County Ambassador Program: Connecting, Developing, Educating and Engaging Employees

About the Program

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

Year: 2014

The County Ambassador (CAP) Program is a new employee development program that was established to encourage relationship-building and collaboration among employees across departments, allow employees to further develop by gaining knowledge about the broader mission of the organization outside of specific department responsibilities and to help employees understand how County services impact our community. Blue Earth County initiated the program following discussions from its Labor Management Committee to help eliminate silos across department areas and offer employees an engaging training/development program that works to enhance both employee morale and customer service for citizens. An idea for the program originally stemmed from employees being interested in the Citizens Academy Program which is geared towards residents as a way to orient and educate on programs and services provided across the organization. An internal committee was established in late spring 2013 with a cross-sector of representation from employees/departments in varying roles to build the program in a way that best used resources, time and respected the culture of the organization. The group charged itself with putting together a unique learning and development experience for a cohort of 20 employees with varying department backgrounds and tenure. Each of the seven half-day monthly sessions are scheduled to meet at different County facilities and include hands-on learning experiences such as tours, equipment demonstrations and presentations by County staff. The program budget including binders, session materials and lunch for all participants/presenters is approximately $1,400. The largest investment of the program is employee time equating to 28 hours of training and development hours throughout the course of the seven sessions. The County Ambassador Program at Blue Earth County is a creative and cost effective approach to connect, develop and educate employees in an engaging way that can easily be replicated by other counties large or small across the nation.