ADAMS COUNTY | Spokesman Jim Siedlecki announced last week that the Adams County Training and Development department received the Outstanding Achievement in Local Government Innovation Award from the Alliance for Innovation for the Impact Adams program.
County representatives accepted the award April 19 at the 2017 Transforming Local Government Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to Siedlecki.
Impact Adams has three programs aimed to help county employees learn, grow and contribute to the community — Evolve U, Develop Us and We Care.
Evolve U is a training program providing engaging training to develop employees both professionally and personally.
“We have transformed training and development to be about the entire employee, and we’re training them for life, not just for work skills,” said Nick Kittle, Adams County’s chief innovation officer. “In the last year, we’ve had more than a 75 percent increase in the number of people who have gone through training here in Adams County because of the diversity and volume of the training offered to them.”
Develop Us provides opportunities in the form of team facilitation, team building, organizational mentoring and succession planning. Through Develop Us, the county runs the Emerging Leaders Mentoring Program, pairing new hires with veteran county employees.
“I feel empowered to make a difference in the county,” said Kelsey Hicks, a recording tech in the Clerk and Recorder’s Office who is participating in the Emerging Leaders program. “I feel more connected, not just within my department but also with the county as a whole.”
We Care represents the county’s partnership with its community through the employee volunteer program, called Heart at Work, and county internship opportunities.
Kittle, together with Heather McDermott, chief development officer, and Jeff Newsome, talent development specialist, created the Impact Adams program.BY