The City of Greensboro’s People & Culture Department has released its 2024-2025 Impact Report – a look at a year of new city programs, wellness efforts and process changes meant to make city employment more responsive and, in the department’s words, more “people-centered.”

The report and a Monday, Aug. 11 press release framed the past 2024-2025 fiscal year as one in which People & Culture pushed technology upgrades, simplified paperwork and added time-off and health incentives meant to help city employees.

The department also highlighted volunteerism and a new professional development event that’s intended to offer staff practical, career-building tools.

One major policy change came last summer.

Beginning in July 2024, City of Greensboro employees received a new “Personal Observance Leave” benefit – which entails up to eight hours of paid time each calendar year that those workers can use for a personal, cultural or spiritual observance important to them.

The department’s report describes it as a flexible way to recognize that not all significant days fit neatly into a standard holiday calendar. The leave doesn’t roll over to the next year, can’t be donated, isn’t paid out when an employee separates from city government and can’t be combined with Family and Medical Leave Act time.

Requests for those days run through the city’s normal timekeeping system.

In January 2025, on the health side, the city instituted a “Wellness Premium.”

That incentive ties discounted health insurance premiums to the completion of specific preventive steps – annual physicals or screenings, biometric checks like blood pressure or A1C and an online health survey. Employees log the activities during the year. Meeting the benchmark by year-end earns a premium discount for the following plan year.

The thrust of the program is straightforward: lower risk and lower costs by nudging people toward basic, solid health habits.

The department also pointed to the reopening of the city’s Acute Care Clinic as another employee-focused move. That clinic gives staff a place to get quick attention for routine issues without leaving the city’s ecosystem of services. The return to on-site care – alongside of broader wellness measures – suggests that city leaders want to make healthier choices easier rather than merely encouraged.

Technology enhancements were a consistent theme in the report.

The department says it rolled out artificial-intelligence-powered tools and streamlined performance reviews to speed up service and reduce friction. The report emphasizes speed, accessibility and a more consistent employee experience. In practice, that usually means things like fewer redundant forms, fewer clicks to get to the right answer and less back-and-forth to complete basic HR tasks.  To that end, the City of Greensboro has been steadily moving more functions online.

Professional development got a branding boost in the city with the introduction of REACH – which stands for “Realizing Empowerment by Achieving Challenging Heights.”  That’s a new professional development day. The department says the point is practical: Allow time for city employees to pick up skills, compare notes across departments and map paths for advancement.

Local governments across the state and the country often struggle to keep experienced employees who sometimes see raises faster in the private sector. Programs that make internal mobility visible, and make advancement feel real, can help with retention even when pay scales are fixed.

People & Culture also highlighted staff volunteer efforts throughout the year. Those projects aren’t just meant to be feel-good occurrences; they often function as informal team-building while placing city employees in direct contact with residents outside the usual complaint procedures.

The new report characterizes the service as an extension of the department’s values – caring, transparency, accountability and respect.

“We strengthened our commitment to being a people-centered department by listening to employee needs and building programs that reflect them,” People & Culture Executive Director Jamiah Waterman stated in the August 11 press release. “Whether it was expanding professional development opportunities, simplifying onboarding or creating more inclusive engagement strategies, we kept employees at the forefront of our plans.”

Waterman’s quote captures the main through-line: People & Culture is trying to reposition City of Greensboro Human Resources from a gatekeeper role to an employee helper role. In local government – where layers of policy and process are often extensive and annoying – making routine tasks faster can greatly improve employee morale.

A smoother employment onboarding, for instance, reduces early-stage frustration for new hires who are still deciding if they’ve made the right move. A clearer performance review that focuses on development instead of “box-checking” can help supervisors coach rather than merely rate.

The Personal Observance Leave acknowledges that inclusion is sometimes a matter of letting people decide for themselves what’s important. Instead of a static and standard list of sanctioned days, the City of Greensboro is now giving each employee a small, defined amount of time to use for their own observances. It’s meant to be a practical, low-cost way to recognize diverse beliefs and traditions held by the city’s thousands of employees.

Likewise, the city’s Wellness Premium attempts to align incentives with health-related outcomes the City would like to see anyway – preventive care and early detection. Premium differentials are a common lever in large employer plans. When designed with simple, measurable checkpoints, they tend to drive participation without turning into a paperwork nightmare. The city’s description – physicals, screenings, a survey – suggests it is choosing easy-to-verify milestones that most employees can meet without special scheduling or expense.

The return of the Acute Care Clinic brings convenience back into the mix. Public-sector employees often operate on tight schedules that make outside appointments difficult to keep. An on-site option reduces time away from the job and can keep minor issues from escalating. It also signals that the City of Greensboro is willing to invest in the kinds of everyday supports that employees actually use.

The report’s technology claims are harder to evaluate, but the impact will be obvious to employees if the tools deliver on two basics – faster answers and fewer hoops.

Artificial intelligence in HR can be helpful when it clarifies policies and forms quickly or automates rote status checks. It’s much less helpful if it adds a chatbot layer that simply points people to another phone number. The department’s emphasis is on access and speed.

You  might notice an underlying thread – all this is meant to strengthen employee retention efforts. Greensboro, like many cities, faces a whole lot of competition for talent, especially in certain areas such as IT and public safety. Benefits that respect employees’ time, wellness and personal lives are part of the new retention toolkit when pay alone can’t close every gap.

The department is inviting city employees and Greensboro residents to read the report online.

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