This interview is with Thomas Faulkner, Founder & Principal Consultant at Faulkner HR Solutions.

Thomas Faulkner, Founder & Principal Consultant, Faulkner HR Solutions

As a renowned expert in Texas Municipal Human Resource Strategies, can you tell us about your background and what led you to specialize in this field?

Absolutely. My background actually started outside of traditional HR. I spent years in leadership and operational roles before realizing that most organizational problems are not due to people but are issues built into the system that affect people. That perspective pushed me toward Human Resources, because HR sits at the intersection of process and people.

When I transitioned into the public sector, particularly municipal government, I saw how much strain smaller cities were experiencing when you have one person frequently wearing six hats, trying to stay compliant while also managing payroll, onboarding, training, and everything else people will throw at them. The systems just weren’t built for that scale.

So I began developing strategies specifically for Texas municipalities. Standalone frameworks, distinct from those used by private-sector entities, focus on structure, compliance, and capacity-building rather than just reactionary HR. My work now centers on helping small and mid-sized cities modernize their policies, develop their people, and create systems that actually protect both the city and its employees. It’s about building HR that works for the people who serve their communities, not against them.

How has your journey in Texas municipal HR shaped your perspective on effective human resource management in local government?

That’s a great question. Working in Texas municipal HR has taught me that bureaucratic red tape is more of a symptom than an enemy of the public. It’s the product of what happens when systems are layered on top of broken ones, and no one is given the time or authority to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, municipal processes are not like manure and have no intention of naturally decomposing into something greater on their own.

Recruiting people across any industry in today’s market is challenging. Given the constraints of municipal budgets and the often unattractiveness of city salaries, talent preservation is a must. I’ve seen good cities lose great people because of burnout, not because they didn’t care, but because they were buried under outdated processes and inherited inefficiencies.

My perspective now is simple: local government doesn’t need more forms or meetings, but rather, it requires a functional system. HR’s role is to identify where the bureaucracy helps and where it strangles progress. I’m empathetic to the people doing the work, but I’m also a firm believer that we have to be willing to break things like the sacred-cow policies, workflows, and traditions that local entities were built on and rebuild them with more focused intention.

When we strip away the layers of “how it’s always been done,” that’s when cities start to function like the modern organizations they’re expected to be.

In your experience, what’s the most innovative HR strategy you’ve implemented in a Texas municipality that significantly improved employee engagement or productivity?

One of the most innovative strategies I’ve implemented was actually born out of the discomfort of employees sharing opinions. In a smaller, rural city I was consulting with, an employee engagement survey that I pushed out revealed that staff were genuinely afraid to share their opinions with leadership. They didn’t feel heard, and worse, they didn’t feel safe speaking up.

Instead of forcing another “open-door policy” toolbox talk with the team and leadership, which usually means nothing in practice, we flipped the narrative and introduced “failure parties.” These were designed to be intentional sessions where departments came together to openly discuss the vulnerabilities of what didn’t work. Outside of the pre-established conditions of gross negligence and overt safety violations, there was no punishment or shaming as a result of these conversations, as the goal was more to normalize failure as a learning mechanism and collaborate and celebrate the initiatives teams took to establish a model of process improvement instead of perfection.

Those evolved into cross-department process improvement talks, where employees who had once stayed silent started proposing solutions and even leading mini-projects to fix inefficiencies. Within months, you could feel the cultural shift, and supervisors were more motivated to seek feedback from their team members proactively.

It sounds counterintuitive, like a risk-liable project, but by making failure safe, we unlocked the courage necessary to say, “Things aren’t working and here’s what I think.” And that courage became the very foundation for innovation, engagement, and productivity citywide.

Texas municipalities often face unique challenges in attracting and retaining talent. Can you share a specific instance where you successfully addressed this issue, and what strategies did you employ?

Listen, public sector recruiting isn’t a sexy hustle. We’re not dangling signing bonuses or sky-rise corner offices. We’re competing with a municipal budget under intense public scrutiny and purpose. One instance that really stands out was work I was doing with a small Texas city where turnover had become a revolving door. Pay wasn’t competitive, and the local City Council could not justify throwing any more money at the problem.

