This article is written by Yoshi Manale, Chief of Staff at the City of Trenton, New Jersey

In baseball, there is a school of thought called Sabermetrics developed by player-turned-executive Billy Beane (of Moneyball fame). The creation of Sabermetrics' purpose is that we need new methods to assess talent differently than we have traditionally done.

One such method is called wins above replacement (WAR). This method is a metric that determines the value of the player compared to the overall pool of players that could be considered as replacements.

WAR is calculated based on multiple data points to give an overall assessment of a player's value to an organisation. If established that a high-salaried player's WAR score is low, that player becomes expendable to the organisation if there are other more "affordable" players available that might offer more bang for their buck. Conversely, if a "cheaper" player provides a greater WAR at an incredible discount, that player becomes increasingly valuable to an organisation to keep.

This basic idea of being able to determine the value of a player regardless of their position, experience, or salary is a tool that allows organisations to make more informed personnel decisions. While the concept of WAR is in use by other sports such as basketball and football and discussed as a tool in private sector industries such as law and medicine, it has yet to be utilised comprehensively in the public sector.

From baseball to government

In cities employing individuals in jobs as varied as customer service, public safety, and maintenance, determining the comparative value of each employee is a complicated — and often subjective — process.

Taxpayers and politicians alike often underestimate or overvalue individual employees based on their job title and experience. Is a sewer repair person with twenty years on the job, for example, less valuable to the city than that of a second-year fireman? Is a traffic enforcement officer's value to the city the same as a customer service representative in the tax office? How might the "worth" of a veteran administrative assistant with decades of experience compare to that of an incoming Department Director new to the city? These evaluations of employees' worth are measured every day when city governments create budgets and determine hiring priorities. This arbitrary decision-making in the evaluation process often results in the overlooking of a city's most valuable employees, an under-appreciation of their loss, and the financial and organisational impact on their absence.

Removing the inherent bias of traditional evaluations would provide a level playing field for employees that may otherwise go unrecognised.

In both the private and public sectors, the idea of a performance review has long been commonplace; however, the private sector is slowly moving away from traditional employee evaluation toward more fluid real-time assessments. This assessment can provide managers and employees direction and feedback on an ongoing basis. Instant performance management is vital in the data-driven decision-making models toward which many private organisations and modern cities are moving. The antiquated top-down employee evaluation utilised by most local governments only tells half the story of any employee's value to the city. Much like WAR, for decision-makers to fully understand an employee's real-time importance, multiple metrics should be considered as components of a holistic Employee Value Score (EVS) to determine an unbiased assessment of the employees.

Measurements such as experience, salary, discipline, attendance, leadership ability and potential, scarcity of specialised talent, creativity, and professionalism — in addition to traditional employee 360 evaluations — all add up to create a clearer picture of that individual's actual value to the city. How those factors add up allows decision-makers to understand and compare two individuals that may have entirely different job descriptions and functions.

For instance, a sanitation worker may have years of experience, doing the job of two or three people and saving the city thousands of dollars with low-cost fixes. However, his cost to the city is double that of peer's salaries at the position, and his ability to interact with other employees has been poor. Still, his value to the organisation may be significant. A weighted formula establishing his value measurements would capture that he excels in specific categories but is deficient in others. However, considering his job title, the interaction with peers, and the need for leadership is minimal, so those items are given less weight, with costs and experience weighted more heavily.

Appreciating the value of public servants

I know that some people reading this will think that using a comprehensive, metric-based evaluation score for employees is dehumanising.

To those people, I make the counter-argument that removing the inherent bias of traditional evaluations would provide a level playing field for employees that may otherwise go unrecognised. Such employees often work in support positions and mid-management, and an EVS affords them the recognition of their value. Conversely, employees that are deficient in their jobs would find it much harder to hide, with an EVS holding them accountable for the work they have failed to complete. Rather than a city forced to compensate by hiring additional staff or offsetting those positions with private vendors, increasing costs and reducing efficiency, an EVS enables cities to recognise and rely on those outstanding employees while admonishing those failing to perform their duties.

Tailored standard metrics for various positions creates a tool for decision-makers to make a crucial budget and personal choices. A conventional WAR for government provides employees with a transparent and accountable metric to understand what they contribute to an organisation, identifies areas of success and those that need improvement and could even enable unions to utilise those numbers as part of negotiations. An extensive evaluation metric will move cities and local governments toward a more data-driven model that will encourage transparency, cost savings, and, most importantly, a greater appreciation of the value of our public servants. — Yoshi Manale

(Picture credit: Unsplash)

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