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Website Design, all-articles, all-news
Your citizens have high expectations. They want on-demand access to news, information, resources, and self-service tools to help them lead comfortable, and engaged lives in your community. You have high expectations too, and they all surround giving your citizens what they want—and more. The foundation of your citizen engagement strategy should be your municipal website. The problem, however, is that despite the best intentions, building the type of digital experiences that citizens want can be challenging. If not properly guided, it can be easy for local governments to fall into the common traps that too often mar the reputations of public sector websites.
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all-articles, all-news, Communication, Emergency Notifications
In Edmond, Oklahoma, temperatures during the month of August can peak at 106 degrees. In Falls Church, VA, they can reach 102 degrees, and over in Gallup, NM, summer temperatures can remain in the 90s for days. Across the country, communities are at risk of extreme heat conditions, especially during peak summer months. While for many, hot summer days are the perfect time to splash in cool waters, drink icy cold lemonade, and stay in the air conditioning with a good book, they can pose severe dangers to the elderly, children, and pets. To help educate your community about the risks of extreme heat, and help your citizens stay safe this summer, read our tips below.
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all-articles, all-news, parks and recreation
Community volunteerism is the ultimate form of civic engagement. When your citizens give back to the community in which they live, and volunteer their time to improve the lives of their neighbors, it demonstrates a true commitment to civic progress and community growth. According to the Corporation for National & Community Service, there are 62.6 million volunteers in America that have serviced 7.8 billion hours, at an estimated value of $184 billion.
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Human Resources, all-articles, all-news
Interviewing can be a time-consuming process for HR professionals and hiring managers, but it’s a very important and necessary part of the hiring process. Interviews play a key role in determining if an applicant and an organization are the right match. The questions that you ask in an interview should help you learn more about the applicants, and allow you to carefully choose the best match for your local municipality. However, no matter what questions you ask, you may still receive answers that will surprise you while conducting an interview.
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all-articles, all-news, Communication
You’ve seen them everywhere, from Twitter, to Instagram, to t-shirts, to memes, but what exactly is the point of the hashtag? More importantly, are hashtags really important when creating social media posts for your local government? Believe it or not, the hashtag can be a powerful component of a social communication strategy. That little symbol can make a big difference in the reach and effectiveness of your message. If you’re ready to take your social strategy to the next level, it’s time to understand the power of the hashtag.
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Website Design, all-articles, all-news
Your municipal website is the cornerstone of your civic communications. It’s the hub of your internal administrative workflows, and a reliable resource your residents depend on. To maintain a high quality municipal website that evolves as the needs of your community evolve, local governments must align themselves with a strategic website vendor that can demonstrate a proven process for redesigning exceptionally functional, and exceptionally beautiful, civic websites.
Website Design, all-articles, all-news
Your current local government website is outdated, inflexible, and unimpressive. If you’re about to begin a website redesign project, you’re likely wondering how to choose the right government web design vendor. There are a lot of detailed factors that go into choosing a vendor, but that doesn’t mean you need to be overwhelmed by the process. To simplify this important choice, we’ve come up with a short list of factors to consider.
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all-articles, all-news, Emergency Notifications
“I felt a jolt, and then a few seconds later, everything started to shake.”
“It only lasted a few seconds but it felt like hours.”
When the shaking stopped, I looked around the room and it was a mess. Everything had tumbled off the shelves and there were broken items everywhere.”
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all-articles, all-news, Emergency Notifications
It’s a nightmare no emergency manager wants to face. There’s a wanted suspect in your community, believed to be dangerous. Every second counts for the safe apprehension of the suspect. Every citizen needs to be aware of the threat, while anyone in the area could have information to help in the search. The fastest, most direct, and impactful way to reach as many citizens as possible will be to use your emergency mass notification system. To help you communicate wanted suspect safety and awareness information quickly and effectively, read the following eight communication best practices.
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Human Resources, all-articles, all-news
We all know what it feels like to be the new employee in the office: unnerving, unsettling, and uncertain. Where’s the fax machine? How do you order business cards? Where is the “Main” conference room? Data shows that the more thorough a new employee’s onboarding process, the more secure he will feel in his new role, the more comfortable he will feel with his coworkers and supervisor, and the more effective and efficient he’ll be early on. Most importantly, effective onboarding leads to job satisfaction, and ultimately, retention. What this means for human resource (HR) managers, is that the the strength of your onboarding process is crucial to your goal of retaining the best talent in your community.
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Website Design, all-articles, all-news
From the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf Coast. From bustling metropolitan communities to sprawling, rural landscapes. Each and every community that we work with is unique, which is why we believe every government website design should be just as unique. Your city’s website should be a visual representation of your community and reflect the values of its people, and the vibe of its streets.
