SR 05-22-2018 3Q
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: May 22, 2018
Agenda Item: 3.Q
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Katie Lichtig, Assistant City Manager, City Manager's Office, Administration
Subject: Request to Authorize Services for Change Management, Process Re-
engineering and Communication and Training for the Total Workplace Project
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Award RFP# 156 to Experience Engineering, Inc., a Minnesota-based company for
change management, process re-engineering and staff engagement and training
services related to the Total Workplace project.
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with
Experience Engineering, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $350,000 (including a $20,000
contingency) for three years with future year funding contingent on Council budget
approval.
Executive Summary
To create a 21st century government to better serve our community, the City requires a
21st century workplace to provide our workforce with the most efficient and conducive
environment for doing their jobs. The Total Workplace Initiative aims to rethink the
delivery of key services to improve the customer experience by building a culture of
collaboration, innovation, effectiveness, and continuous improvement, more fully
integrating technology into operations, and leading staff to embrace and effectively work
in a 21st century workplace. The City Services Building, which opens in the spring of
2020, represents the first opportunity to design and implement this modern work
environment and culture. The City is leveraging the experience of private industry and
other public sector agencies to design the 21st century workplace for Santa Monica.
Experience Engineering is a firm with decades of experience doing this work for major
corporations and has recently turned to applying their knowledge to government. To
redesign key City services to be integrated, make the most of technology, and guide
staff through these changes in workplace environment, staff recommends authorizing a
three-year contract with Experience Engineering for an amount not to exceed $350,000.
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Discussion
The Total Workplace Initiative was established to leverage the best of 21st century
innovations in technology, workplace design and customer service delivery to improve
City services and support our workforce. Modeling efforts on the federal General
Services Administration’s program with the same name, and informed by best practices
culled from the private sector, the City engaged a professional services firm, Slalom
Consulting, LLC, for the Total Workplace project to develop a roadmap for re-
engineering key City services, digitizing paper records and workflows, and guiding staff
through the changes. The roadmap outlines the six primary tracks staff should
undertake in preparing and implementing models for a 21st century workplace with a
specific focus on the City Services Building:
1. Integrated Permit Center. A single, one-stop counter that offers permitting,
building and safety, plan check and business license, among other services,
including making the most of technology to make new services available online
and automate back-end processes.
2. Integrated Housing and Human Services Center with a single place to access
housing and social services provided by Human Services, Housing and
Economic Development, Rent Control and others related services.
3. Digital Workplace. Leveraging the latest technologies to move to digital records,
to define and operate digital workflows, and to coordinate with the Digital
Strategy Team to align internal operations with online service delivery.
4. Flexibility and Adaptability. Through laptop computers, cloud computing services,
collaboration technology tools (like SharePoint), video conferencing services (like
Skype for Business), and other features, enhance productivity and how teams
can best work while leveraging different working spaces, including working away
from a central office space (teleworking).
5. Collaboration. The new City Hall 2020 that combines the historic City Hall with
the new City Services Building will move away from a traditional silo design
where divisions and departments work in relative isolation, to an open office
design with shared resources for meeting rooms, breakrooms, printing, office
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supplies, and storage, among others. The new design should foster
organizational cohesion, and multidisciplinary problem solving.
6. Workplace Conduct. The Total Workplace Playbook, a comprehensive
operations manual and guidebook for staff, will need to address the softer,
cultural, behavioral and skills-based aspects of working differently in an open
space. The Total Workplace Playbook should both establish and reflect a
common and shared understanding for how to work respectfully with each other
while advancing collaboration, flexibility, digitization, and, above all else,
customer service.
Staff in Information Services, Human Resources, and the City Manager’s Office have
already implemented several measures to promote the Digital Workplace (#3), Flexibility
and Adaptability (#4), and Collaboration (#5) tracks. Staff have instituted cloud-based
computing services, rolled out laptop and other mobile hardware, identified a digital
signature solution, implemented SharePoint as a collaboration resource, and procured
resources to digitize and store the City’s paper records.
With that in mind, the City issued an RFP that sought an expert that can assist the City
in this transformation. Experience Engineering will focus four of the six tracks: \
(1) Integrated Permit Center
(2) Integrated Housing and Human Services Center
(3) Digital Workplace, building on work staff has already done; and
(6) Workplace Conduct track to provide a guide or code of conduct for working in
this new open, tech-enabled environment.
Experience Engineering will combine the outcomes of these tracks along with the
work done on Collaboration and Flexibility and Adaptability tracks into the Total
Workplace Playbook. Experience Engineering will also be responsible for
developing and implementing communications and training to ensure staff are able
to work comfortably and effectively in the new workspace. This Playbook will then
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be expanded as the City modernizes other services and workspaces, including the
City Yards.
Vendor Selection
On January 30, 2018, the City issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for workplace
modernization and change management services. The RFP was posted on the City’s
on-line bidding site, and notices were advertised in the Santa Monica Daily Press in
accordance with City Charter and Municipal Code provisions. Seventy-eight vendors
downloaded the RFP. Four firms responded. Responses to the RFP were reviewed by a
selection panel of staff from the City Manager’s Office, Information Services, Public
Works, Human Resources, Finance, Planning and Community Development, and
Community and Cultural Services. In order to ensure broad-based engagement of the
organization, staff were brought into the selection process from multiple departments
who represented various segments of the workforce, e.g. tenure, stratification, etc. The
following vendors submitted proposals:
Experience Engineering
Slalom Consulting, LLC
Omni Consulting
Sandra Davis and Associates
Evaluation was based on the following selection criteria: experience, technical
competence, ability to meet work plan and timeline requirements, quality control, cost of
services, cost control, references, and finally, addition and breadth of value. Staff then
interviewed three shortlisted firms. Based on this criteria and criteria in SMMC 2.24.073,
staff recommends Experience Engineering as the best qualified firm to provide cultural
and behavioral change, service experience management, and process optimization
services.
Financial Impacts
The contract to be awarded to Experience Engineering is for an amount not to exceed
$350,000. Funds of $30,000 are available in the FY 2017-18 Total Workplace budget in
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the City Manager’s Office, Administrative Division. The contract will be charged to
account SO015801.589000. Future year funding is contingent on Council budget
approval.
Prepared By: Ari Spitzer, Assistant Administrative Analyst
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. OaksInitiativeDisclosure_ExperienceEngineering
REFERENCE:
Agreement No. 10686
(CCS)