Revolutionizing City Services Through Employee Engagement
Calgary, Alberta’s largest city and Canada’s third-largest municipality, boasts a vibrant, youthful population of over 1.2 million. To elevate city services and spark innovation, the City of Calgary introduced the MyCityInnovation program as a key component of the broader Civic Innovation YYC initiative. This program aimed to involve the City’s 12,000 “wired” employees in a collaborative effort to share, test, and implement innovative ideas for municipal improvement.
Challenges
The City faced significant hurdles in its drive for service improvement through innovation. Promoting transparency and encouraging broad employee engagement, targeting at least 10% participation, were pivotal. Additionally, the program sought to collect a substantial number of new ideas, aiming for a minimum of 120 submissions, and establish a robust process for tracking these ideas from submission to implementation. Ensuring continued high employee involvement, with goals of 360 comments and 2,400 votes, overcoming organizational silos, and creating a repository for institutional learning were also crucial challenges.
Solution
Drawing from best practices of the City’s Cut Red Tape program, the MyCityInnovation program utilized design thinking and innovative civic processes. Launched in May 2016, it featured a multi-channel promotional campaign that included events, meetings, blogs, newsletters, social media, print materials, videos, a dedicated website, and leadership emails. Employees were invited to share their ideas on the myCityInnovation platform. Submitted ideas were assessed for feasibility and cost, with promising ones selected for testing and prototyping in the Civic Innovation Lab.
Results
The MyCityInnovation program exceeded expectations with remarkable outcomes:
- Doubled User Participation: Achieving a 21% adoption rate, the program far surpassed its pilot target.
- Idea Boom: Nearly three times the anticipated number of ideas were generated, highlighting a surge in employee creativity.
- Active Participation: Employee engagement in comments, voting, and discussions greatly exceeded targets.
- City-Wide Reach: Participation spanned all city facilities, reflecting strong ownership and engagement.
- Optimistic Outlook: Sentiment analysis showed high optimism and belief in the program’s potential, fostering a positive, collaborative environment.
Conclusion
The MyCityInnovation program exemplifies how engaging employees in the innovation process can lead to substantial improvements in city services. By fostering transparency and collaboration, Calgary’s initiative demonstrated the effectiveness of a structured approach to innovation, driving meaningful progress in municipal operations and cultivating a culture of innovation.
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