How can P&R organizations build an engaged culture?

Creating an engaged employee culture in parks and recreation isn’t about grand gestures. According to Kate Meacham, Director of Parks for the City of Allen, Texas, and Chris Nunes, COO of Parks & Recreation for The Woodlands Township, culture is built “step by step by step.” It’s the accumulation of thousands of intentional choices—small acts, clear expectations, and a willingness to model the behavior you expect.

Here’s how P&R leaders can build that kind of culture.

1. Start with your non-negotiables

Culture isn’t accidental. Both Kate and Chris define clear, unwavering expectations for how people show up.

For Chris, a foundational expectation is a learning culture. His team at The Woodlands has become known for professional development, with layers of staff earning CPRP, AFO, CPSI, and more. As he puts it, “Deeds, not words. That’s got to be part of your ethos as a leader.”

For Kate, her core non-negotiable is simple:
“Don’t mess with my people.”
Her staff know she has their back personally and professionally—but in return, she expects them to be engaged. Engagement looks different for each person, but disengagement is a deal-breaker.

These non-negotiables set the tone. Hiring, communication, recognition, and leadership expectations flow from them.

2. Onboard people into culture, not just tasks

Both leaders stressed that onboarding is far more than signing HR paperwork. It’s your chance to welcome people into who you are as a department.

In Allen, onboarding happens in layers:

• PARD 101 introduces new staff to the department’s history, philosophy, StrengthsFinder profiles, expectations, and even city politics.
• PARD 102 takes new full-time hires “on the road” in a department van—touring lesser-known parks, historic sites, maintenance shops, golf course operations, and more. As Kate says, it’s about helping people understand, “We’re more than our facilities—we’re this whole community.”
• Cheat sheets (like an “acronym dictionary”) help new hires avoid feeling lost.
• 30- and 90-day check-ins ensure support doesn’t stop after week one.

Seasonal and part-time staff get an adapted version—handbooks, goodie bags, and quick orientation sessions delivered directly to their facilities. The key is consistency, not complexity.

3. Personalize recognition—and think small

Engagement is built from hundreds of “little things.” Kate and Chris both emphasize personal recognition as a cornerstone of culture.

Kate asks every new employee how they prefer to be recognized. One staff member wants their name “shouted from the rooftops,” while another would “crawl under a desk” if publicly recognized. Knowing that difference matters.

• Some of the most memorable tactics include:
• Handwritten birthday and anniversary cards—a staff favorite in Allen.
• Quick emails of appreciation, which Chris calls one of his most powerful tools.
• Summer “safety kits” with sunscreen, hydration packets, cooling towels.
• Random acts of kindness, like surprise popsicles or Gatorade deliveries during extreme heat.
• Longevity walls where both full-time and part-time staff move their photo upward with each 5-year milestone.

These gestures cost very little—but they land deeply.

4. Empower growth at every level

An engaged culture is one where everyone—not just managers—gets opportunities to learn and lead.

Examples from Allen:

• Training Camp, a 15-person cohort-style program exploring city government and how P&R fits into the bigger picture.
• Innovation squads, where frontline staff test equipment, pitch solutions, or lead workshops.
• “Team Talk & Tidbits”, a rebranded book club gathering 15–20 staff for conversation-based leadership development.
• Chris says the goal is to “make sure step by step you’re getting information out and making staff part of something bigger.”

Empowerment isn’t top-down—it’s distributed.

5. Communicate like humans

Culture collapses without communication. Both agencies use a mix of:

• Newsletters
• Teams/Slack general channels
• Light-hearted prompts (pet photos, senior pictures, March Madness brackets)
• Coffee talks—Kate’s monthly small-group Starbucks meetups so staff can “tell me what’s on their mind.”

During COVID, Chris began posting simple team prompts (“Who’s in your office with you?”), which unexpectedly turned into a powerful tool for connection. These activities humanize leadership and help remote or dispersed staff feel part of one team.

6. Pause and reset when needed

Burnout happens—even in the best cultures. Kate described a facility that experienced a difficult incident; she pulled the team out for a “reset day,” sending them to a rage-room painting activity while other staff covered operations. That intentional pause helped them heal and return stronger.

Both leaders emphasized reading the energy of your team and not being afraid to hit reset when needed.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the webinar, Kate shared a text she received during the NRPA Conference—a photo of Allen staff hanging out together, proud to represent their city, sent by someone from another community. “That’s my culture,” she said. “They’re one team, together.”

That’s the goal—not perfection, not perks, but a culture your team is proud to belong to.

And as Chris put it, culture isn’t accidental:
“Start small and keep building. The aggregate effect is powerful.”

If your P&R agency invests in people this intentionally, engagement won’t be something you chase—it’ll be something your team lives every day.