connections oct. 2012
DESCRIPTION
Region of Waterloo employee newsletterTRANSCRIPT
OCTOBER
Gold medals andSay Hi Buttons
The Tree of Life, a public art projectby Ernest Daetwyler, was dedicatedat the Sunnyside campus onSeptember 6, 2012. This permanentpublic art project is one of 11installed at Region of Waterloofacilities through the public artprogram. Pictured here, the artist’sdaughter plays in the sculpture.
EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTERITS Tough Mudders
First Peoples Festival
Sunnyside GolfTournament
The 2012 SunnysideFoundation Golf
Tournament was held onSeptember 10, 2012. The eventwas sold out and raised wellover $19,000 for SunnysideSeniors’ Services. Thanks toeveryone who helped andparticipated. Pizza in the parkOn June 5, the Region ofWaterloo’s Home Child Careprogram held a “Pizza in thePark” event for caregivers andfamilies who use Home ChildCare. See page 7 for [email protected]
Mark Your Calendars
Sunnyside Health and Wellness FairSaturday, October 20, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., Heritage Hall, Sunnyside Seniors’ Services Campus.
Sunnyside Community Alzheimer ProgramOpen House
Tuesday, October 23, 2 - 4 p.m., 150 Main Street,Cambridge.
Sunnyside Foundation BazaarSaturday, November 3, 2012, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m., Sunnyside Seniors’ Services Campus.
For more information, visitwww.waterlooregionmuseum.com
or call 519-748-1914.
Waterloo Region Museum announces the newTALKS Series that starts this fall. This engagingspeaker series offers the opportunity to learn aboutdiverse topics including various aspects of thepast, present and future of Waterloo Region. Thisseries takes place in the Christie Theatre in theWaterloo Region Museum.Single ticket price is $8 plus HST. Tickets must bepurchased in advance by calling 519-748-1914. Afull series pass is $40 plus HST.Monday, Oct. 15, 1:30 p.m.Joanna Rickert-Hall, Tales of Humanity andHardship: An examination of Early Black Migrationin Waterloo-Wellington CountiesMonday, Oct. 22, 1:30 p.m.Jane Britton, Becoming a Canadian: The BreithauptFamily JourneyMonday, Oct. 29, 1:30 p.m.Sandra Joyce, The Street Arab – The Story of aBritish Home ChildMonday, Nov. 5, 1:30 p.m. Jonathan Seiling, Mennonites and other Pioneersof Peace in the War of 1812Monday, Nov. 12, 1:30 p.m.Cynthia Comacchio, Dancing to Perdition: Inventingthe Teenager, 1920s - 1950sMonday, Nov. 19, 1:30 p.m.Mike Fich, Observing the Cold UniverseMonday, Nov. 26, 1:30 p.m.Rych Mills, Ten Myths about Kitchener’s HistoryMonday, Dec.3, 1:30 p.m.Ken MacLaughlin, Celebrating Berlin’s 1912Achievement of Cityhood
Waterloo Region Museum TALKS Series
Calling all holiday-loving, party-planning volunteers!
Are you a natural partyplanner? Love the
holiday season? Have aknack for organizing events? TheRegion is looking for volunteers to sit
on a planning committee for the 2012Family Skating Party. Committee volunteersmust be able to attend three meetings onOctober 12, November 9 and 30 from 2-3 p.m. Those interested can contactJessica Voin [email protected] or ext. 3537 by October 10. Pleaseconfirm your interest with your
supervisor/manager. Mark your calendars for thisyear’s Family Skating Party on Saturday, December 2.
What do you consider the biggestchallenge in your job? What is themost rewarding?Being a new Region employee,learning all the programs the Regionoffers has been quite a learningexperience. Once I gain theknowledge and understand all theroles the Region plays, my role is toensure that Service First Call Centre(SFCC) supports these departmentsthe best we can. Most importantly wewill be keeping a focus on providingan enhanced level of customer serviceto citizens. The rewarding part will beworking with the team who representsthe voice of the Region on our phonelines and maintaining a team-basedapproach between the SFCC andRegional departments.
What personal skills are essentialto the work you do?In the call centre business, highpriorities are listening and resolvingthe request. They may sound simple,however, having your voice heard andthen seeing action get taken on whatwas said is key to any positive
customer service interaction. I believein a team environment and workingtogether to get the job done hasalways made the road moreenjoyable!What do you do to relax after along day?You can find me at an arenasomewhere. I’m an active coach,player and official with ringette and Imake a pretty good hockey andlacrosse mom. Being with my familyand friends is always top of the list.
