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Randi Frank Attended Kentucky City/County Management Association Regional Meeting in Lebanon

Randi Frank on PanelLEBANON, Ky.— Randi Frank met with several other Kentucky city managers and administrators for a regional Kentucky City/County Management Association (KCCMA) meeting on August 10, 2018.

Lebanon Mayor Gary Crenshaw welcomed attendees to the city and introduced Lebanon City Administrative Officer John Thomas as host of the meeting. The agenda for the meeting included a presentation giving an overview of Lebanon’s economic development and tourism initiatives.

Serving as the current KCCMA President and City of Lebanon CAO John Thomas said, “It’s a real pleasure to have my peers visit Lebanon to see our new City Hall and learn from our experiences in economic development and tourism. I’m proud of our city staff, we’ve given the KCCMA members some great ideas. It’s great that we can learn from one another and take information back to our hometowns.”

The Kentucky City/County Management Association (KCCMA) is made up of city managers, city administrators and county administrators from 50 cities and/or counties in Kentucky.  KCCMA was organized in 1977 and exists to encourage professionalism, competency and the value of professional management for cities and counties in Kentucky.

“I’m glad that Randi Frank Consulting is represented in this organization,” said Randi Frank, CEO of Randi Frank Consulting. “These regional meetings provide each manager with information about current issues we’re all dealing with, and we learn about new trends as well. It’s great to hear from other managers who are dealing with similar concerns elsewhere in the state.”

The Kentucky City/County Management Association is a membership organization that exists to improve the quality of government, cities, counties and services throughout Kentucky.  To learn more about the organization, visit www.kccma.org.

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Randi Frank Presented to the Louisville City Salesman’s Club about Recruitment

On July 24th  I spoke at the Louisville City Salesmen’s Club which is a business networking group of business owners and salesman for various different companies in the Louisville Metro Area. The purpose is to increase the business efficiency of each member and to cultivate the highest ethics of salesmanship by the exchange and discussion of idea and the promotion of good fellowship.  Each member represents a different type of business or services and do not compete with each other but support each other.  I was asked by one of their member’s Lori Mangum of Yes 502 Media (social media marketing firm) to speak about recruitment.  I presented a shorten version of my past speeches on this topic.  See my blog on Tips on Recruitment for more details https://randifrank.com/category/hr-tips-techniques/hiring-tips/tips-for-recruitment/

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Truman Scholars Reunion

On July 20th to 22nd I attended the fifth Truman Scholars Reunion. As a member of the first class of Truman Scholars – 1977 from CT I enjoy these events to meet the new Scholars and see many of my friends from past years such as Mark Cannon (Executive Dir APCO), Bob Van der Velde (Dean of CA College), Kent Bradley (Medical Doctor and Past Public Health Advocate) who have been attending these events for many years. I also caught up with many other friends from past meetings. The Truman Scholarship Foundation gives out at least 53 scholarships each year for a student from each State, DC, Puerto Rico and the Islands. The Scholarship is in honor of Harry S. Truman in the form of scholarships for those going into public service instead of a Statue. [ For more information about the Truman Scholarship (scholarship for Juniors in college going into public service) see website https://www.truman.gov ] .

Friday Night we had dinner and speaker at the DC Press Club. Madeline Albright – Past Secretary of State and Member of the Truman Foundation Board and Jake Sullivan a Truman scholar from MN 97 spoke about Foreign Policy. Sullivan is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Brady-Johnson Distinguished Practitioner in Grand Strategy at Yale University. He served in the Obama administration as national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, as well as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It was a lively discussion

Saturday, we had a number of sessions and luncheon speaker of another Truman Scholar from MD 1987. Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., is the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, one of the National Institutes of Health within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Appointed in 2016, he leads the federal agency for research on mental disorders. He is a former assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University, and former associate director of the Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute Adult Psychiatry Residency Program. He spoke about opportunities in Public Service with Science from Academia to Government Service.

 

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Randi Frank will speak on Recruiting vs Hiring at Small Business Conference & Expo

Chamber of St Matthews
Name: Small Business Conference & Expo
Where: Holiday Inn Louisville. East on 1325 S Hurstbourne Parkway
Date: April 18, 2018
Time: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT

Event Description:

Small Business Conference & Expo is specifically designed to help small business owners, startups and entrepreneurs like you take their business to the next level.

