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During the Troup County Board of Commissioners work session on Tuesday morning, the county discussed an initiative to improve customer service for residents of Troup County, including county employees themselves.

“For the past couple of years to try to really increase our level of customer service both outwardly and inwardly,” County Manager Eric Mosley said, explaining that part of customer service is providing services to county employees.

Denise Smith, who serves as Grants Manager and Customer Service Manager for Troup County, along with members of the county’s employee engagement team, now called Employees for Employees, explained the endeavor to improve employee engagement and culture.

Smith said the efforts to improve customer service and employee culture began with the development of Imagine Troup County standards, the designation of ambassadors and departmental trainings. Leadership development was also addressed with the Emerging Leaders Program, which has had three cohorts and another starting in June.

The latest initiative for the committee of leaders from all county departments is to create a mission, vision and values statement.

“These statements are an organization’s north star and encompassing its culture and goals,” Smith said.

Smith said a committee was organized and began meeting in November to developed it was organized to develop a mission vision and value statement for Troup County.

The Mission, Vision and Values Team ultimately presented to the commissioners the following mission statement for consideration, which is to create a welcoming and safe community by providing helpful efficient public services to every citizen.

Mosley said the initiative also included an effort to better engage employees.

“One of the things that we’ve learned early on is that happy employees are also providing better service,” Mosley said. “We are really working hard to build a very strong foundation for better customer service. … We certainly want to get along as well. We spend the majority of our time together.”

“We know from research that engaged employees provide higher productivity, better quality work have lower employment turnover and provide greater customer satisfaction,” Public Services Director Dexter Wells said.

To help employee culture, the Employees for Employees has begun creating various fun activities to promote employee engagement ranging from holiday events to tailgate parties.

Communications Manager Carolyn Johnson said there are also plans to build an online space to serve as one consolidated place where employees can go to find a wide range of helpful resources ranging from employee benefits to wellness programs.