What is your favourite meal?If it’s a BBQ and we can sit outsideand enjoy the meal with a glass of red,I’m good! What is your favourite holidayand why?Christmas. I enjoy the time togetherwith family and we usually get acouple sporting-event free days.If you could travel to one place,where would you go?Greece. I’m stuck with pictures of bluewater and green hills with whitehouses.
Staff SpotlightStaff SpotlightStaff Spotlight
Sheri Markle
Sheri joined the Region in July as the Administrator of the Service First Call Centre. Along with her husband,
son and daughter, Sheri has a busy family life
that includes hockey, ringette and lacrosse.
3
Do you know someone who would like to be spotlighted? Do you have suggestions for new Spotlight questions? Email your
ideas to [email protected]
Statistics Canada ranked the Regionof Waterloo International Airport asthe 10th busiest airport in Canada forJuly 2012. The report tracks aircraftmovements (a take off or a landing)and is used for measuring theworkload of air traffic controllers,aircraft activity and runway utilization.The airport recorded 12,401 aircraftmovements in July 2012, an averageof 400 a day, the highest single monthof activity in four years. In 2011, over
105,000 passengers travelled throughthe airport and in 2012 we areexpecting passenger traffic to haveincreased by 25 per cent.The popularity of the airport is risingas word spreads about easynavigation, inexpensive parking and avariety of non-stop destinations. Withnew service to Chicago as well asflights to Calgary, Ottawa and PuntaCana, passengers are choosing to flyhassle-free from the Region of
Waterloo International Airport.
Some of the perks includecomplimentary baggage carts; freehigh-speed wireless internet, alicensed Aviator departure loungecafé operated by Edelweiss, National,AVIS and Hertz car rentals on-site andparking for just $6 per day. No trafficjams or lost vehicles, just convenient,fast and friendly air service, close tohome.
Region of Waterloo International Airport is getting busier
Staff SpotlightStaff SpotlightStaff Spotlight
What do you consider the biggestchallenge in your job? What is themost rewarding?The biggest challenge of the job isprioritizing tasks as they arise andbeing able to multitask. The mostrewarding part of my job is to see acampaign, or event come to fruition,and having the satisfaction of knowingyou had a role to play in it.
What personal skills are essentialto the work you do?The most important personal skill tohave in my job is diplomacy. Inconjunction with tact, it is imperativewhen engaging the public and workingwith the media.What do you do to relax after along day?To relax after work I enjoy taking aspin class or Zumba at my gym.
What is your favourite meal?Any meal that I didn’t have to cookmyself!
What is your favourite holidayand why?My favourite holiday is Thanksgiving.It’s a time with family, focusing onwhat we have rather than otherholidays where we may be caught upin what we get.
If you could travel to one place,where would you go?If I could travel to one place it wouldbe to Edmonton. My sister, brother-in-law, four-year-old old nephew andone-year-old niece live there. I amrarely able to visit as much as I wouldlike to.
Melissa Minshall
Melissa has been the CommunicationsCoordinator at the Region of Waterloo International Airport since June 2012.
She lives in Brantford.
First Peoples FestivalThe inaugural First Peoples Festival isa showcase of First Nations, Métisand Inuit cultures that takes place atthe Waterloo Region Museum fromSeptember 30 to October 3. “There isa vibrant community of around 10,000people of First Nations, Métis andInuit heritage living in WaterlooRegion and this new First PeoplesFestival will create awareness andcelebrate this wonderful culture”,said Dave Neufeld, EducationCoordinator for the Waterloo RegionMuseum.The Festival begins at 11 a.m. onSunday, September 30 with asmudging ceremony hosted by Elder,Jean Becker of Wilfrid LaurierUniversity to help create a goodattitude and positive frame of mind forthis engaging festival. Traditional andnot so traditional pow wow foodfavourites will be available for
purchase. An amazing schedule of performersand presenters will be featured at thefestival. Tribal Visions Dance Groupfrom Six Nations of the Grand, Métisfiddler, Rajan Anderson, Artists NaomiSmith, John Somosi, KathrynEdgecombe, Rene Meshake and manyothers will have displays or presentworkshops on their art and craft work.Special funding has been generouslyprovided by: The Friends of theWaterloo Region Museum, The GoodFoundation, Archaeological ResearchAssociates Ltd., and ArchaeologicalServices Incorporated. For moreinformation regarding the FirstPeoples Festival call 519-748-1914 orvisitwww.waterlooregionmuseum.com
Business Process Redesign
One of the key success factors forcustomer service representatives(CSRs) working in the new call centreis the ability to respond to all inquiries.Operating departments also need tobe prepared to respond to anyspecialist level calls transferred fromthe SFCC. Since April, all programareas with large call volumes havebeen identifying key responses tocalls and documenting scripts thatCSRs will use. Throughout the fall, theremaining program areas willdocument how their calls will behandled. Thanks to all staff for theirinvolvement in this very essentialprocess!
