LGFCU Employee Productivity Awards Program

The NCACC is now accepting applications from all counties and their employees for the 2010 Employee Productivity Awards Program, sponsored by the Local Government Federal Credit Union (LGFCU). The awards program, now celebrating its 19th year, recognizes and rewards county innovation, and for the first time this year, includes a new category that recognizes and encourages county sustainability practices.

The LGFCU Employee Productivity Awards Program provides a total of $10,000 in rewards to innovative county employees who develop successful productivity improvements in county government. To date, more than 1,400 applications have been submitted representing $105 million in savings or cost avoidance to counties.

Ten awards of $1,000 each are given to five managerial programs and five line staff programs. The 10 winning entries will be recognized and honored at the Association's Annual Conference, which will be held Aug. 26-29 in Pitt County. The 2010 awards recognize county productivity and sustainability enhancements implemented during the 2009 calendar year.

During its first 17 years, the program was known as the Ralph Ketner Employee Productivity Awards Program. In 2008, Mr. Ketner was awarded the Association’s Friend of the Counties Award for his long-time sponsorship of the program.

Each entry must be approved by the employee's immediate supervisor and the county manager prior to submission (inclusion of the manager’s and supervisor’s name on the application form will indicate approval).

Productivity enhancements are those that improve the efficiency and sustainability of county programs, services and general administration. Productivity reflects a better way of doing business.

A productivity improvement is defined as achieving one of the following objectives:

• the same level of service delivered at a lower cost;
• a higher level of service delivered at the same cost;
• avoidance of future cost increases, and/or
• use of sustainable products or practices to provide a current, new or expanded service.

There are two categories of awards: one for line staff, and one for managerial staff. Line staff members are employees not exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Managerial staff are those exempt from these regulations. Appointed officials are eligible, including county managers and department heads. Since many county agencies have team approaches to management and operations, teams of employees may submit productivity improvements for consideration. Team awards of $1,000 are equally shared based on the number of team members.

The Employee Productivity Award submissions are reviewed and evaluated by two separate committees appointed by the NCACC President. These committees include county commissioners, county managers, county staff and faculty from the UNC School of Government. Each committee selects the five most outstanding submissions in each category. The review committees look for those improvements that reflect sustainable business practices or productive and creative solutions to problems, as well as enhancements that are easily transferable to other jurisdictions. There is no limit to the number of entries a county may submit.

The application deadline for the 2009-10 competition has passed.

Information about the county sustainability toolkit, including an assessment tool, is available online at www.ncacc.org/toolkit.html.

If you have any questions or comments about the LGFCU Employee Productivity Awards Program, contact Rebecca Troutman, Intergovernmental Relations Director, at (919) 715-4360 or rebecca.troutman@ncacc.org.