San Jose City Hall, 801 North First Street, Room 436, San Jose, CA 95110 (408)277-5131

City Department Wins Top Award for Excellence

San Jose, California: The City of San José Department of Human Resources is slated to receive an Award for Excellence from the Northern California Chapter of the International Personnel Management Association (NCCIPMA) at a local conference tomorrow (3/23).

"The Department is being recognized for the overall quality of its programs," states Nona Tobin, the City’s Director of Human Resources. "The award is presented to an agency that exceeds the normal operation of a good government human resources program, and we are very pleased to receive this honor."

San Jose won the top award in the category for large agencies having over 1,500 employees. According to Kathy Farr, NCCIPMA Vice-President, the award selection committee was "impressed with the programs developed throughout the Department to identify, implement and measure performance improvement strategies."

Some of the major programs that led to this recognition are the:

• WELLNESS PROGRAM - promotes health and fitness in an effort to realize savings through reduction in absenteeism and medical premiums.



• ERGONOMICS PROGRAM - fits jobs to people - not people to jobs, by helping to minimize repetitive strain injuries to employees. This program helped to reduce wrist and back injuries by 15%.

In a comparison of other California cities of similar size, the City of San José ranked as one of the lowest in the number of claims per total employees, and has shown a steady decline in this ratio since 1994.

The City estimates that the Ergonomics Program, together with other health and safety programs, have saved nearly $1.8 million since their inception.

• RETURN TO WORK PROGRAM -is an in-house rehabilitation program for non-sworn employees with work-related injuries, which also helps those who fall under ADA guidelines to find continued work within the City on a temporary or permanent basis. Over an eighteen-month period, this resulted in 23 permanent placements or accommodations for employees, a cost savings of $35,000, and a $3 million savings to the Federated Retirement System.



• TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM - focuses on providing excellent training to employees and managers to ensure they have the skills needed to deliver world class services to customers. Over 280 courses are offered to employees each year, resulting in 34,000 contact hours of training.

As an innovative jurisdiction, City officials have been invited to present information about the Department’s award-winning programs at the conference. The NCCIPMA will present the Award for Excellence to the City of San José Department of Human Resources at its annual conference on March 23, 2000, in San Leandro.

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