Executive, Leadership, and Interim Roles

Leadership and Interim Roles

“Shortly after filling her executive role, Kandice was able to build quick rapport and trust with fellow department heads, all members of her 5-member Commission, and her team members. She also demonstrated improvement in productivity and performance of team members through reliable metrics, various team training and recognition activities, and planned community outreach efforts. Kandice took an active role in using change management strategies to improve operational practices, and streamline and innovate department processes.

When the call came, Ms. Sherwood was one of the few department heads who participated in the Government Alliance for Race Equity (G.A.R.E) program, which was hosted in Los Angeles for various municipalities and agencies to address systemic racism in Public Sector agencies. Ms. Sherwood advocated for and promoted two team members within her own department, which enhanced representation of people of color within our City at the managerial level. Ms. Sherwood’s department was among the most diverse in the City and she cared about assisting all team members in growing personally and professionally.

Kandice is open, honest, and caring. She values service and she often volunteered her time as a speaker for “Career Day” and "Government Day” at local colleges, high schools, and middle schools. She was a highly requested and highly rated speaker at various Public Sector and Human Resource conferences, events, and training programs.

In spite of her kind nature, Kandice showed she had the fortitude to stand up, when asked, and put herself in the line of fire to address politically sensitive and challenging issues brought up by each of her Commission members. Kandice consistently received positive comments from Stakeholders and exceptional ratings from her Commission members during her yearly performance reviews.”

~ Charles Hicks, Esq., City of Long Beach Civil Service Commissioner

Executive Leadership

“I worked for Kandice Taylor-Sherwood from May of 2015 until October of 2018 within the Civil Service Department at the City of Long Beach.  During my time working for Ms. Taylor-Sherwood, I always found her to be a leader who made sure every voice was heard and every viewpoint considered, no matter the issue.  She was inclusive not just with her own staff, but with all of our colleagues across the City of Long Beach.  Ms. Taylor-Sherwood is a collaborative partner, promoted fairness in the workplace, treated everyone with respect, and challenged people to be their best.  

Ms. Taylor-Sherwood is a visionary leader who championed a number of new and creative initiatives that improved customer service and reduced the time it took for the City to hire new employees, a problem that had consistently been identified by City-wide management surveys as the most significant challenge facing the City workforce.  Examples of new and creative initiatives included conducting oral interviews via pre-recorded video platforms and electronic on-line testing processes that drastically reduced test development, administration and the workload of Civil Service staff.  She incorporated feedback from different City Departments to provide more continuous hiring lists so customers did not have to wait long periods of time without access to qualified job candidates.  Ms. Taylor-Sherwood also led the transition allowing all City Departments to have access to the NEOGOV applicant tracking system, which helped streamlined the way departments interacted with Civil Service managing candidate lists and reduced the workload associated with candidate hiring processes for both the Civil Service staff and its customers.  Another initiative she led was the project to study and convert the City’s employee performance evaluation system to an online platform which would allow managers to initiate conversations about goal setting and provide better performance feedback.  She balanced these projects and worked collaboratively will all stakeholders, both internal departmental staff and customers from other departments, to ensure everyone involved had opportunities to provide feedback to improve processes.

These efforts took vision, leadership, and teamwork.  Ms. Taylor-Sherwood always ensured teamwork by supporting those around her, both personally and professionally.  She created an environment where people felt free to give their opinions, and she used input from others to make work projects better.  The examples I listed above were successful because Ms. Taylor-Sherwood had the ability to build high performing teams and get the very best out of the people she led.

Most importantly, Ms. Taylor-Sherwood is a very dedicated mentor.  She is an unquestioned HR expert, and understands the skills and traits that make people the most marketable and best positioned to succeed in their careers.  She coached people from all over the City and helped so many people advance their careers.  Her leadership in Civil Service was no different.  She led internal staff trainings to help people better understand their professional strengths and how to use them to succeed.  Examples of these trainings include The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and CliftonStrengths – StrengthsFinder.  She found funding for the entire department to participate in these types of trainings and always encouraged the team to attend professional conferences for career growth.  Ms. Taylor-Sherwood generously provided her time and facilitated training for others outside of the Civil Service Department as well.  This is just one example of the many ways Ms. Taylor-Sherwood always went above and beyond to help people grow professionally and find their own success.

I would close this testimonial by saying that I always found Ms. Taylor-Sherwood to be extremely fair in the way she assigned work, treated the staff, and challenged people to help them grow.   She is a great leader focused on improving customer service, enhancing the customer experience and streamlining processes to make an organization more efficient.  I found her to be kind, generous, and truly committed to the professional well-being of all employees.  Her leadership came from a place of helping her team be the best they could, knowing that building a great team would serve the best interests of the community, City and the employees themselves.”

~ Crystal A. Slaten