Interim city manager: New leaders need face time with employees, city

Interim City Manager John Glascock took his position after turmoil in city government contributed to the resignation of City Manager Mike Matthes.

Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton resigned soon after Matthes.

During these transitions, the city sent out an employee engagement survey between Nov. 28 to Dec. 21, to measure how city employees felt about their jobs.

Glascock said in an interview Wednesday with ABC 17 News that he has some concerns about the results.

In the survey, which drew responses from 62 percent of city employees, one of the lowest scoring questions was “I feel valued for the work I do.”

“The big word that I would say I took away from it, people feel under valued. And so that’s something that we’re going to have to work on and make people feel more valued in what they do,” Glascock said.

He said the timing of the survey most likely caused some confusion for employees about how to answer certain questions, specifically whether to answer questions based on the old leadership or on the people who had taken over working as the interim manager and chief. However, Glascock said he is not sure if the timing of the survey actually affected the responses.

“It creates confusion on, do I answer from the last city manager, or do I answer for this interim city manager? And so, not being able to answer that question gives a little uncertainty to it, ” Glascock said.

He said the results are really just a baseline.

Glascock said some specific actions could help with the morale issues — pay raises and more face-to-face time between employees and city leadership among them.

“I believe the directors probably need to have more face-to-face conversation with every employee, and let them know exactly what’s going on in the city, what’s going on in their department, and other departments for that matter,” he said.

Glascock said in-person interaction makes it easier to see how people receive information and if the information is getting across.

Interim Police Chief Geoff Jones told ABC 17 News he is trying to increase those personal interactions.

Jones said it is upsetting that city employees are dissatisfied in their jobs, and he has met with 40 to 50 people in his department, from custodial staff to the deputy chief.

The police department had one of the lowest response rates to the survey.

Glascock said the response from the department has improved since the survey and since Jones took his position.

Glascock said talking with people should be the new city manager’s focus when they take the position. He said he is considering applying for the permanent job.

“You got to be upfront with people,” Glascock said. “You got to meet with people, you got to be talking to them face-to-face. They got to know you care. And I think that’s one of the big things the new city manager is going to have to do is to be out front and be talking to all the, not only employees, but the citizens themselves to get a better feel of the community.”

The city is gathering the thoughts of employees about what they want in a new city manager, but Glascock said employees could benefit from some sort of in-person meeting with finalists such as a forum.

He said the city will conduct another employee engagement survey in 18 months.