Career story: How to excel in public works

What does a day in your shoes feel like? And what are the key skills that can make or break a career in your field?

We have asked a diverse group of Apolitical members to share their career story with us and the tips they have for junior public servants. In this article, Brian Black from St. Clair Township in Ontario explains why listening skills is key to a career in public works.

What is your role in government and how do you spend your time on a standard workday?

My name is Brian Black, and I am the director for public works in St. Clair Township in south-western Ontario, Canada, where I report to the chief administrative officer. In my role I am accountable for assets and services related to the core functions of St. Clair Township, such as roads, bridges, streetlights, water systems, sanitary systems, storm systems, solid waste and recycle collection.

A typical day would entail reviewing information related to the various activities that our department is involved with through email and direct discussion with staff and providing any assistance and guidance to help move initiatives along and manage barriers we encounter along the way. My day would also include reporting of various initiatives as well as making recommendations to senior staff or the council.

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Working with a lens of asset management and continual improvement, we are regularly making recommendations regarding budget additions and associated asset improvements, replacements and additions, as well as process improvements or additions.

I also spend time reviewing the department structure, processes and tasks to ensure that our department is operating efficiently and safely. Many of the processes are captured in procedures and policies that must be reviewed and updated. I also spend my time performing inspections on shop and work locations to identify safety or efficiency opportunities. Conversations with the various department heads and staff also identify different challenges revealed through discussion and resulting in the development of new initiatives to help manage or eliminate issues.

In your opinion, what are the most important skills someone needs in order to excel in your field?

Organisational and leadership skills are very important in my position.

Providing structure to your department through regular communication through meetings, performance feedback, recognition, job descriptions, procedures and policy all help to ensure that employees have a good understanding of how they are doing, what others are involved with and how it may impact them and what regulatory, safety or other steps are required to perform the job or task.

Leadership skills are important, starting with listening skills. It is critical to hear and understand what the challenges are and assist your staff in overcoming them. It is also important to coach staff, providing them with areas to focus improvement, look at other options or methods to approach a problem, think outside the box and develop creative ways to solve an issue, encourage, reward and motivate them. It is important to deal with issues quickly, make informed yet prompt decisions and ensure a disciplined but fair approach to managing staff.

What is your favourite part of your job? What would you change if you could wave a magic wand?

The most enjoyable part of my job is to identify an area where we have an opportunity to improve efficiency or safety and working through an initiative to achieve the objective. Continual improvement is a theme within our department, which means that staff are continually reviewing our operations, identifying our highest risk functions and looking at how we can make them better, more efficient, safer and ultimately less risky.

Sometimes this can occur with a simple change in process or new initiative or by hiring a third-party specialist to do a study and provide recommendations.

Each department head submits their requested projects based on areas they would like to improve or where they have had complaints or challenges

One change that I would love to make within our organisation is related to the process we follow regarding capital budgeting recommendations and approval. Today, each department head submits their requested projects based on areas they would like to improve or where they have had complaints or challenges.

It would be my desire to bring a more scientific approach to this process. Similar to other industries, it would be preferable to utilise risk assessment related to the asset or service that each department is looking to improve and then prioritise all budgeted items to establish the top issues (based on risk) to be included in the budgeting envelope for the given time period.

Asset management would also be utilised to identify asset condition and actual level of service, which would also help prioritise assets based on their requirement for attention. This process would remove the subjectivity from project selection and budget formation.

What advice would you give to young public servants who are interested in a career in your field?

My advice for young public servants who are interested in the field of public works is to look at entry level positions within municipal operations, public works or other industry-related operating roles to build experience.

Building experience is a great way to expand your expertise and technical skills and set yourself up for roles of greater responsibility within the area of business operations. Aiming for a role of “people leader” or supervisor is a key step to gain experience with managing staff and building leadership skills.

Another key area of development is training. Continuous learning is key for anyone who is looking to move to a role with more responsibility. Taking courses to expand your soft skills around organisation and leadership is critical to prepare yourself for the next level role. In many cases people who move to the next level are strong in technical skills but lack in the area of soft skills. Balancing your knowledge in these areas is important for success at that next level.

Often business organisational and leadership skills are offered within organisations at no or very little cost. If you’re at a small firm, you can look around your community and find course offerings in these areas at low costs. Night school or online courses are also options to pick up career assisting soft skills. — Brian Black

(Picture Credit: Unsplash)

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