Call Centre Operations
To ensure excellent service, this groupis developing new operating policiesand procedures. Service agreementsare being drafted to manageexpectations between the SFCC andoperating departments, and lastly, abusiness continuity plan is beingdrafted that will deliver the best
degree of service possible in case ofemergencies such as power failures,system failures or externalemergencies.Human Resources
HR and the Union have continued toconnect with staff impacted by theSFCC. Over the past few months, HRhas provided job transition support tostaff impacted by SFCC changes. TheAdministrator, two Supervisors andthe Analyst for the SFCC weresuccessfully recruited. Staff that willbe transferred to work at the SFCCwere brought together to meet theirfuture coworkers and management.Other events such as site visits,training and pre-launch activities willbe scheduled for staff transferring tothe centre. Technology
Installation of the new CustomerRelationship Management (CRM)software at the Region has begun.Training for SFCC and ITS staff on theCRM is expected to start in September2012, training for CSRs and
department staff will occur in aphased rollout late this year andthroughout 2013.
Accessibility Matters: It is all aboutus! A dialogue about achievinginclusion for everyone
The Region of Waterloo is anorganization committed to improvingaccess to Regional programs andservices for citizens from diversebackgrounds. In order to understandthe issues from specific communitygroups and develop solutions, theRegion is partnering with communityorganizations to host a series ofsessions called “Dialogues onDiversity”. The next in our series ofDialogues will focus on people withdisabilities. Stay tuned for a focus onseniors, people living in poverty andinclusive data collection in 2013.
Thursday, October 18 from noon - 4:30 p.m.
To RSVP contact Lorie Fioze at 519-575-4758 or Vanessa Lopak at 575-4757 ext 3861.
The new Service First Call Centre location wasformerly announced in June and plans areunderway for the design and furnishings of our newshared home at the Kitchener Operations Facilityat 131 Goodrich Drive, Kitchener. Occupation ofthe new space will take place between thisNovember and the New Year.
Call Centre update
Gold medals and Say Hi buttons . . . everyone wanted one atthe 2012 Olympic games!
The Waterloo Region Crime PreventionCouncil’s “Say Hi” campaign connectedpeople from all over the world toWaterloo Region at the 2012 OlympicGames in London, England. Localvolunteer Kevin Doerr of Kitchenerattended the Olympic games as acameraman with the Olympic HostBroadcaster CTV. In his spare time hewas our “Olympic Say Hi Guy” – a Say Hiambassador who randomly greetedathletes, families, volunteers, locals andtourists by saying hi and giving them aSay Hi button. The Olympic spirit ofgoodwill, fellowship and respectexemplifies our local Say Hi campaign.More photos at www.sayhi.ca.
In May 2011, Ontario’s Ministry ofCommunity and Social Services(MCSS) launched its Ontario Worksonline application system as part of aninitiative to modernize delivery of thesocial assistance system. Thisprovided Region of Waterloo residentswho require financial assistance withan alternative method to apply forincome support. One year after itslaunch, the Employment and IncomeSupport division asked clients andstaff about their experiences withonline application services. Currently,
about six per cent of Ontario Worksapplications come through the onlineapplication service.
Citizens appreciated the convenience,staff response time and ease of use ofthe Ontario Works online applicationsystem. Their recurrent suggestion forimprovement was easier access tothe application page on the ministrywebsite. This suggestion has beenforwarded to staff at the MCSS. Staffnoted that they understood their roles,had sufficient support resources andwere confident in their ability to
provide proficient service to users ofthe online application system.Improved processes for clientsrequiring return phone calls wererecommended by staff as a way tofurther improve this system.
Recommendations from thisevaluation will be implemented thisfall. If you have questions or wouldlike a copy of the evaluation report,please contact Curt Shoemaker at519-883-2149 [email protected].
September 2012 Ontario Works Online Application Evaluation
Dave Hordyk, Fazil Rasheed, MarkTheurer, Arlene and Ted McDonald,Matthew Coleman and Sherry Wagner(ITS) participated with over 15,000people in The Tough Mudderadventure challenge at Mt. St. Louis inAugust.
