02-11-19 Regular Meeting of the La Porte City Council

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Manager of the Year - 2018 Matt Hartleib HR Manager Matt first joined the LaPorte team in October of 2015 as the HR Manager. In October of 2017, Matt experienced a strange bout of temporary insanity and left La Porte to pursue an opportunity in the private sector. He quickly realized the error of his ways and returned to the La Porte team just a few months later. In all seriousness, Matt's brief time away helped him remember how much he enjoys working in local government serving a community alongside like-minded teammates. Upon his return, Matt hit the ground running and led the HR team to a fantastic year. Some of their accomplishments include: • Transitioning to a new benefits administration platform. This move not only reduced costs to the City but resulted in a well -received open enrollment process based on employee feedback. The change also increases the team's efficiency through streamlined reporting and data management. • Speaking of good stewardship, the HR departmental budget for 18/19 is a 9% reduction from the prior year. In the Insurance fund, savings were found in liability coverage and HR collaborated with their consultant and the 172 Committee to identify a pharmacy change that reduced costs by $250K with minimal disruptions to members. • Matt developed and delivered two significant employee/leadership development programs in 2018. The Communicating with Customers class was attended by 114 employees over 8 sessions and resulted in 89% of attendees feeling better equipped to provide great service to our customers. Matt has also been facilitating a Book Club with the Executive Staff that has led to some informative and enjoyable discussions about leadership. • In addition to the annual Christmas Party and Public Service Week Lunch, the HR team created some new programs in 2018. The Cards for Troops program resulted in over 3,600 signed Christmas cards being sent to US service men and women deployed overseas. And the Winning at Losing weight loss challenge helped 50 employees lose an average of 13.5 pounds. • Matt played a key role in the hiring panel for key executive positions this year, to include the City Secretary, Police Chief and Director of Planning & Development. All of these accomplishments were achieved in addition to the "normal work" of filling positions, processing terminations, and all of the human resource related activity in between. In nominating Matt for this award, one of his HR teammates stated, "Matt loves being an HR leader, so his work style comes natural. He conducts himself with the highest HR integrity at all times. He welcomes everyone's ideas and suggestions at any time to enhance processes or functions. He stays calm and professional during all