Employee Appreciation
This past Friday, Orange County hosted a lunch for all of the County employees. I had a chance to meet and speak with employees from every department. Since I’m working in the County Manager’s office, I’ve read materials pertaining to most of those departments. It was great to make a connection with employees involved in some of the projects I’ve read about. Putting faces with names will help make the work I do more meaningful.
I had never been involved in an event quite like this. The human resources department organized everything. In addition to lunch there were “booths” set up for employees to either play games or learn ways to improve their well-being while at work, such as a demonstration of exercises to do at their desk. I played several of the games with/against my fellow MPA Intern, Daniel Baird. Most everyone I interacted with was having fun. I can see where an annual event like this is beneficial to employee morale. I’m interested to know if the HR department does any type of follow-up with the employees to get feedback about the event, or if they just use their general observations to decide if the event was a success. From my perspective, the department did a great job of coordinating with all the departments to put this on. In addition to this event, next week, there is another appreciation lunch for just the workers in the Manager’s Office. I’m hoping I’ll be able to make personal connections at this lunch like I was able to make at last week’s event!
