Unlike many local government organizations, the City of Aspen not only defines for itself what we must do each year but also attaches an individual bonus for achieving results.
Many private sector organizations have profit-sharing programs, gain-sharing programs or other kinds of bonus incentives designed to keep employees focused on what matters to their customers, but these kinds of efforts are few and far between in the public sector. The public sector seldom defines what their customers need and expect and rarely puts a value on that. Here at the city of Aspen, we do both. Since 1997, Aspen has been creating a “contract” of sorts between the city manager and every department. Each department negotiates a set of goals with a defined way of measuring successful completion of each goal.
Our Goals and Outcome Measures effort defines success from the viewpoint of our customers – our citizens and our internal customers – and puts $1,000 per person in play if we meet those goals. (Last year it was $1,800, but due to budget cuts, that number has been lowered.) If you don’t meet all of your goals, you don’t get the full amount. For example, if you missed one goal, you could get $900. Miss two, $800 and so on.
In 2009, the city of Aspen set 301 goals for our employees to accomplish. We achieved 289 of them – a success rate of 96 percent. City Manager Steve Barwick was pleased with the success rate but also said as a manager, he would like to see more of a “stretch” with the goals. “We have been most successful as far as scores, but our success rate also tells me that we may have to raise the bar in some cases next year.”
Earlier in December, department heads handed out bonus checks totaling $122,574 to the men and women who work for the city of Aspen for their efforts during 2009. The checks are processed as taxable income. Total wages budgeted for city of Aspen employees is about $18 million. That makes our goals and outcomes checks about .7 percent of our overall payment plan for our employees.
We define success the same for everyone, meaning the highest ranking person in the organizations is measured as if their position was anywhere else on the organizational chart. You receive the same bonus no matter what your annual salary may be. We are all in this effort together!