PHILADELPHIA, PA — Philadelphia Mayor Kenney signed Executive Order 5-23 on Monday, establishing the Office of the Employee Ombudsperson. The new office aims to further employee rights and ensure the City is a fair and equitable workplace for all. This order aligns with the City’s ongoing commitment to promoting open communication, transparency, and fairness in the workplace.
The Office of the Employee Ombudsperson will operate independently from each City department’s human resource staff. It will provide neutral and impartial assistance to City employees seeking to resolve allegations of workplace harassment, discrimination, or work-related conflict outside a formal complaint or grievance process.
Shakeya Foreman, the City of Philadelphia’s Employee Ombudsperson, expressed her commitment to the new role. “This is an incredible chance to impact workplace culture for all City employees while providing evidence-based methods of improving the employee experience,” she said. “I pledge to equip City employees with the tools and knowledge they need to identify, address, and resolve concerns in the workplace to strategically increase their sense of belonging and well-being.”
The key responsibilities of the Office of the Employee Ombudsperson include:
- Assisting individual City employees in understanding and assessing options for addressing workplace conduct concerns
- Developing and implementing a voluntary, informal alternative dispute resolution program
- Evaluating and impartially resolving workplace complaints and matters of workplace conflict
- Independently identifying strategies to reduce the prevalence and mitigate the impact of workplace conflicts
- Maintaining anonymized data on complaints and inquiries received by the office
- Submitting annual reports and anonymized data to the Mayor
- Providing recommendations to the Mayor on improving personnel rules, employee complaint systems, workplace expectations, and trainings
- Convening and coordinating department heads to implement workplace reforms
- Operating free from undue influence by any employee, administrative officer, elected official, or reporting authorities
- Fostering a citywide workplace culture that acknowledges and respects workforce diversity
- Performing other duties as directed by the Mayor
Stephanie Tipton, Chief Administrative Officer, emphasized the importance of the new office. “The implementation of this Office is demonstrative of the City’s ongoing commitment to workplace equity and satisfaction,” said Tipton. “This Office is now a confidential and neutral resource for employees to feel recognized, respected, heard, and valued.”
The implementation of the Office of the Employee Ombudsperson goes into effect immediately and is overseen by the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer.
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