Performance Initiative Tracker

The City is in the progress of a three-phase digitization of the contracting process. The goal of the initiative is to increase transparency for stakeholders (both internal and external) and general process improvements to speed up the time it takes for the City to execute a contract.

1. The City has procured a solution to transform the RFP process; this will notify vendors every time there is a solicitation and serve as a central repository for all the information and current status of a RFP. Vendors will be able to apply directly within the portal and City staff will have a portal through which the RFP evaluation process can be managed.

2. The City will procure a second solution to support the drafting and negotiation phase of contracting with a vendor. The platform will resemble a “pizza tracker” with real-time insights into current status of a contract or proposal, upcoming milestones, and performance metrics.

3. The City will automate and simplify the vendor payment mechanism, which is currently reliant on paper-based processing, causing delays in vendor payments. This will enable vendor payment via ACH.

For these automated solutions to provide value, the City will first assess its end-to-end procurement processes and policies. This assessment will identify inefficiencies and adapt processes that the City will seamlessly integrate with the automated solutions.

• The City is moving towards a more centralized and standardized human resources management. In addition to some potential organizational changes (including centralization of administrative functions), the department will standardize documents, processes, policies, and procedures to create a more consistent employee experience when engaging with HR (for prospective/new staff and management alike).

• These changes will support recruitment to become a distinct and specialized function within HR, with recruitment specialists fully dedicated to appropriately coordinating with applicants to secure the necessary talent all departments need to excel.

• As part of the effort to standardize processes, an initial process review focused on time to hire was conducted to identify challenges and bottlenecks in the current state. This was followed by defining the ideal future state and mechanisms that would alleviate these issues and bring down the average time to hire. See Results in Action, Spotlight #1, on page 22.

• Processes will be reengineered through existing technology infrastructure and be considered for automation and integration in the new Human Capital Management System detailed in Initiative B2.

• The City will centralize and automate the storage and management of operational data in a standard high-quality format. Over time, data from all departments will be ingested into a single repository.

• Current data quality issues are widespread across departments as teams are not utilizing core operational systems effectively to enter complete and accurate data, affecting the City’s ability to leverage data for informed decision-making.

• Centralization of data management will enable easier access to internal and external stakeholders and contribute to enhanced performance management. Data will be more easily visualized in dashboards to empower City leadership and residents with data-driven insights.

• The City will implement a process improvement program, including facilitation and training, to create a more efficient and customer-focused organization that delivers greater value to residents. An example of a process improvement method is Lean Value Stream Mapping, which is designed to eliminate wasteful process steps. Others are Human Centered Design and Behavioral Insights.

• In addition to improving processes, this program will also eliminate any outdated non-value-adding processes that slow down operations and limit the City’s agility.

• The initiative will start with a pilot program to improve three selected City processes. Upon successful conclusion of the pilot, the City will have trained a cohort of staff and will develop a plan to scale and extend process improvement practices throughout City government.

• The plan to scale the pilot will include the launch a cohort-based “Innovation Accelerator” training program to give employees the tools to spark innovation and process improvement throughout City government. Participants will support each other in completing improvement projects in their departments.

• The City will develop a City-wide intranet, which is a private internal website only accessible by City employees. The intranet will be comprised of department-specific SharePoint sites managed by members of a specific department.

• The City-wide intranet will include resources such as City-wide forms, policies, and procedures, multi-departmental processes, announcements of events, training, and learning resources, and links to commonly used employee resources (ADP, Wellness Works!, etc.)

• The intranet will facilitate knowledge management and enable consistent onboarding for new staff.

• Guidance will be provided to departments to set an expectation for the content that will be maintained on the intranet for department-specific information.

• Designated individuals will regularly review and update content to reflect changes in policies, procedures, and reference materials. They will also keep track of all policies and SOPs on the intranet to make sure they comply with the latest regulations and organizational standards.

• The City will implement a Human Capital Management (HCM) system designed to streamline and automate HR processes and enable the City to make more informed workforce-related decisions. This modern software will help manage the end-to-end lifecycle of a City government employee, including hire-to-retire and payroll processes.