So instead of trying to sell the job, we started selling the impact. I helped the City Secretary, who was also the PR, HR, and Risk Manager for the city, reframe the employee value proposition around purpose and visibility. We sold, “In a city this size, the work you do isn’t lost in the sea of ten thousand faces. You aren’t Employee ID 9856 to HR, and your Department Head knows you by name. The work you do makes a difference and directly shapes how the community functions.” That message resonated.

From there, we built career pathways tied to professional development and partnered with local high schools to implement job placement programs. I helped their team implement certification incentives, mentorship pipelines, and clear progression plans so even if the paycheck wasn’t the highest, employees could see exactly how their skills and influence would grow over time.

How are you helping Texas municipalities prepare their workforce for the future, especially in light of rapid technological advancements and changing job markets?

The future of the municipal workforce isn’t about chasing technology trends and automation solely for the sake of automation. The future is about adapting to how technology changes the way people work. My approach with Texas cities has been to build what I call capacity-based readiness. Instead of just training for specific tools or software, we focus on developing adaptive competencies like critical thinking, digital literacy, and cross-functional collaboration, in conjunction with competency-based training programs designed to prepare employees to evolve with whatever comes next. I also emphasize knowledge transfer, because as veteran employees retire, cities risk losing institutional memory. We’ve implemented internal mentorship programs and simple, repeatable documentation systems that preserve know-how while upskilling new staff. Ultimately, preparing municipal workforces for the future is about building resilient systems and people who can navigate change without losing sight of public service.

What’s the most unconventional yet effective approach you’ve taken to improve work culture or employee satisfaction in a Texas municipal setting?

One of the most unconventional but effective ways I’ve improved work culture was by rethinking how we welcome people into it. Instead of treating onboarding like a checklist, I use it as a chance to set the cultural tone through humility and humor. I tell every new hire my own first-day story from when I started in a rural city: how I accidentally parked in the city manager’s spot, grabbed my coffee out of order and made the finance officer late to his meeting, and then tried to make up for it by bringing donuts to an office where half the staff was on a diet. It always gets a laugh, but more importantly, it humanizes the process.

Municipal work can feel rigid, formal, and even intimidating. By normalizing nerves and sharing that story, I break down hierarchy on day one and remind them that everyone fumbles. We want our employees to show up and participate, and expecting them to be perfect is setting them up for failure. When leaders model vulnerability and relatability from the start, employees stop fearing mistakes and start engaging authentically.

Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest HR challenge facing Texas municipalities in the next 5-10 years, and how would you advise HR leaders to prepare for it?

The silver tsunami is here, and its wave is breaking on the same coast as the AI revolution. AI is powerful, but it can’t replicate tacit knowledge, the relationships forged through years of earned trust, or the experience that walks out the door when seasoned employees retire before the city is ready.

My advice to municipalities is to start by capturing knowledge before it leaves your city. Don’t wait until the retirement party to realize what was never written down and solidified into your city’s knowledge bank. Yesterday was your deadline to start building structured knowledge-transfer processes into everyday operations. Technology can help you document workflows and record process walkthroughs, but it can’t preserve wisdom on its own. Knowledge is infrastructure, and it is your responsibility to maintain it, update it, and protect it because once it’s gone, there isn’t a federal grant large enough to help you replace what you lost.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Absolutely. I’d just add that the future of municipal HR doesn’t require you to do more; it just requires you to do what matters better. Cities, you don’t need another policy binder destined for the dusty shelf or a flashy new software subscription. You just need to reinforce the systems that protect people, preserve knowledge, and sustain the workforce that keeps your community running.

What I tell every city I work with is this: you can’t automate trust, and you can’t outsource leadership. Whether it’s through better onboarding, smarter processes, or meaningful employee development, the real innovation in local government comes from people who care enough to make work function the way it should.

I founded my practice to help Texas cities modernize HR by transforming compliance and chaos into systems built for clarity, accountability, and forward motion.