Ms. Frank’s session will be at 1:30pm-2:30pm. Join us for a great day of networking, lunch & education for all types of businesses.

The one-day event offers invaluable insights and exclusive networking opportunities with a wide range of business-critical workshops, seminars and presentations from top industry experts, networking, industry-leading exhibitors with innovative products/services to help your business, a business card exchange & much more.

Whether you are in the start-up phase, looking for a job, or are a long-established company, Small Business Conference and Expo has the resources you need to stay a step ahead of your competition. If you’re looking to drive your business forward and take the next step to success, join us at the Holiday Inn Louisville East on 1325 S Hurstbourne Parkway!

Cost for conference is $60 which includes lunch and conference and open expo – Additional educational sessions are also at 3pm-4pm.

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NEW – Network of Entrepreneurial Women

NEW Attended a great networking meeting with Women from NEW- Network of Entrepreneurial Women. The topic was “If I had only known these Lessons”.  Mindy Munson, President of Munson Business Interiors – an office design firm for mid to large size companies that provides office furniture and solutions.  Mindy has over 30 years of experience with this business that she started which now as grown to 24 employees and annual revenues of over $10 million. She is currently training her daughter in all aspects of the business as her succession plan for her eventual retirement.  These were some of the things she said she wished she had none when she started in business:

  1. Find your niche – what you are good at and passionate about!
  2. Understand your cash flow – find a bank that represents you and vendors that will give you a line of credit
  3. Always take the cash discount by paying your bills quickly
  4. Manage and collect your account receivables
  5. Find a smaller legal and accounting firm that can provide personal service
  6. Develop an employee handbook (this is something that we at Randi Frank Consulting can help your with)
  7. Document your procedures so if someone is out others know the process
  8. Make sure you have the right insurance
  9. When hiring look for grit, can they continue to learn and will they work hard (again Randi Frank Consulting can help you with this see our blog on Reviewing resumes & Executive Searches)
  10. You should have panel interviews so you get different perspectives from your staff on new employees (See Blog Tips on Interviewing)
  11. What gets measured get done – have goals and objectives
  12. What gets celebrated gets repeated

These are all great ideas for new businesses and entrepreneurs. If you are just staring your business call Randi Frank Consulting for your Human Resources needs. [email protected]

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KY City & County Managers Association – Chapter of International City/County Management Association

I attended the KCCMA Annual Conference recently where we learned about trends in health insurance, how Hopkinsville planned for the Solar Eclipse and about Murry State University’s Martin School of Public Policy. Professor Morrison provided us an example of a municipal issue for discussion which we critiqued and talked about a better way to handle a similar situation. Then Jay McCord, a consultant, talked about Managing Multiple Generations in the Workforce.

He discussed how we have 4 generations working in the same workforce at this time. Traditionalist, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y-Millennials and the next group coming is Gen Z.  He compared it to a Salad Bowl where you have all types of people in one place and you need to get them to work together.  It is all about building relationships with each group and understanding where they are coming from – such as:

  • Traditionalist (before 1946)– Meet me – Love rules & structure- like to show their knowledge
  • Baby Boomers (1946-1966) – Call me – Want to make a difference – significant success – corner stone of Building is what they want to leave behind – leaders by influence – 10,000 retiring every day
  • Gen X – (1966-1981) email me – Smallest Generation – very individual – money, fulfilling job and health are important – they played video games for the score
  • Gen Y – (1981-2000) text me – Know technology, multi-taskers – want to change the world – community is important because they played games as a group – expect technology – use to Uber, Air BNB, Amazon, – understand services can be offered different way – will be 54% of workforce – de-institutionalize system and demand more from government
  • Gen Z – visual – You Tube

After this interesting speech we went to dinner at the Kentucky Castle – see some pictures attached.

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Southwest Woman’s Roundtable

I have been networking with a number of woman’s groups within the Louisville Metro area to make more connections for my business. I attended my first meeting of the Southwest Woman’s Roundtable a group of woman in business that focus on their businesses in the Southwest part of Louisville.  They meet each month to support each other’s business and have different speakers.  The speaker at the meeting I attended was Colonel Pamela Stevenson – U.S. Airforce (retired). Her topic was the “The Power of me – Personal Leadership that Makes the Difference”

She highlighted the issues she faced as one of the rare woman in the Airforce (it was man’s world then and she felt it still is but we can change that as woman). She highlighted a Woman’s Power:

  • Power of me is a declaration of self
  • Build a team around you
  • Believe in you
  • Be bold leaders with confidences, courage, vested interest and tenacity
  • Don’t get in your own way with excuses and negative thoughts.

