By Chet Warner, USCM Intern
July 16, 2007

With the array of performance management technologies and techniques available, how do you sift through the details and complex issues to get at the information that matters? That was one of the questions EMA, Inc. Executive Vice Presidents Judith Cascio and Craig Yokopenic addressed in their presentation at the 75th Annual Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors. Mayors Donald Plusquellic of Akron (OH) and Frank Ortis of Pembroke Pines (FL), moderated the session on the “Mayors Dashboard,” with over 40 mayors from across the country participating.

City leaders have many tools at their disposal to help them measure and manage performance, and it can be difficult to know which one to use for any given purpose. 311, CitiStat, and the Mayors Dashboard all serve related purposes. All of these can be important aids in meeting constituents’ needs, but it is important to know what tools to use in what combination, and when and how to use them.

When it comes to managing performance, 311 can be viewed as an intake, or information gathering mechanism. 311 is a means through which service issues are identified. A city’s 311 will be successful only if the back office functions are redesigned with the 311 implementation to enable the departments to respond quickly and effectively to citizen requests.

CitiStat is a set of informational support processes department heads can use to review weekly performance measures. CitiStat done right enables managers to quickly spot positive and negative performance trends in their areas, and take reinforcing or corrective action. It works best when department heads use it to spot trends and identify performance issues before problems become critical, and before they have to be escalated up the chain of command. While CitiStat will help managers track measures, it is not useful unless managers are measuring the right things. It requires significant time, effort, and expertise to develop and select performance measures that actually give you meaningful information about the performance you want to assess.

The Mayors Dashboard is the collection of databases from different areas of an organization, presented in an organized manner, which can be accessed for analysis at the functional, departmental, and citywide level. It includes performance measures and targets from each level designed to support each of the mayor’s initiatives. The Mayors Dashboard leverages tools — such as 311 and CitiStat — to show from the city, to the department, to the individual, how activities support the mayor’s initiatives and push them forward. The Mayors Dashboard not only helps the mayor manage the city at the executive level, but it also helps individual city employees understand the importance of their work to the city’s overall mission. It connects their everyday tasks to the mayor’s broad-based initiatives. This requires a significant change management effort so employees and managers understand why they are participating in this program and how it supports the mayor’s initiatives.

Cities have to do significant work prior to implementing the Mayors Dashboard, but the effort pays off with a large return on investment. Cities such as Akron (OH) have used these strategies to upgrade and streamline city initiatives while reducing costs. The increased revenues, decreased costs, and improved employee skill set that come with a properly implemented Mayors Dashboard provide mayors with resources to improve service to citizens.

EMA is a United States Conference of Mayors Platinum Partner. For more information on EMA and the services they provide cities, contact Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland at 301-460-5251 or kweyland@usmayors.org.