Citizen Inc. Q&A: Cora Scott

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Citizen Inc. from SBJ Podcasts

Cora Scott knows a thing or two about civic engagement – it’s not only part of her title directing the city of Springfield’s public information office, but also she leads such initiatives internally and externally for City Hall. Scott is the guest for Citizen Inc., Episode 11, from SBJ Podcasts. The following Q&A is from the show, co-hosted by Springfield Business Journal’s Eric Olson and United Way of the Ozarks’ Greg Burris and recorded at ADsmith Studio.

Eric Olson: We’re talking about the city’s role in corporate citizenship. From my observation, the city has planted its flag in the topic – one clear way is your position as director of public information and civic engagement. Where did that civic engagement piece come from?
Cora Scott: That is a great story. Greg Burris came up with the idea to add the civic engagement element to my position. I wasn’t really looking for another job. I was working for Mercy, doing community relations. But when I saw that civic engagement component … that really attracted me to it.

About 10 years ago is when I came in to interview. … I lucked out and got the job.

Olson: So, Greg, what was the trigger for the idea?
Greg Burris: I’d love to take credit for it, but it came from Missouri State University’s public affairs mission. I worked there 25 years … so it got in my blood. When I moved to the (city manager job), I said this needs to be more than public information; we need to be engaging the community and we need to have somebody in charge of coordinating that.
Scott: It makes sense to combine that with the elements of communication. Good communication is all about getting to know who you’re conversing with and making them feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves. That’s what civic engagement really is, so it’s been really great to combine those two functions into one. ... You’ve got to meet people where they are and do communication in ways they want to be part of it.

Olson: What’s the business connection?
Scott: We’ve really worked with citizen groups and stakeholder groups, and now we’re really focusing on how we further engage our business community. One example is Clean Green Springfield, which was a major initiative to see if we could get people to help clean up the community after the pandemic. That was Jason Gage’s idea, our current city manager. … We had 1,300 people do it. Lots of businesses got involved and encouraged their employees. On Saturdays, we organized these cleanups if you want your employees to come out and pick up trash. … There’s an appetite for it. I think this idea of corporate citizens empowering their employees to be engaged in the community makes them more of an appealing employer, as well.

Olson: What are some ways the city functions as a corporation when it comes to this topic?
Scott: We do mobilize our own employees to give back. … The city is very involved with United Way, the Day of Caring. When I get on the elevator, I see all these fundraiser opportunities. The city, as well as all the businesses in our city, really need to focus on ways they can empower their employees to give back because that’s going to come back to the corporation tenfold. There’s a recent Nielsen report says two-thirds of the American public would pay more for goods and services if they know that is a company that gives back to the community. The data is there to support to at least balance the bottom line with this social responsibility.

And in the days of our workforce shortages, I think that [for] companies, it’s in their best interest to be thinking about these kinds of things. There is a lot of intrinsic value to empowering your employees to find something they’re passionate about that can align with the work they’re doing. I think the best corporate citizens are the ones that find ways to use their unique resources as a company to then deploy that out in the community.

Burris: What is the city doing to specifically engage businesses?
Scott: We have re-created our economic development department into an economic vitality department. It’s more than a name change. We are creating a strategic plan for what it means to create a community that’s economically vital. We are creating new programs that help us better connect with our business clients in the community and do more to celebrate those business accomplishments, too. Within the next six months, we’ll have more of these programs up and running.