By W. Ron Allen
EDITOR’S NOTE: W. Ron Allen, the author of this guest column, is tribal chairman and CEO of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe.
THE JAMESTOWN S’KLALLAM tribe is one of the largest employers in Clallam County.
That’s a big statement, but what does it really mean to our community?
It means that in a county of over 72,000 residents, we provide jobs to 670 people, second only to Olympic Medical Center.
Today, our tribal government (including our medical and dental clinics) and JKT Development (including Jamestown Excavating, Jamestown NetWorks and Carlsborg Self-Storage) businesses employ 235 people.
Our resort/casino businesses (7 Cedars Casino, Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course and The Longhouse Market and Deli) employ 435 people.
This message isn’t really about how many people we employ, or how that number compares to other employers’ numbers.
For us it is about job satisfaction, recruitment and engagement.
That is why our Human Resources Department recently conducted an Employee Satisfaction and Engagement Survey of our tribal government staff, to see how we are doing.
The survey found that our overall employee job satisfaction is 83 percent, 13 percent above satisfaction levels of other U.S. employees surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management.
In fact, in every area surveyed, the tribal government’s staff satisfaction met or exceeded the levels of satisfaction for other U.S. employees surveyed by society.
In addition, our engagement score beat the average, telling us that our employees are more “engaged” than their industry peers.
Engagement is the “energized” feeling an employee has about work.
This was our first employee satisfaction and engagement survey, and we are pleased with the participation rate of 79 percent.
Since being re-recognized by the federal government in 1981, we have used our status as a sovereign nation to generate new unrestricted revenue to address our community needs.
We do this primarily to serve our nearly 600 tribal citizens, providing programs in education, health care, housing, culture and other areas that contribute to their quality of life and their ability to gain self-sufficiency as individuals and as families.
In order to provide these services effectively, we embarked on a dedicated program of economic development, balancing the investment of our profits back into our businesses, and into tribal programs and services.
One of our key goals has been tribal self-sufficiency, and today, 56 percent of our governmental funding is generated by our own enterprises.
Our tribal goal is to become self-reliant from federal resources.
Beyond serving our own community, we feel we have a role in serving the larger community.
Citizens of our tribe, having never moved to a reservation, have always been a part of the Clallam and Jefferson County communities — as workers, taxpayers, veterans, members of civic organizations, students in the public school system, church members, voters, home
owners and more.
There has never been a question that the tribe partners with our local community for the betterment of all.
It is due to that historical factor why we have been motivated to build the Blyn Fire Station, Jamestown Family Medical and Dental Clinics, and why we contribute to myriad educational, environmental and civic causes.
We hold dual citizenship, and we take that responsibility seriously.
All of these ventures require staffing, and our staff members are also members of our community.
We want them to have good jobs with benefits so that they can raise families and be prosperous and responsible members of our community.
We seek employees with skills and expertise, but also a willingness to become a part of our tribal family, whether our staff members are American Indian or not.
In return we strive to offer a great workplace with competitive compensation and benefits.
This two-way relationship works.
We expect excellence; we welcome our employees into our midst, and we provide stable employment with benefits.
Our survey showed that the main reason employees continue to work for the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe is meaningful work.
That matters to us as a major employer, and we believe it should matter to all employers.
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This guest column appeared in the print edition of the Sept. 19-20, 2014, Peninsula Daily News.