• Some of the main HCM business requirements include, but are not limited to, applicant tracking, onboarding management, employee record management, time and attendance tracking, payroll processing, benefits administration, performance management, leave management, and standard reporting and analytics.

• For a successful City-wide HCM implementation, the City will work with technical experts with experience in HR systems and information technology to provide project management and system integration support.

• The City requires an effective grants management solution to manage the entire lifecycle of grants, from initial identification and pursuit to award management and reporting.

• The chosen system will be a low code/no code solution, preventing the need for a cumbersome customization of a platform.

• The system will facilitate the submission, processing, and award of grant applications from various projects within the city and will provide real-time visibility into the status of grant pursuits and awards. It will also enable the City to track how the recipients are utilizing the grant funds post-award.

• Since multiple departments manage distribution of grant funding, there will be a solution in place with the ability to support all departments’ requirements.

• The City will implement a system to enhance visibility into development projects and improve collaboration across all departments involved. The system will provide real-time updates and notifications to stakeholders involved in the project and facilitate information sharing.

• It will enable developers to track the progress of their projects and understand the various stages, requirements, and timelines involved.

• The current development process involves complex interactions between various departments such as Community Development, Economic Development, Planning, MOCAP, and others. These interactions encompass zoning assessments, planning reviews, evaluations of incentives qualifications, defining deal structures, and aligning on community benefits.

• With each department assigned specific responsibilities, the system will enhance accountability by monitoring task completion and tracking progress.

• The system will be integrated with the ACCELA platform for customer-facing processes such as permitting and licenses that developers would need to secure.

• Through the system, the City will also develop an accessible and user-friendly interface for the public to engage with ongoing and upcoming development projects.

• As part of the effort to optimize the City’s organizational structure , an initial organizational assessment review was conducted to identify challenges in the Information Technology Department current structure and define the ideal future organization that would alleviate these issues. The recommendations of the assessment are as follows:

• Before making any structural changes to the Information Technology Department, City leadership will develop a short- and long-term path forward for Information Technology and Office of Urban AI. The City will clarify the vision for the Information Technology Department and its interactions with other City departments. It will also delineate responsibilities between the Information Technology Department and Office of Urban AI to improve accountability across both organizations, clarify their purpose, reduce confusion for departments that engage with them and avoid overlap in tasks. Appropriate organizational responsibility for 311 will also be considered in the review.

• After the City is aligned on its vision, the Information Technology Department will be moved out of the Department of Finance reporting structure to operate as a separate department, resulting in an additional Chief position reporting to the Chief of Staff. This move will likely address the perception within City government that the department is focused on cost-effectiveness rather than the priorities that matter to departments and divisions.

• The City has recently reestablished designated roles within departments with close 311 linkages in order to have a main point of contact responsible for continuously monitoring and updating business requirements for the 311 system. While the 311 call center reports into IT, the system itself is heavily dependent upon this business side collaboration to improve system performance and usability for residents.

• In addition to continued utilization of the department designees, the City will designate a manager in the City responsible for defining a vision for the 311 system and integrating business-side requirements into the 311 system for its continued success.

• They will be responsible for centralizing business requirements, prioritizing system enhancements and modernization goals, and fostering a seamless collaboration between the departments, IT team and call center will keep the focus on day-to-day request resolutions.

• The business side lead for 311 will oversee a working group of the business owners across the departments and inform prioritization of feature development and workflow updates. The working group will regularly monitor high level data trends in service requests and measure key performance indicators (such as % of tickets closed on time and reported levels of satisfaction with the platform). The goal of this working group will be to maximize the value and usability of 311 for all residents.

• Currently, the 311 system is integrated with department systems used by Public Works, Public Utilities, and Building and Housing (the ACCELA system for permitting and licensing). As systems with resident-side interactions are modernized, 311 integrations will be a key consideration and/or requirement of future development.

• As part of the effort to optimize the City’s organizational structure, an initial organizational assessment review was conducted to identify challenges in the Department of Public Works’ current structure and define the ideal future organization that would alleviate these issues. The recommendations of the assessment are as follows:

• The City will reorganize the nine current Public Works divisions. This will involve moving the Division of Park Maintenance and Properties and the Division of Recreation out of the Department of Public Works and into a new stand-alone department within the Operations Cluster.

