The National Association of Counties Recognizes Employee Engagement as a Key Differentiator

By Chris Atkinson, HR Consultant, Organizational Strategy, CPS HR Consulting

At NACo’s 2017 Annual Conference in July, the Counties Futures Lab hosted a workshop with Bob Lavigna, the Director of the CPS HR Consulting Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement, on how county officials can harness the engagement of their employees.

The National Association of Counties (NACo) is a professional association that unites America’s 3,069 county governments. Founded in 1935, NACo brings county officials together to advocate with a collective voice on national policy, exchange ideas and build new leadership skills, pursue transformational county solutions, enrich the public’s understanding of county government and exercise exemplary leadership in public service.

Among the topics Bob spoke about was the importance of employee engagement in today’s government environment, and a recent national survey conducted by the CPS Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement that focuses on engagement in the public sector.

One of the reasons that Bob was asked to speak was because of the interest of NACo’s members in employee engagement, given the current difficult government environment. Leaders in all levels of government, including counties, are under pressure to perform well while also doing more with less. One proven strategy to effectively address this challenge is to improve the engagement of government employees. When public sector employees are engaged, they are more likely to perform well, thus enabling government to perform well. As a result, the public will likely have greater confidence in and support for government.

Research and practice have shown that focusing on public sector employee engagement, using a data-driven and action-focused approach, can result in: 

• Higher rates of success achieving strategic goals
• Better customer service
• More innovation 
• Higher employee retention 
• Better employee attendance 
• Fewer equal opportunity complaints

In addition, the national survey conducted in 2016 by the CPS HR Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement found a positive relationship between engagement and perceptions of organizational performance. Fully engaged employees are significantly more likely to believe that their organizations are successful, compared to their somewhat or not engaged colleagues. In other words, according to the survey, fully engaged employees are more likely (up to three times more likely, depending on sector) to believe their organizations are performing well.

NACo’s Futures Lab division, the research arm of NACo, recently published an article about Bob’s presentation. The NACo Counties Futures Lab brings together leading national experts to examine and forecast the trends, innovations and promises of county government with an eye toward positioning America's county leaders for success. The Lab delivers research studies, reports and other actionable intelligence to a variety of venues in collaboration with corporate, academic and philanthropic thought leaders to promote the county government of the future.


“Employee engagement is about performance. It is not another HR thing… It is about improving the level of commitment that our employees have to their organization so that we can deliver better, high quality performance and services to the citizens we serve.” – Bob Lavigna