She then recommended woman use their power to move your city and community forward in some way such as: empower other woman, empower girls behind us, and end racism.  Pick a cause and move forward step by step.  I enjoyed this inspirational speaker.

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Kentucky International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR)

I attended a meeting recently of the Kentucky International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR). The topic was the State of Talent Management given by Jayne Hale Jarvis of Talent Bar Recruiting, LLC. She said the days of posting/advertising a job and praying are over. In today’s environment you need to sell your organizations.

This is happening by making sure your organization is on the various social media sites to generate interest in your organization, so when you advertise the position people know it is a great place to work. Human Resource personnel need to have a sales mentality about their organizations and positions. They need to make more than one touch with potential candidates to attract their attention. This means various social media sites and various professional sites via advertising and emails.

But the talent management doesn’t stop with advertising/recruiting. You need to make sure the candidate has a positive experience throughout the recruitment process and on-boarding process. In addition you need to continue a positive atmosphere for employees so they enjoy working for your organization until they retire. Happy employees are your best sells people to help with your talent management.  Ms. Jarvis then talked about Workforce planning & retention as part of talent management including:

  • Personal assessment to get people read for promotions
  • Engaging employees
  • Recognition programs for employees
  • Stay interviews to make sure your good employees don’t leave and you help them with their goals for their careers

As Ms. Jarvis mentioned recruitment and on-boarding are very important parts of the Talent Management and Workforce planning & retention systems.  Please click on my tips for recruitment and on-boarding as part of my blogs.

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Kentucky Public Human Resources Association (KPHRS)

I joined KPHRS – Kentucky Public Human Resources Association and attended their fall conference recently. KPHRS is an association of HR professionals who work for City, County or Public Agencies. It is similar to the ConnPelra group in CT that represents the Municipal HR professionals. The Fall conference was held in Frankfort at the Kentucky Association of County Officials-KACO.

Topics covered at the fall conference included the State Pension Plan revisions that affect all municipal employees (there is one system in the State so if you move from one city to another you are still in the same pension plan). The Kentucky system includes State employees-KERS and the City/County Employees in the CERS. Unfortunately, the State has not been making their payments while the City and Counties have and the retirement system is underfunded similar to other States.

There was also a review of health benefits that was based on a survey conducted regarding usual changes in premium share and co-payments.

The last speaker, a municipal attorney, reviewed the State Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, and sexual harassment cases by vendors or customers. FOI rules in Kentucky allow Cities to charge commercial entities for copies and time spent gathering information. It also allows Cities to appeal if the request is too burdensome and only provide the information in the format they have and not put it into a requested format.

The State of Kentucky does not require by law that supervisors be trained in Sexual Harassment Prevention as is required in Connecticut. However, it is recommended that training be conducted and the policies must have a number of ways for employees to report problems. It also requires that employers make sure that employees are not being harassed by outside vendors or customers. For additional information about Sexual Harassment Prevention see my website at https://randifrank.com/category/hr-tips-techniques/sexual-harassment-prevention/

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Getting to know local businesses and culture through LIBA

member of Louisville Independent Business AllianceLIBA – Louisville Independent Business Association is for small and medium companies that are not part of a national company.  For example, local banks can join but the national banks are not members.

As you would imagine there are a lot of entrepreneurs, retail stores, local restaurants, local artist and various service businesses.  They hold a buy local fair every year and have various meetings at some of their different businesses.

The first meeting I went to was a bourbon tasting which is very much a local business and highlight for tourist in Kentucky as well as Louisville.

Recently we had a tour of the economic development happening in the West End of the City (the poorer side of the city that is experiencing a renewal and boom of new businesses).

The last meeting I attended was a tour of Jeffersonville, IN presented by  the Southern Indiana and the economic development agency that’s called “SO IN” –  a great play on words. From Louisville, it’s just a short walk via a footbridge across the Ohio river to downtown Jeffersonville. The bridge has led to the growth of new stores, new restaurants and boutiques.  One of sweetest stops was the old candy shop where they still make candy by hand. Of course we enjoyed some tasty samples:)

It was great to meet so many new business owners and share the experience with my new Bookkeeper – Marla Blanchard of MJB’s Bookkeeping Solutions. http://mjbsbookkeeping.com/   She is a great help with my QuickBooks.

