Compliance, Reporting & Innovation… Compatible?
In the world that is parking and mobility, among our primary responsibilities are compliance with laws, regulations, and policies and completing reports to document adherence to applicable requirements. Ensuring the delivery of services in a safe and efficient manner and having sufficient funds for annual expenses can consume much of our time and keep us from stepping back to consider new and different ways of innovating to meet quickly changing needs. In this workplace environment, innovation may not have a place to be explored and generated so it takes purposeful action to ensure we break out of our daily routines. This can occur through employee interactions, meetings and brainstorming where you encourage a wide range of employees to think differently and consider alternative approaches to issues, challenges and problems. It can also include adding to your staff employees who have shown past experience in using innovative approaches so make sure to ask probing questions to get at this during interviews. Although not easy and it may not occur organically, innovation can be incorporated into our workplace providing benefits such as making for a more interesting, exciting and productive place for employees while positioning the organization as a leader in addressing the rapidly changing world of transportation.
Mark Hairr, PTMP, is an Executive Director for Wave Transit. Mark can be reached at mhairr@wavetransit.com.