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all-articles, all-news, parks and recreation
July is Parks and Recreation Month, which means you and your citizens get 31 days to celebrate all the parks, pools, lakes, and trails that are loved in your community. Established by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), Parks and Recreation Month aims to encourage both children and adults to get out and be active in the community, and to encourage physical health and mental wellbeing. Thanks to the efforts of NRPA, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an official resolution for Parks and Recreation Month in 2009, which means we’ll be celebrating our community parks every July for years to come.
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Picture your daily repetitive routine of managing activities and memberships, as well as keeping up with instructors, sports leagues, ticketing, facilities, and point-of-sale transactions, not to mention tending to both employee and citizen concerns. Overwhelming yourself by manually managing these recurring tasks isn’t the only option. If you haven’t heard of it before, let us introduce recreation management software—the more powerful and flexible option.
Your community is where thousands—maybe even millions—of citizens call home, and it’s your job to help citizens protect their home. Mothers, fathers, business owners, even children, will look to the leaders of their community for peace of mind and reassurance that everything that can be done to protect them from an unexpected disaster, has been done. To help you protect your citizens and give them the peace of mind you all want and need, we’ve compiled 8 tips for local government community emergency preparedness. Stay one step ahead of a possible disaster with these planning tips.
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Website Design, Human Resources, Emergency Notifications, parks and recreation
What is CivicPlus®? This simple question deserves more than a simple answer, because we are more than a single solution company. Bringing tailored technology and deep local government expertise together in a powerful way, we deliver thoughtful solutions that improve the processes between people and software applications.
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New requirements associated with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) state that all payment systems must disable early Transport Layer Security (TLS) by 2018. TLS is a technology used to encrypt sensitive information sent via the Internet. TLS is the replacement for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
If you think all recreation management software solutions offer the same features, think again. Most solutions allow local governments to complete standard transactions, like scheduling activities and allowing online registrations. For many software systems, this is where the functionality ends, and where manual interventions and alternate processes and systems take over.
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It shouldn’t surprise you that there are many people in your community who want to work for your local government. You may be shocked, however, to learn that many of those same people hate your recruitment and hiring process. Don’t feel frustrated. We’re here to help you understand possible areas of frustration so that you can make the necessary improvements to ensure the best talent are following through with your hiring process from applicant to new employee.
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There is no doubt that social media plays a big role in modern day recruiting, especially because many job seekers rely heavily on the Internet during their job search. If you aren’t using social media in your recruitment efforts, then you need to take immediate action to look for ways that you can integrate it into your plan. Without social media, it’s likely that you’re missing out on many qualified candidates.
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With each day your municipality remains understaffed, citizens and staff feel the effects with greater impact. Understaffed administrations are less responsive to inquiries and requests. They have less available staff to complete community projects. Worst of all, they have less bandwidth to proactively initiate programs that could further the community’s mission and vision. When your municipality is understaffed, you’re simply limited in what you can accomplish. A slow hiring process will only hurt your community, your staff, and your citizens. Here are six reasons why.
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Leaders in government human resources know that a good performance appraisal system is an integral component of their process of helping employees grow and develop. Most local governments implement some type of tool that can be used to evaluate employee performance, but the problem is that the performance appraisal system doesn’t achieve the desired results. When the results aren’t achieved, then the most common approach is to change the system to change the performance results.
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You already know that encouraging citizens to get out and get active in your community starts with a promotional strategy that includes online and social. What you may not realize is that your citizens are searching for local government parks and rec programs not just online, but from a mobile device. These mobile-minded citizens are hoping not just to find community-based activities, classes, and leagues, but to complete the online registration process—all from a mobile device.
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You never know when an emergency will strike your community—which is why early preparation, community education, and constant vigilance are essential to keeping citizens safe. One of the most effective ways of preparing your citizens for a possible disaster, is to involve them directly in the education, and response process. If your municipality has not already established a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), learn what it takes to effectively implement a CERT that enables your citizens to become an active part of their safety and preparedness.
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It’s every parent’s nightmare: their child is missing. Abducted. As seconds tick away, panicked parents fear their child is being taken farther and father away from home, and that the odds of their child being returned safely are growing smaller and smaller. Leveraging the power of our nations’ communities and their engaged, concerned citizens, since its inception in 1996, the national AMBER Alert program has proven to be a successful system for helping reunite abducted children with their parents. As of December 2016, AMBER Alerts have successfully recovered 857 children. To learn how to successfully use the AMBER Alert system to communicate potential abductions in your community, familiarize yourself with the reach of the AMBER Alert system, and our communication best practices.
