When nomination papers and the flurry of signatures streamed into the Elections Department last Monday, July 24, the final result showed that Mayor Carlo DeMaria would be unopposed in the coming city election.
This week, though, he isn’t taking the news sitting down, but rather he is taking action to make city services and city employees more accountable and accessible to the public.
On Tuesday morning, DeMaria announced that he planned to add a new position to the city workforce. It would be the director of organizational assessment and that person – who is yet to be hired – would assess the performance, strengths and weaknesses of each city employee.
The director will also be responsible for creating job performance standards for employees throughout the city as part of the mayor’s organizational assessment process. These measures will ensure the most efficient and effective service to the residents of the City of Everett.
“One of the reasons why Everett has been named one of the top places to live in Massachusetts is because we have a great team,” he said. “However, we must always be improving the quality and efficiency of service to our residents. The director of organizational assessment will help us do just that. It will also allow our employees to do their jobs in the most efficient and effective manner.”
The new job description indicates that employee assessment is critical to any organization, and currently the city has no process for evaluating employee performance.
“The importance of an employee assessment is that it’s instrumental in determining whether an employee’s skill set is appropriately matched to the employee’s position,” read the description. “The goal is to evaluate employee work performance and not the individual personally…”
The measures will include goals and objectives of departments, as well as employees’ performance measures to reach those goals. As with any organization employee assessment is critical to employee performance and to achieving the most productive work environment in the city.
The director of organizational assessment will work under the direction of the chief of staff and requires a master’s degree in human resources, public administration, or other relevant discipline. Five years’ experience in a Massachusetts municipal setting in a supervisory capacity is required.