Building Organizational Supervisory Success (B.O.S.S.) Training Program

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2014

Wake County Government initiated its B.O.S.S. (Building Organizational Supervisory Success) employee training program in fiscal year 2012 after a County-wide training needs assessment was conducted that unearthed several trends in the current training offerings for County employees. Most notable of these trends was the current purchased programs were designed for a Corporate America/profit-and-loss model workplace focusing on a private sector management style. In addition to this weakness, the current program did not offer any form of day-to-day operations of a newly-promoted public sector supervisor; coupled with being the most expensive of all the programs offered at a time when budgets were being cut due to economic downturns, it became clear we needed a new strategy for preparing the supervisory staff for success. During the first year, the training staff spent much of their time creating a program from the ground-up that utilized both the in-house knowledge of the staff, using titles and role play scenarios and graphics from public sector environments, specific to Wake County, and eliminating the “canned” or “off the shelf” programs that were costing significant amounts from a dwindling budget and alienating participants with Corporate America jargon and scenarios. These customized programs, created by in-house trainers, were then balanced with current offerings that were deemed successful workplace matches in the Wake County culture and offered at all levels---not just targeted to supervisor staff. This both ensured that the supervisors were attending the same trainings and added a substantial foundation under the ‘home grown’ programs now piloted and receiving excellent feedback from attendants. The underlying theme to all the selections is based on an emphasis of ensuring a balance between managing results while maintaining relationships. One or the other was no longer enough when citizen requests were doubling and headcounts were being cut drastically.