Rancho Cordova Named One Of Best 'Businesses' To Work For
RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS13) - One of the best local companies to work for is not a company at all. Rancho Cordova is the only government agency to make a national list.
The city of Rancho Cordova was just named by Fortune and CNN as the nation's 12th-best small business for which to work.
Ping pong tournaments get pretty intense. They even have brackets. Something as simple as playing has helped Rancho Cordova on a path to success.
"It's fun for our employees," city spokesman Troy Holt said. "There's always rematches."
When work is fun it doesn't feel like work at all, right?
"Just a way of keeping our employees healthy and happy," Holt said.
A gym in City Hall is a small piece of that healthy package. Employees are also encouraged to be creative and wear different hats.
Phil Nichols is a housing inspector, but he says he's proud to help out with city finances, IT, even creating a logo.
"If you empower them, they will come up with some great ideas," Chinn said.
They have planning parties where the secretary may tell the mayor what to do.
"We're able to be very flexible, very innovative, very efficient," Mayor David Sander said.
"Two things that allowed Rancho to grow up were Mather Air Force Base and Aerojet," Holt said.
The city has been incorporated only nine years, but has never been in the red and has gained international acclaim with governments from Asia copying their strategies.
"The city manager Ted Gaebler wrote the book "Reinventing Government,'" Chinn said.
Having a New York Times best-selling author running the city is quite a gift, but they feel their employees and citizens - who they call partners - are the true gift.
Honoring them on nearly every wall - praising, rewarding, recognizing - make people feel valuable and they become even more so.
