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Rethinking Personnel Processes: From Hiring to Retiring - Showcase of our Work

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Rethinking Personnel Processes: From Hiring to Retiring - Showcase of our Work

In previous posts, we’ve talked about our process improvement project for some of our Human Resource Department forms, specifically their Employee Update and Personnel Requisition forms. The forms ensure that new employees can be hired; current employees can retire, and any other employment status changes can be processed in an accurate and timely manner.

In this post we will share what changes were made to these forms and their processes, the impact our work has had on the processes themselves, reflect on things that we did well in this project as well as the lessons we’ve taken away from this project.

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How Syracuse implemented a process to review and govern surveillance technologies

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How Syracuse implemented a process to review and govern surveillance technologies

After the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, many voices were raised in Syracuse and around the county advocating for transparency in policing and technology that is used by law enforcement and other government departments, among many other things. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh then continued his dialogue with residents and community groups regarding police reform and government transparency…

Moving Towards a New Data Platform

Moving Towards a New Data Platform

Moving towards a data platform for our city should allow API and other departments both to simplify our operational workstreams and vastly improve our analytical abilities moving forward. Though this prospect is exciting to us over here in data land, oftentimes talking about data infrastructure can easily drift into getting lost in the weeds of acronym soup. So, in an attempt to stave off this fate we’ve decided that rather than discussing the new platform from a strictly technical approach it might be more prudent to take the “5,000-foot view” and attempt to explain more or less:

  1. What’s a data platform and why do we need one?

  2. In what ways will a data platform deliver value to not only city departments, but city residents as well?

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There's power in numbers, meet our new API team members

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Join us in welcoming 4 new team members to the Office of Accountability, Performance & Innovation. In recent months we searched the country for a Data Program Manager, an Innovation Designer, a Data Engineer, and an ARPA Data Analyst. Each of these roles is critical to our team and offers a different set of valuable skills that will add to the expertise and value that our office provides to the City and its residents. We are so pleased with the privilege to attract and welcome such talent to our team here in Syracuse.

Update - Rethinking Personnel Processes: From hiring to retiring

Update - Rethinking Personnel Processes: From hiring to retiring

In February of 2021, we were sent on a mission to address a process for our Human Resources department's Employee Update and Personnel Requisition forms. These form's processes are vital to ensuring that new employees can be hired; current employees can retire, and any other employment status changes can be processed in an accurate and timely manner…

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Service Design in Local Government: Parking Payment Plans

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Service Design in Local Government: Parking Payment Plans

You know that feeling when you hear the street sweeper coming down the street and you make a beeline to move your car? - but alas you’re too late and now you’ve got another ticket to add to your collection of four! Of course you do! How are you going to pay off all those tickets?

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Transforming the City’s Data Culture, One $123 Million Infusion of Federal Funding at a Time

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Transforming the City’s Data Culture, One $123 Million Infusion of Federal Funding at a Time

Listen to Mayor Walsh articulate his vision for the City, and you will hear him describe his goal to transform Syracuse into a more data-driven city. But that process is not something that just happens on its own; it takes work and a data-driven culture needs to be nurtured. When the Federal Government passed the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) to provide funding to state and local governments around the United States in response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the City of Syracuse received $123 million and the Mayor saw this as an opportunity to foster and promote better data practices throughout the City.

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Problem Identification

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Problem Identification

If you've read our blogs, visited our office, or been to our workshops, chances are you'll see process maps at some point. My colleague Jess wrote a great blog post about it. Process mapping is a tool that has become an integral part of a larger body of work that encompasses about a quarter of most "innovation" projects handed to us -- the problem identification phase.