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Attracting and retaining public sector employees in Wausau

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 18:25:47 +0000

The City of Wausau’s mission statement is to “enhance [their] community’s quality of life and foster a sense of belonging for generations to come” [2]. In the field of human resources, the recruitment and retention of employees stands as a critical pillar of effectiveness in any organization. In the past, there has been difficulty in these processes. The goal of this project and report is to determine comprehensive strategies aimed at enhancing the recruitment and retention processes within Wausau’s workforce. To ensure the City of Wausau attracts qualified candidates, the use of social media advertisements seeks to broaden the reach and visibility of job openings. Additionally, implementation of stay interviews and 30-60-90 day plans aim to proactively address the needs and aspirations of current employees.

Through the implementation of innovative recruitment ideas and proactive retention strategies, the city’s staffing needs can be met while cultivating a healthy workplace environment. This report will explain the analysis behind the recruitment and retainment strategies, while also highlighting the associated benefits of their implementation. By enacting the strategies featured in this report, the City of Wausau can position itself as an employer of choice within the community.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

Creating a ‘Welcoming Wausau’ strategic plan for the Welcoming America designation

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 18:22:10 +0000

This strategic plan was prepared by four UW-Madison students for the office of Mayor Katie Rosenberg and the City of Wausau. This strategic plan focuses on the framework of Certified Welcoming to achieve the goal of making Wausau a 5-star Certified Welcoming Community within the Civic Engagement, Connected Communities, and Safe Communities pillars. This was a social research project with an asset-based approach to public service at the community level, conducted through informal, unstructured interviews virtually and in person; archival research; and quantitative data analysis.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

Emergency planning for special events in Wausau, Wisconsin

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 18:18:12 +0000

Seeking to more effectively staff community events, the city of Wausau consulted InterEGR 303: Applied Leadership Competencies in Engineering with the goal of developing an applicable system to determine emergency staffing needs. The city of Wausau hosts events including parades, festivals, and concerts, all of which require unique staffing because of their distinctive attendance, location, and inherent risk factor. After analysis of Wausau’s current staffing process and research of national emergency staffing guidelines, our team determined that a staffing matrix would be the most efficient and effective solution for the city of Wausau.

The staffing matrix considers Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) guidelines, risk factors, attendance, and event settings to determine a safe number of emergency staff for a given event. For new events Wausau takes on, the matrix allows for specific input to determine the number of emergency staff needed to run a safe event. Similarly, as Wausau’s events grow in size, the matrix can recommend new staffing levels to match increased attendance. The matrix will promote the safety of Wausau by recommending staffing levels in line with FEMA guidelines.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

Exploring Wausau Police Station improvements

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 18:00:07 +0000

The project produced different engineering design plans for an improved police facility to address Wausau Police Department goals of providing increased space, improving space functionality, updating the HVAC system, and improving residents’ experience. UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu [...]

Upgrading the Transit Department facility

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 17:57:53 +0000

As Wausau MetroRide looks to update its facilities, engineering students created three designs that provide storage space for a bus fleet of 30 vehicles, introduce diesel-hybrid and electric bus charging and service capabilities, and expand office spaces for staff. UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu [...]

Developing a regional transit action plan for for MetroRide Coverage Expansion

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 17:56:11 +0000

Wausau’s 2022 MetroRide Transit Development Plan (TDP) proposes an expansion to their current transit system.1 Although Wisconsin prohibits the formation of Regional Transit Authorities, there are ways to support the evolving needs of Marathon County. Currently limited to the boundaries of Wausau, Wisconsin, MetroRide wants to collaborate with neighboring municipalities and is calling on civic leaders to participate in implementing solutions.

The following regional Transit Action Plan (TAP) showcases several options to improve the current MetroRide Transit System. Students and faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning collected and analyzed the following data. This partnership occurred with the UniverCity Year program, which connects the university with Wisconsin communities to collaborate on community-identified challenges.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

Becoming a more pedestrian-friendy city: Wausau, Wisconsin

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 17:48:04 +0000

The goal of this study is to assess how pedestrian-friendly Wausau’s current infrastructure is and identify areas where improvements can be made to
increase accessibility and safety. By identifying where accessibility gaps exist, the City of Wausau can better plan for future pedestrian infrastructure
projects.

To identify sidewalk accessibility gaps and problem intersections and crosswalks within Wausau, a survey was conducted to collect community
input on where pedestrian accessibility gaps currently exist in Wausau and identify potential intersections and areas of interest.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

Designing public health solutions to connect refugees to viable employment

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 17:45:40 +0000

The Wausau area is currently home to approximately 180 refugees settled during the last two years. The increasing influx of refugees face significant barriers to successful integration into the community. The ECDC Multicultural Center (ECDC) has identified some of the top barriers as inaccessible transportation, language barriers, and inability to secure employment with income able to support their families. The focus of our project is to propose interventions aimed at addressing these barriers based on interventions that have been successfully implemented in comparable communities,
identify barriers to employment from the perspectives of both refugees and employers, and design interventions to connect refugees to viable employment.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

Analyzing the costs and benefits of the Wausau ByBlock Project

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 17:44:07 +0000

Plastic, an epochal human invention, is now emerging as an environmental challenge. According to the data provided by the UN Environment Program, an annual discharge of 19 to 23 million tons of plastic waste clogs ecosystems, and equivalent to a volume commensurate with 2000 fully loaded garbage trucks. The indiscriminate disposal of plastic poses a threat to global water bodies, such as oceans, rivers, and lakes at risk of congestion.

This urgency makes it significant of developing recycling methods to address the challenges posed by plastic pollution. A noteworthy initiative in this regard is a startup company located in Los Angeles, known as ByFusion. ByFusion is actively seeking collaboration with the government of Wausau to establish a new facility in this region. The purpose of this report is to assist the Wausau government analyzing the costs and benefits associated with partnering with ByFusion. The aim is to determine the financial feasibility of initiating the ByBlock project in the area.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

Evaluating the ByBlock plastic waste program for Wausau

Ada Inman — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 17:40:49 +0000

ByFusion is a start-up company founded in 2017 with the goal of combating the plastic waste contamination that is becoming overwhelming in landfills and spilling into the ocean. They are currently marketing a new product to municipalities, recycling facilities, and waste management operations. This product is the subject of the following report: ByBlock. ByBlock is the resulting product of a proprietary process carried out by the machine being marketed. The
output of the machine is a block designed to be able to replace cinder blocks in construction projects.The machine itself works by collecting plastic waste, shedding it into small pieces, distributing the shredded plastic into the ByBlock molds, and steam compressing the plastic to output the final block. This report is an analysis of the feasibility of implementing the production of ByBlock in Wausau using their local plastic waste. Wausau is not the first city to consider the possible benefits of including byBlock in their infrastructure. Tucson, Arizona started a pilot program for ByBlock in 2022.

This report will include an analysis of the material properties and structural integrity of the blocks, the chemical processes required to produce them, the economic impacts of the machine and surrounding infrastructure, as well as a general economic analysis of the plant and new product market. Finally the report will conclude with a final list of questions to consider in future analyses and a conclusion of the findings from the research done.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu