City of WDM Quality Initiative

I'd like to talk a little about one of our best avenues for ensuring your services meet or exceed your expectations in the City. In 2000, we implemented a quality initiative throughout the entire organization. This initiative was created in order to address concerns relating to improvements in service, meet customer requirements, develop a process to make work more efficient and effective, and receive input from employees in the decision-making process.

There are many different types of "quality" programs you've probably heard of and can read about in MUCH detail in the business section of Barnes and Noble. As a City, there are many unique aspects to our working environment and service delivery. For that reason, we worked extra hard to tailor this program specificially to our organization during its initial phases.

The quality initiative is self-governed by a citywide team that meets monthly. This team examines areas for improvement in processes and systems across organizational boundaries. Each City department also has a Quality Team that address process improvement within their own area.

When areas for improvement are identified, Process Actions Teams (PATs) are formed to research and recommend solutions to processes. A PAT is a small group of employees that are stakeholders in the process being evaluated. Serving on a PAT is voluntary and all members are trained in problem identification and data collection methods.

Since the inception of the City of West Des Moines Quality initiative, there have been over twenty citywide PATs and nearly 30 departmental PATs chartered. These PATs have studied internal processes, like new hire orientation, and processes that more directly affect the public, like code enforcement, development review, and special events. Recommendations that have been implemented from the Citywide and departmental PATs have tremendously improved and streamlined service delivery. The Quality Process is truly a way of life for the employees of West Des Moines and a benefit to our citizens as we work more efficiently and effectively for you!

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