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Advice to women in business

During my networking at the NAWBO business fair I met Dr. Sharon Kerrick, Dean of the Business School at Bellarmine University.  She invited me to their free seminars for students and business owners.  I must say it is nice to attend a lecture and take notes and not be worried about a test.  (Been there, done that.)  It allows for great networking and learning what is new in the business world.

Susan Cameron – First Female CEO of Reynold Cooperation:  Advice to women in business

I attended one of these sessions when they introduced Susan Cameron the first Female CEO of Reynolds Cooperation. She provided an interesting history of how she moved up the ladder in a man’s world by starting in consumer marketing.  She then proceeded to illustrate her thoughts on Secrets to Success.  I have summarized them below:

  • Jump on a new opportunity – take a chance you can always go home
  • Love what you do and find the right cultural fit for you
  • You need to find mentors so you can learn from others – you can also learn what not to do from your tormentors or bad managers
  • It is all about your team – you can’t do it yourself – build a team to complement your strengths (know your strengths and weakness -Mend the Gap) – learn how to delegate
  • The team needs to be full inclusion of diversity
  • Must have the ability to prioritize and focus on the top 4 things
  • Have to operate in the Grey – not all black and white
  • Need to have the experience and calculate the risk and learn from your team then make the decision
  • Follow the Golden Rule
  • Business can’t stand still – change is hard but make it transparent to all

She also provided a perspective on Women Leaders and Men Leaders.  She felt Women are more culturally aware and value the employee relationships while men are better at conflict and getting the job done and moving on. Woman feel they have to be 150% ready to accept the promotion and while Men are comfortable accepting if they’re 70% ready. Woman have to learn let go and just go for it.  Great advice.

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Louisville Chapter of SHRM – Society of Human Resource Managers

Dealing with Mental Illness in the Workplace

I have joined the Louisville Chapter of SHRM – Society of Human Resource Managers. I attended one of their monthly meetings recently with the Topic of Dealing with Mental Illness and the ADA-Americans with Disabilities Act.

I have had a lot of training on making accommodations for those with disabilities but not when it comes to Mental Illness. The speaker, Kelley Gannon, COO of Centerstone Kentucky, indicated we really needed to understand mental illness before we can think about making accommodations.

Everyone has mental health and bad mental health days but Mental Illness is a Chronic disease, meaning it is ongoing.  Some examples include hallucinations, delusion, extreme sadness, ongoing anxiety, Bipolar disease, etc.

HR professionals are not required to diagnose employees but to be aware of the symptoms (different appearance, mood, etc.) and reach out to those who can help such as your counselors from EAP-Employee Assistance Programs.

Ms. Gannon suggested some of the following steps to address employees with mental illness:

  • Soft and slow voice – calm voice ( I can’t listen when you yell)
  • Make eye contact
  • Simple and short questions
  • Keep them focused on the issue
  • Be Transparent
  • Reflect by saying it seems like, so you think, sounds like, etc

Non- Helpful responses are:

  • “I know how you feel”
  • Don’t intrude into their personal space – in fact double the space
  • Don’t give flippant responses like “don’t worry”
  • Don’t disrespect them – give them respect
  • Don’t tell them their issue is not valid

She also indicated these employees can be needy and may want to talk to you often so you might need to set limits. For example, tell them “I only have 5 minutes to give you today” and ask them to address these three questions

  1. What is the purpose of your call – how can I help?
  2. What is the most important thing you need me to know right now?
  3. How can I help with that most important thing /concern right now?

Of course, every case of mental illness is different and each case may need different accommodations. So, seek expert advice on mental illness, employment attorney’s related to ADA regulations and places like Job Accommodation Network-JAN or Center of Accessible Living

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My day at the KY Chapter IPMA-HR Fall Development and Training Conference

I attended the KY Chapter of IPMA-HR (International Public Management Association for HR) Fall Development and Training Conference at Claudia Sanders Dinner House (Wife of Colonel Sanders from KFC).  In addition to awards programs, and state updates we had a number of speakers.

