Organizational Excellence

Be an innovative, effective, engaged, and transparent organization focused on quality programs and services.

Why is Organizational Excellence a Strategic Plan Pillar?

The County of Sonoma, with its 27 departments and 4,000+ employees, provides hundreds of services to the community. These services protect, preserve, support, and enhance the well-being of Sonoma County, its residents, and visitors.

Examples range from supportive services to our most vulnerable residents, administering elections, providing the open space for recreation, preserving and improving our roadways, ensuring environmental protections and sound planning, protecting the safety of our residents, upholding justice, and responding and recovering in times of disaster and emergencies.

Why Focus on Organizational Excellence?

In order to serve Sonoma County residents and fulfill State and Federal mandates, the County organization must perform at its best. It must be efficient and effective, while being fiscally responsible and accountable. Fiscal operations must be sound and transparent. Technology and processes must maximize efficiencies and service delivery. 

Employees must be engaged and have job satisfaction so they are inspired to provide excellent service. The County’s workforce should reflect the County’s demographic makeup so we can best meet the needs of our diverse community. Revenues and funding streams should be leveraged as much as possible. Commu- nication and engagement with Sonoma County residents should result in services that meet the needs of our residents.

Organizational Excellence: Goal 1 

Strengthen operational effectiveness, fiscal reliability, and accountability.

Objective 1:

Align the Board of Supervisor’s strategic priorities, policy, and operational goals with funding and resources.

85%

Objective 2:

Establish a master list of technology needs that support operational/service improvements by mid-2022, identify enterprise solutions, and develop fiscal strategies to fund and implement improvements.

95%

Objective 3:

Establish expectations and performance measures for customer service for all County departments.

Started 5%

Objective 4:

Streamline routine administrative procedures and workflows and delegate more signature authority to department heads in order to re-direct work force resources to more strategic priorities.

10%

Objective 5:

Align procurement and grant guidelines with strategic priorities and racial equity principles.

50%

Objective 6:

Develop training and staffing structures that effectively support disaster services work and emergency operations, particularly for large-scale and ongoing events.

70%

Organizational Excellence: Goal 2

Increase information sharing and transparency and improve County and community engagement.

Objective 1

Conduct a community satisfaction survey to identify baseline expectations. 

100%

Objective 2

Using results from survey, develop and launch a community engagement and outreach strategy, establish a process for engagement and collaboration, and ensure the strategy is inclusive of all underserved populations by the end of 2022. 

30%

Objective 3

Ensure County budget process and information are understandable, accessible, and in a format that enables the public to identify County investments and funding for major initiatives and services.

35%

Objective 4

Develop a new website that is more customer friendly, community focused, and supports County and community needs by 2022.

98%

Objective 5

Develop strategies that improve information and knowledge sharing within and between County departments.

10%

Organizational Excellence: Goal 3

Become an employer of choice with a diverse workforce that reflects our community, and an employer with a positive work culture that results in engaged and developed employees.

Objective 1

Implement programs and identify opportunities to support employee work-life balance and a positive work environment, including a Telework Policy.

30%

Objective 2

Conduct an employee engagement survey by mid-2022, and based on survey data, develop and implement strategies to incorporate survey outcomes into future operational planning.

5%

Objective 3

Support employee professional growth and retention by investing in high quality training, development, and leadership programs.

75%

Organizational Excellence: Goal 4

Seek out grant funding to enhance programs and improve infrastructure.

Objective 1:

Secure a total of $60 million in grant funding by 2026 for strategic priorities, including technology tools, climate resiliency, and other capital projects. 

100%