California Franchise Tax Board:
Strategies for a Changing Workforce
This 12-minute video is the Kennedy School's first stand-alone video
case. It is not designed to supplement text but rather to substitute
for it. Video offers a chance to experience more directly the impact of
demographic change, in both race and gender, in the workforce of a
major public employer--California's giant personal and corporate tax
collection agency, the Franchise Tax Board. The case tells the story
of the efforts of the Franchise Tax Board's upper management to deal
with two difficult workforce problems. First is that sparked by a
legislative mandate that the board begin to give hiring preference to
welfare recipients. Second is that prompted by increased competition
the agency faces in trying to attract and retain highly skilled
professionals for its upper echelon jobs. The upper management of the
board must decide how to deal with both these problems. The video
portrays part of its answer--a shift from a rigid work schedule with
minimal training or benefits to a much different workplace. The Tax
Board decides to offer an array of training options, as well as on-site
child care and other benefits, to help along the poor and
unskilled--who are often African-American, Hispanic or Asian--and to
offer flexible hours and other benefits to attract and retain
professionals. In addition to allowing for discussion of the
demographic issues facing all American workplaces, this video case also
raises the issue of which benefits are useful and appropriate for
public employers to offer. This case features extensive reflections by
Franchise Tax Board Chief Executive Officer Gerald Goldberg, quoted as
a leading public sector innovator by the National Commission on the
State and Local Public Service in its new report Hard Truths/Tough
Choices: An Agenda for State and Local Reform. The video also
includes interview material, selected for its strong personal
qualities, from frontline and professional employees. The video makes
clear, as well, the nature of work at a major public employer. The
video is available for $195.00. The two supplements are free of
charge.
The California Franchise Tax Board: Strategies for a Changing Workforce
(Video) (C16-93-1201.9);
The California Franchise Tax Board: Strategies for a Changing Workforce
(Supplement A), 2pp, (C16-93-1201.4);
The California Franchise Tax Board: Strategies for a Changing Workforce
(Supplement B), 4pp, (C16-93-1202.4)
