By Kassondra Cloos
The Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — After employees worked for more than a decade under former El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, the new administration has found itself facing more than just a bit of a morale problem.
So, to balance the scales, there’s a new employee recognition program. It’s called getting “coined.”
Sheriff Bill Elder has talked openly about the issues in the office right from the beginning: on his first day, he said employees were hesitant to step into his office or speak too openly, loudly or jokingly on the fifth floor. Employees rarely ventured there during Maketa’s time in office, Elder said, and he found it just plain sad that people didn’t enjoy going to work or worried excessively about what they said and where they said it. That same morning, Janet Huffor, Elder’s chief of staff, pitched an idea to start a recognition program. No longer would good deeds go unnoticed: they would reward good work and make employees feel valuable and appreciated again.
Elder loved it.
In April, employees started getting “coined” with the Sheriff’s Coin of Excellence. It’s a common tradition in law enforcement and the military to recognize stand-out behavior with challenge coins.
“I’m excited for where we’re headed,” he said in his office recently, with the door wide open. “Morale has come around tremendously. I feel very comfortable we are headed in the right direction. We have a lot to do, but we knew that.”
The shiny new Sheriff’s Office coins have a good weight to them. They bear the office logo but not the Sheriff’s name; Elder prides himself on being just about as fiscally conservative as it gets, and he doesn’t want the organization to have a bunch of coins it can’t use once he’s no longer in office.
Anyone can nominate an employee for a coin, and there’s no limit to how many times people can be recognized. When they’re coined, they have no idea it’s coming. Staff members and Elder attend briefings recognizing employees in front of their co-workers, with a focus on spotlighting enthusiasm, responsibility, honor, humility and other positive character traits.
Recent commendations Huffor used as examples include employees who stepped in to assist their coworkers at the jail when they knew a section was understaffed, a deputy who took initiative to inform a property owner about a significant amount of trash that was causing a problem for the neighborhood and a deputy at the jail who took control of a situation involving an unruly inmate.
Another recent award went to an inmate classification counselor who organized a bake sale to raise money for a seriously ill sergeant’s mounting medical bills. B. Ford (only first initial used per sheriff’s office request) brought more than $1,000 to the sergeant’s family along with a plate of goodies and worked with the Be the Match Foundation to see if any employees were a bone marrow match for the sergeant. None were, but they entered their swabs into the national registry hoping they could help someone else.
Ford later raised money to help the sergeant’s family pay for his funeral arrangements.
“Her compassion and giving spirit shows exemplary service, above and beyond the normal scope of her duties,” a commander’s citation said about her. “B.'s continued compassion demonstrates how vital our office family is and that we will not forget a true leader in our office.”
Employees love it when their great leadership is noticed, and those doling out the awards are pleased to bestow the honors, she said. They’re getting recognized and coined all the time now, to the tune of several a week.
“I don’t know who’s enjoying it more,” Huffor said, “the employees or the staff (recognizing them).”