One session was called What Flavor of Ice Cream are You?  This was personality test which placed people as either Chocolate-Traditional, or Vanilla – Participative, or Strawberry – Individualist.  Most people were a combination which the speaker called Neapolitan World which is good since we need all kinds to get the work done.  See below for the strengths of each flavor

Chocolate-Traditionalist

Provide clarity of tasks
Organize efforts
Attention to details
Adhere to Standards
Appreciate Traditions
Remember Facts
Structure & Order
Provide Consistency

Vanilla – Participative

Care about People
Bring Harmony & Peace
Teach & Give Counsel
Give Encouragement
Instill Team Spirit
Persuade & Motivate
Are Sensitive to Others
Provide support

Strawberry – Individualists

Challenge the System
Find Flaws in procedures
Tackle problems with Zest
Provide Reform when needed
Generate New Ideas
Focus energy on present
Accentuate possibilities
Celebrate the Individual

 

The Second major speaker was Karim Ellis of Empowered Education.  His speech was called Game time – How to create Massive Success before you Roll the Dice!  He used board games from our childhood to demonstrate his points, it was very entertaining since members of the audience had opportunities to play the games as part of the illustrations.  He then summarized his thought into the following guidelines:

  • Know your gifts/talents – put the right plan in to place for those talents and plant that seed
  • What is the right environment for your gifts
  • Strategically Connect to People – 50% is what you know and 50% is who you know
  • Don’t wait get started now- Don’t let time run out- Take Action
  • Law of Attraction – think it – vision it – strategically focus on the vision – Check Mate

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My day at KLC-Kentucky League of Cities Conference

Learning about KY Employee handbooks, drones, opioid crisis while renewing acquaintances.

In addition to the opening speakers at the KLC-Kentucky League of Cities Conference, I attended a number of breakout sessions. The first one was on how to develop an employee handbook for municipalities/Cities (all municipalities in KY are call cities no matter what size).

Most of the rules were the same except for the open carry laws in KY that allow employees to bring weapons to work or leave them in their personal car except on school property.

They did emphasise that during orientation, new employees should be trained about the employee handbooks which covers many of the City Policies.  For more information on onboarding and orientation see my blog at https://randifrank.com/category/hr-tips-techniques/tips-on-orientation-onboarding/ .

At the conference, I also learned about ordinances dealing with drones and new programs to address the opioid crisis. The City of Jefferesontown has a great process called Angel Program that allows people to come to the police for help and not be arrested if they follow certain rules.  This is based on a program started in Gloucester, MA.

At the end of the evening the KCCMA (KY City Manager Association) members met for dinner and drinks at a local Brewery to mingle.  I was able to meet up with a colleague David Johnson, the new City Manager of Covington, KY. David and I met when he was a candidate for one of the Town Manager searches I did in the past.

He was so complimentary about my services and abilities when he was talking to the other KY City Managers.  It was unsolicited praise but very appreciated. He did not get the position I was working on at the time but he talked about how I kept him informed about all the processes of the search and shared so much about the positives and negatives of the position to make sure it was a good fit.

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Learning about Kentucky government

In my efforts to learn about KY government, I have joined the KCCMA – – Kentucky City & County Managers Association which are supported by a staff person from KLC – Kentucky League of Cities. Since KY is so large the KCCMA meets quarterly unlike CT City/Town Managers who meet monthly.

The group holds an annual conference in February and attends the KLC Annual Conference in October and has 2 regional meetings.  I attended last February and learned about KY Legislative issues and attended a regional meeting in Shelbyville where the City Manager talked about the use of the hotel tax for tourism and economic development.

I also attended the KLC Conference on October 4th.   The morning started out with an address of a fellow Truman Scholar – Ryan Quarles, KY Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture. He is the youngest commissioner in Kentucky’s history, but what else is new for Truman Scholars. [ For more information about the Truman Scholarship (scholarship for Juniors in college going into public service) see website https://www.truman.gov ].

He spoke about a new program where farmers send their products not good enough for the grocery stores like too large cucumber or a bruised tomato to the various food banks in KY.  The opening session was given by Jason Roberts, Founder of Better Block Foundation which promotes community driven temporary takeovers of blighted blocks in neighborhoods to start the urban renewal quickly.

Member – Louisville Independent Business Alliance

member of Louisville Independent Business Alliance

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