish a Leadership University to train all staff
- Implement a succession planning effort
- Develop and deliver training for all staff
- Mentor and coach leadership staff as they assume new leadership responsibilities (i.e., supervisors to executive level staff)
- Redesign HR functions (e.g., orientation, recruitment)
"Sandra Hastings is fabulous! She has helped our organization design, implement, and improve all of our workplace practices. With Sandi's guidance we have attained our goal to be one of the best agencies in all of State Government. In fact, our organization won the Building a World Class Workforce Award in 2004, based on the work Sandi has done for Nebraska. We now know how to use measurement to make decisions, continuous improvement to include employees in decision-making and most importantly, how to move an organization forward during times of rapid change. Thank you Sandi for helping us embed continuous improvement in everything we do."
Nan Merrill, Director of Organizational Development
Customer Contact: Nan Merrill
NWD- Nebraska Department of Labor
402-471-4957
Lead Consultant: Sandra Hastings
Hastings.Sandra@gmail.com