The race consisted of 10 miles and 19obstacles including crawling overBerlin walls, Everest (a ¼ pipe you hadto run up), Kiss of mud (crawling under12-inch barbed wire), monkey bars,cliff hanger (trying to get up a hill thatis all mud), arctic enema (a containerfilled with ice cubes that you had tojump in), login (going over and underlogs), walk the plank (jumping off a 15foot plank into water) and running andcrawling through electrical shockwere a few of the obstacles. Thecourse took us over four hours tocomplete and with some teamworkand encouragement we finished theobstacles with just a few cuts andbruises. Way to go team!
On June 5, the Region of Waterloo’s Home Child Careprogram held an event for caregivers and familieswho use Home Child Care. ‘Pizza in the Park’ was heldat the new Kingsdale Community Centre and wasattended by almost 400 children and adults.Families were invited to drop in after work and weretreated to pizza and watermelon served by Home ChildCare staff. Children played in the new splash pad andplayground and used some innovative outdoor
equipment recently purchased by Home Child Care.Students from Conestoga College’s RecreationProgram volunteered to be on hand and organizedchildren to play some co-operative circle games,parachute games and races. Home child care staffmembers used their creative talents and offered facepainting to big and little children. The evening endedwith a concert by Eric Traplin, who entertainedeveryone with his music and bubble machine.
ITS staff are Tough Mudders
Pizza in the Park
This is achallenging timeto be working inthe public sector,and achallenging timefor the Region ofWaterloo. The
federal and provincial governments aredealing with their debts and deficits byreducing programs and reducing theirfinancial support for municipalities –including the Region of Waterloo.
At the same time, the lingering effectsof the recession are reducing theRegion’s revenue sources and drivingup the need for many of our services.So, like many governments, we arechallenged to meet increasedexpectations and growing demands forservice, with few, if any increases inresources.
We recognize that all of you, ourRegional employees, are the key tomeeting these challenges. Now, morethan ever, we need to continue toprovide high quality, responsiveservices to the community. We alsoneed to continue to build public trustand confidence by demonstrating thevalue of the work we do and theservices we provide.
To deal with the many challengesfacing us and continue to strive forservice excellence, we need to focuson the three elements that make up the“public service value chain”, namely:engaged and supported employees(people), citizen/customer satisfaction(service), and trust and confidence ingovernment (trust). The more engagedand supported our staff feel, the better
service they provide and the moresatisfied citizens are with our services.This in turn improves the level of trustand confidence the public has in theRegion. There are many initiativesunderway in each of these three areas.A few of them are highlighted below.
The Region’s Service Strategy hasidentified that there are a few keyfactors that most influencecitizen/customer satisfaction with ourservices – timeliness, staffperformance, ease of access, clearprocesses, and satisfactory outcomes.This strategy will provide tips andtechniques that we can all use toimprove service.
The development of the Service FirstCall Centre is another way we’reworking to improve service. Wereceive approximately 800,000telephone calls a year and as wecontinue to grow, the call centre willallow us to provide more consistent,timely and responsive telephoneservice.
Our second employee survey will takeplace in November. It will help usunderstand what is important to you inthe workplace, what’s working wellwithin this organization, and whatareas we can improve on. The surveyis part of our ongoing effort to improveemployee engagement and employeesatisfaction. Ultimately, this helps usprovide better service to the public.
As public servants, we are all here toprovide good service to the public. Nomatter what kind of job you have hereat the Region, you play an importantrole in providing service to our citizens
and in building public trust andconfidence. Please take the time tocomplete an employee survey inNovember and take a moment to thinkabout what you can do to provide greatservice and build public trust in theRegion.
The employeesurvey is coming!
From November 13 to the 30, theRegion will conduct its secondemployee survey. The survey willoffer you a chance to provide yourfeedback on what is reallyimportant to you at work. Pleasecomplete the survey and help makethis an even better place to work. For those with email access, you will receive an email onNovember 13 instructing you onhow to complete the survey. Forthose without email access, youwill receive a paper copy to fill out. Watch the portal and your workareas for more details. If you havequestions about the employeesurvey, please contact BevAikenhead [email protected] 519-575-4437.
PEOPLE(Engaged Employees)
SERVICE(Citizen Satisfaction)
TRUST(Trust and confidence
in Government)
Do you have a question for Mike?
Send it to [email protected]