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Program would encourage city staff to find ways to cut costs

Greater Sudbury is considering bringing back an employee suggestion plan, five years after it was dropped because it was costing more money than was being saved through suggestions.
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Greater Sudbury is considering bringing back an employee suggestion plan, five years after it was dropped because it was costing more money than was being saved through suggestions.

This time, however, the plan would operate without a city employee dedicated to the program, a factor that made the previous program too costly.

Meeting Tuesday evening, council reviewed a report on the previous program. In its first year, 2007, staffers gave 21 suggestions that led to savings of $80,000. But the cost of the program was $96,397. The following year, 40 suggestions saved $40,000, but costs rose to $100,579. In 2009, 105 suggestions saved $22,000, at a cost of $98,811, before it was dropped the following year.

“Since there was a net cost to the program, it was abandoned,” said CAO Doug Nadorozny.
Instead, Nadorozny said they focused on changing the work culture so staff would feel comfortable offering suggestions, and on ensuring they had opportunities to do so.

“I've done things like CAO in the field ... where I collect ideas from employees in the middle of a shift,” he said. “So we felt we had mechanisms in place to capture the sort of things you're talking about.”

But Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti said the city should consider bringing it back while finding ways to keep costs down. He's been approached by city staffers who have ideas but felt like they wouldn't be heard if they brought them forward.

“They just felt that certain ideas they had and wanted to bring forward, they didn't feel comfortable bringing it forward,” Signoretti said. “They just felt like it would fall on deaf ears.”

And Ward 5 Coun. Bob Kirwan said he didn't see anything in city policies that would encourage money-savings ideas from staff.

“Other than you can contact the CAO if you feel like like it,” Kirwan said.

Mayor Brian Bigger suggested adding a budget option to offer incentives to employees with money-saving ideas, but at a lower cost than the former program.

“I'm hearing that people are interested in initiating a full-blown staff suggestion program,” he said. “There are opportunities to run a program without an employee.”

The idea will be added to the city's budget “parking lot,” where budget options are parked until the end of the process. Each idea is voted on individually, and ideas that receive the most support are implemented.

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Darren MacDonald

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