• As part of the assessment stakeholder engagement process, employees shared that the current number of divisions and functions makes the Department of Public Works difficult to effectively manage and oversee.

• The City will name a new Director of Parks and Recreation to oversee the new department.

• Comparable cities benchmarked as part of this assessment (such as Columbus, Cincinnati, Raleigh, St. Louis) had fewer functions in their Public Works or equivalent departments and tended to have stand-alone Parks and Recreation functions separate from Public Works functions.

• As part of the effort to optimize the City’s organizational structure, an initial organizational assessment review was conducted to identify challenges within the City’s real estate functions currently spread out across six departments and explore opportunities for consolidation. The recommendation of the assessment are as follows:

• All Real Estate “transactions” functions and processes (acquisition, disposition, etc.) currently aligned to MOCAP, Community Development, and Economic Development will be consolidated into a Division of Real Estate that would live within the Department of Economic Development under the Integrated Development Cluster. There would no longer be a Division of Real Estate within MOCAP, however, MOCAP would retain its other current divisions.

• The City will also retain the current functions of the Division of Property Management within the Department of Public Works (part of Operations Cluster).

• Stakeholders acknowledged a clear functional difference between Real Estate transactions and management and agreed that the transactions functions are best aligned to Integrated Development, while management is best aligned to Operations.

• As part of the organization assessment, benchmarked compatible cities showed that Real Estate transaction functions were commonly aligned to Economic Development Departments and Development ‘clusters’.

• The City will consider appropriate leadership positions for the newly formed Division of Real Estate and the expanded Division of Property Management.

• The City of Cleveland is currently conducting a review and consolidation of its 870 job classifications to align them with the evolving needs of the City and its residents.

• Duty statements, classifications and minimum qualifications will be refined for a more simple, efficient, and transparent organizational structure. This will involve an assessment of roles, responsibilities, skill sets, and required qualifications and/or credentials associated with each classification. In doing so, the City aims to create a classification process that is intuitive and conducive to effective workforce management.

• This classification study will also aim to foster a more uniform skill set for similar roles across various departments.

• Upon consolidation of job classifications, the City will find ways to improve communication of roles by maintaining a unified registry of roles (which can be integrated with the City’s Microsoft Azure Active Directory to accurately reflect employees’ titles, roles, supervisors, and reports).

• In partnership with EY and the Office of Urban AI, departments will develop KPIs for each program that answer four questions: 1) How much did we do? (Output), 2) How well did we do it? (Efficiency, Effectiveness), 3) Is anyone better off? (Outcome), 4) Is everyone better off? (Equity).

• Upon development of the KPIs, the City will implement regular meetings, led by the Mayor and Chief of Staff, to review and discuss performance data for departments and cross-cutting issues (such as affordable housing and pedestrian safety), set performance targets, solve problems, and celebrate success.

• The performance management program will emphasize a learning culture and positive accountability for performance improvement throughout the City at every level, including middle managers. Employing a top-down management approach, leadership sets strategic goals and KPIs with managers and staff responsible for the ongoing tracking and reporting of these data measures.

• Departments will be supported with tools such as Turn the Curve performance improvement planning, Lean facilitation, and rotational assignments and interns.

• The success of the program will depend upon the commitment from leadership to data-driven management, driving decision-making and performance management through the program.

• The City will establish a dedicated review committee or working group, potentially in collaboration with a local university, to evaluate the City’s programs and policies. This committee or group will conduct a thorough examination of existing literature and government regulation studies pertaining to key policies and analyze available evidence that supports the policies and programs currently in place. Policies and programs will be posted on the City-wide intranet (detailed in Initiative B1) for easy employee access.

• While departments regularly evaluate policies and programs independently, this initiative proposes a centralized approach to prioritizing policy issues. The policy review committee will complement these departmental efforts by undertaking a more strategic and cohesive perspective on a City-wide level.

• Specialty committees with the relevant subject matter expertise will be formed on an ad hoc basis to review and evaluate priority specialty projects.