3 Inspiring Government Performance Management Leaders to Watch in 2019

What makes a great government performance management leader? We have explored this question as we’ve worked with hundreds of governments across America to improve their performance measurement practices. Being an effective performance manager comes down to more than just measuring the right things.

Great performance managers use five best practices to be most impactful for their communities. They are:

1. Aligning indicators to strategic goals
2. Measuring impact on people
3. Tying outcomes to inputs
4. Collaborating and iterating over time
5. Not reinventing the wheel

These best practices enable performance management strategies that create true impact, reduce costs and waste, and focus on key priorities proven to make a difference in the lives of the people in their cities and counties.

We’ve identified three inspiring government performance management leaders (not ranked) who are taking the lead in using these best practices to transform how their governments get work done.

Maria Zuniga, Business Improvement & Performance Administrator | Bernalillo County, New Mexico
Maria has worked with her team to implement the five best practices within their performance management systems and processes. As a result, they have been able to:

• Reduce data prep time from 4 hours to 5 minutes
• Implement 300 performance measures for 35 departments
• Save 128 hours of business analyst time per year
• Properly structure their internal team to drive a successful performance management program

Melynda Schmidt, Digital Workplace Manager | Olympia, Washington
Melynda and her team have shifted their performance management practice to:

• Save .25 FTE on report preparation
• Use dashboards for transparent and up-to-date reporting on performance measures
• Provide meaningful historical data to support better decision making
• Make work easier and more productive by saving time and leveraging technology to replace manual data entry

Robin Campbell, Assistant County Manager | Thurston County, Washington
Robin and her team have modernized their performance management systems and processes to:

• Use technology software rather than Excel to track performance
• Shift the internal attitude from dreading performance management to truly engaging and seeing its value
• Leverage dashboards for performance conversations
• Use a team approach to topic-specific performance management
• Create a set of measures for each office and department including financial and non-financial data

All three of these performance management leaders use The OpenGov Cloud to leverage the power of technology to make performance measurement easier, more transparent, accessible, and to tell and show the public the story of how they are making progress and driving true impact.

Learn how OpenGov can help you do the same by downloading our free eBook: Measure What Matters: 5 Performance Management Best Practices.