DCHS Sustainable Business Plan / Employer of Choice
The big question / How might we...?
“How can the Multnomah County Department of County Human Services become sustainable, now and into the future?”
Type (project or consultation):
Project
When:
2019 to present
Process / what we did:
In late October 2019, the MIL launched an effort to create the Sustainable Business Plan (SBP), the goal of which was to make the Department of County Human Services (DCHS) an employer of choice by improving employees' experiences.
The MIL began with a retreat where we came up with a list of action ideas for implementation. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, we calibrated our process and conducted a department-wide survey that received 400 respondents and 10 deep dive sessions to learn from our employees' experiences, and prioritized action ideas with the DCHS Leadership Team.
Outcome/Impact:
The process identified five action areas — SBP Accountability Plan; Racial Justice + Equity; Telework, Flex Scheduling and Space; New Training; and DCHS Dashboard — and 10 total action ideas. Each action idea identified potential benefits and challenges, the measures of success, the resources needed, and how to start, all of which were detailed in an Implementation Plan that the MIL developed and provided to DCHS.
In 2023, after a year’s worth of work on implementation, the SBP now focuses on DCHS becoming an employer of choice using the SBP as a foundation.
