Human Resources and
Risk Management
Wendy Ross, Director
1015 Fair Street, Prescott, AZ 86305
928-771-3252
Vision Statement
Collaboratively seeking innovative ways to impact positive change.
Mission Statement
Dedicated to providing exceptional customer service to County leaders and employees through the implementation of quality benefit and training programs and sound hiring and pay practices, resulting in a productive and motivated workforce
to support the mission of Yavapai County.
Budget Memorandum
2021 was another very busy year for our office, as we continued to face unprecedented situations related to the ongoing pandemic. Unfortunately, we also experienced higher than normal turnover in our office this year, so a significant amount of time was spent recruiting and training new staff members. We are now fully staffed, and I am feeling confident that we will see some stability now and into the foreseeable future.
During this past year we started several projects which, although they are ongoing into the new budget year, will streamline processes within our own department, as well as positively impact departments Countywide, including:
· ERP Project: partnering with ITS and Finance to evaluate our current financial system to be able to roll out an RFP to find a new product/vendor. Countless hours have already been invested in this project by our department as well as others, and we look forward to continuing this project over the coming years until we can implement a new system that creates efficiencies Countywide.
· Classification and Compensation Study: this project kicked off in December 2021 and is currently ongoing, with results due to be delivered to the Board in April. Part of this project includes written Class Specifications, which will replace our existing Job Descriptions.
· Training: As we are finally coming out of the pandemic and employees are able to gather together safely again, we are starting to schedule group training sessions again. We recently conducted two sessions of Fire Extinguisher Training, with representatives from almost every department in attendance. In the coming months we will be scheduling more in-person group training sessions, to include a Countywide Harassment training refresher course, and AED/First Aid Training. Additionally, we have rolled out some online training courses, some of which are mandatory for all new hires, and others which are available to County employees on the Countynet for them to browse and attend as appropriate based on their individual needs and goals.
I want to thank each of you for your continued support of the Human Resources and Risk Management department and I very much look forward to working with each of you for another successful and productive year of County service.
Some of our measurable accomplishments for this past year include:
Employment statistics as of year-end 2021
h· 1741 active employees (does not include vacancies), down from 1754 in
2020
o 1551 full-time employees, down from 1566 last year
o 56 part-time employees, up from 55 last year
o 131 seasonal employees, down from 132 last year
o 3 temporary employees, up from 1 last year
· Average length of service is 7.25 years.
· Average County salary is $54,753.
· We hired 399 employees in 2021 (323 full-time, 29 part-time,
46 seasonal and 1 temporary).
· The Countywide turnover rate is 25.2%.is section, you can go into further detail. Make your content more accessible by writing short sentences, choosing words and phrases you’d use when talking to a neighbor, and avoiding jargon.
Retirement statistics as of year-end 2021
· Processed 55 ASRS retirements; processed 75 ASRS refund documents.
· Processed 11 PSRS and CORP retirements.
· Held 5 CORP retirement board meetings and 5 PSRS retirement board
meetings.
· Processed and currently maintaining 15 retirees on the Retiree Insurance
Subsidy Program.
Recruitment Statistics for 2021
· 496 job openings were posted, a 35% increase from the 349 posted in 2020.
· 7,004 employment applications were received and processed, a 31%
decrease from the 9,569 received last year.
· Conducted 367 background checks on employees and volunteers, a 3%
increase from the 357 conducted last year.
Risk Management highlights for 2021
Work related injuries:
· Processed and monitored 192 work related injuries (up from 142 in 2020),
6 of which were recordable by OSHA standards, resulting in 210 days away
from work.
Goals for this next budget year
Additional staff member: As the County workforce continues to grow, the workload in Human Resources increases as well, as our primary role is supporting employees and departments. In 2002 the County had approximately 1550 employees, and around 1200 of those were Full-time. At that time, the Human Resources and Risk Management department had 11 staff members, making our HR staff member to Employee ratio 0.71.
According to the national Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), the average HR to Employee ratio for an organization this size is 1.03.
Today, 20 years later, we have over 1800 employees (includes vacancies), and 1600+ of those are Full-time and we still have 11 Human Resources and Risk Management staff members. This lowers our current HR to Employee ratio to 0.61.
In order to ensure that we are able to continue to support the County workforce with timely and accurate customer service, I am asking for an additional staff member this year. The request is for a Full-time (40 hours per week) Administrative Assistant I, to sit at our front counter and provide administrative support to all HR staff members and customer service to the public and County departments. Typical duties will include answering the main phone line, greeting walk-ins, opening and distributing the mail, scanning/filing personnel records, responding to Public Records Requests, responding to Verifications of Employment, and miscellaneous project work. Currently all of these duties are distributed out amongst the Human Resources Specialists, creating additional workload and interruptions that keep them away from their primary duties.
The addition of this staff member will increase our HR to Employee ratio to 0.67 – still far below the national average and still below where we were 20 years ago; however, it will assist us greatly in our workload as the County continues to grow and as HR process and programs continue to expand.
Staff Training: More than 50% of the Human Resources and Risk Management staff members have been in their roles for less than one year. Because of this, one of our internal goals for the upcoming year is to invest some time in training, both internally and externally. In order to provide the highest level of customer service as possible I need to ensure that our staff has all the tools and resources they need to be successful.
Stay Interviews: Although the County has for many years conducted Exit Interviews with exiting employees, we have never implemented a formal “Stay Interview” program. Stay Interviews are utilized by employers to gather information from current employees, to learn what keeps them working for the organization, and to gather information on aspects that might need improvement. Not only can a well-designed stay interview process help motivate existing employees, but it can potentially assist in lowering turnover rates by learning and addressing employees concerns before they leave the organization, instead of only asking questions once an employee has turned in their notice, which is what happens during the traditional, typical Exit Interview. Our goal is to work with County departments to implement a Stay Interview program to assist in retaining quality employees.
The rest of our goals include the ongoing projects mentioned earlier in this memo:
· Complete the Countywide Classification and Compensation Study and work with the Board and departments to implement recommendations as appropriate.
· Continue to participate in the ERP Project by way of committee meetings, participating on the Selection Committee, participating in vendor demonstration meetings, and finally, implementation.
· Continue to make improvements to Countywide training, both in-person and virtually.