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HomeMy WebLinkAbout25 - Adding a Human Resources Specialist Position for Police Department Recruitment and RetentionQ SEW Pp�T CITY OF O � z NEWPORT BEACH <,FORN'P City Council Staff Report November 29, 2022 Agenda Item No. 25 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: Barbara J. Salvini, Human Resources Director - 949-644-3300, bsalvini@newportbeachca.gov PREPARED BY: Barbara J. Salvini, Human Resources Director PHONE: 949-644-3300 TITLE: Resolution No. 2022-91: Adding a Human Resources Specialist Position for Police Department Recruitment and Retention ABSTRACT: Over the last several years, recruitment and retention of City of Newport Beach (City) employees has become increasingly challenging, particularly associated with police employees. In order to devote more resources toward critical staffing needs, the City Council is being asked to consider adopting the attached resolution to add one human resources specialist position to the Human Resources Department. This position would focus on police officer recruitment and retention activities. RECOMMENDATION: a) Determine this action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060©(2) and 15060(c)(3) of the CEQA Guidelines because this action will not result in a physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly; b) Adopt Resolution No. 2022-91, A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Newport Beach, California, Adding a Human Resources Specialist Position to the Human Resources Department; and c) Approve Budget Amendment No. 23-031 appropriating $71,640 to various salary and benefit accounts. DISCUSSION: The City is facing challenging times attracting and retaining talent, with sworn police positions being some of the most difficult and costly to fill. The hiring process for sworn police employees takes longer than other recruitments because of the need for the City to ensure selected individuals are qualified to uphold the highest levels of safety, service and professionalism. 25-1 Resolution No. 2022-91: Adding a Human Resources Specialist Position for Police Department Recruitment and Retention November 29, 2022 Page 2 The Human Resources and Police Departments have coordinated efforts to fill police officer vacancies, which typically fluctuate between 5 and 10 at any given time. Within the last five years, all police officer positions have been filled just once, and for a brief period. The chronic vacancies are due to retirements, recruits failing out of the academy, probationary officers not meeting standards, and the time it takes to hire new candidates. To be competitive, police officer recruitments are open on a continuous basis. Even so, the time spent from application submission to hire date can take up to six months. The human resources specialist who oversees the police recruitments dedicates approximately 30 percent of their time on police recruitments with the remaining time spent managing other City recruitments and working on various Human Resources projects. Based on existing staffing levels and workload capacity, Human Resources conducts quarterly testing for police recruit and lateral police officer positions. However, neighboring agencies (Irvine, Costa Mesa, and Anaheim) have Human Resources recruiters who work solely on police recruitments offering more frequent, often monthly, testing. This is problematic for Newport Beach because candidates typically apply to multiple agencies simultaneously; consequently, the neighboring agencies which test more frequently have an advantage. The human resources specialist's police -related recruitment activities include creating job fliers; posting and submitting advertisements; conducting outreach; screening applications; setting up written and physical agility testing and interviews; creating offer letters; scheduling medical and psychological exams; and processing new -hire paperwork. A devoted human resources specialist will be able to coordinate and oversee more frequent testing and have increased capacity to engage in more proactive recruitment activities, including participation in job fairs and community outreach. Although time consuming, job fairs provide a great opportunity for the community and potential candidates to connect with the City on a personal level. A dedicated recruiter also makes financial sense because they can devote more time on the screening process to better ensure only highly qualified, capable candidates move forward. Currently, only 20 percent of the applicants who move forward into the background process, are hired. Once hired, an average of three candidates per year fail probation. To increase this percentage and maximize efficiencies, dedicated resources upfront will result in a more focused and selective screening process, which in turn will reduce undesirable and morale deflating turnover costs. To further support the effort to reach and maintain full staffing of police officers, staff intends to propose an appropriation of approximately $880,000 in next year's operating budget, an amount that funds four police officer positions and their associated costs. Should the need or opportunity arise, the funds would be available to bring on more police officer recruits in the hiring process than the City may temporarily have vacancies for, in order to avoid the hiring concerns described in this report. This would be a one-time appropriation, with the balance carried forward to the next fiscal year. The appropriation would be budgeted in an account that the City Manager oversees and transfers funds to the appropriate operating accounts. 25-2 Resolution No. 2022-91: Adding a Human Resources Specialist Position for Police Department Recruitment and Retention November 29, 2022 Page 3 FISCAL IMPACT: The fully loaded annual cost for a Human Resources Specialist is $123,100. The attached Budget Amendment allocates $71,640 to fund the cost of the position for the remainder of this fiscal year. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: Staff recommends the City Council find this action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly. NOTICING: The agenda item has been noticed according to the Brown Act (72 hours in advance of the meeting at which the City Council considers the item). ATTACHMENTS: Attachment A — Resolution No. 2022-91 Attachment B — Human Resources Specialist Job Description and Salary Schedule Attachment C — Budget Amendment No. 23-031 25-3 ATTACHMENT A RESOLUTION NO. 2022-91 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA, ADDING A HUMAN RESOURCES SPECIALIST POSITION TO THE HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT WHEREAS, City of Newport Beach ("City") Charter Section 601 requires the City Council to provide the number, titles, qualifications, powers, duties and compensation of all officers and employees; WHEREAS, over the past few years the Human Resources Department's workload has increased, and recruitment and retention efforts, particularly those associated with the City's police safety employees, have become more challenging and require more staff time and resources; WHEREAS, the current staffing level of the Human Resources Department cannot keep pace with the City's recruitment and retention demands, particularly those associated with recruitment and retention of the City's police safety employees; and WHEREAS, to optimize the City's efforts to attract and retain employees, in particular police and fire safety employees, the City Manager recommends that one Human Resources Specialist be added to the Human Resources Department to maximize recruitment and retention efforts. NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Newport Beach resolves as follows: Section 1: One Human Resources Specialist position shall be added to the Human Resources Department. Section 2: The recitals provided in this resolution are true and correct and are incorporated into the operative part of this resolution. Section 3: If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this resolution is, for any reason, held to be invalid or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity or constitutionality of the remaining portions of this resolution. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this resolution, and each section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase hereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases be declared invalid or unconstitutional. 25-4 Resolution No. 2022- Page 2 of 2 Section 4: The City Council finds the adoption of this resolution is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Division 6, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly. Section 5: This resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption by the City Council, and the City Clerk shall certify the vote adopting the resolution. ADOPTED this 29th day of November, 2022. Kevin Muldoon Mayor ATTEST: Leilani I. Brown City Clerk APPROVED AS TO FORM: CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE / 1 --- - -" , ► I - - - Aaron C. Harp City Attorney 25-5 ATTACHMENT B CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH HUMAN RESOURCES SPECIALIST 1/11 DEFINITION: To perform a variety of responsible technical and administrative staff work in support of Human Resources Department functions; provide responsible administrative assistance to professional and management staff. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Human Resources Specialist I: This is the entry-level paraprofessional class in the Human Resources Specialist series. This class is the trainee level and distinguished from the Human Resources Specialist II by the lesser degree of independence, responsibility and accountability exercised in the fulfillment of duties, and by the performance of more routine tasks and assignments. Human Resources Specialist II: This is the journey -level class in the Human Resources Specialist series. Positions in this class are flexibly staffed and are normally filled by advancement from the Human Resources Specialist I, or when filled from the outside, normally require prior public sector human resources experience. SUPERVISION RECEIVED AND EXERCISED: Receives supervision from professional and management staff. EXAMPLES OF ESSENTIAL DUTIES: Depending upon assignment, duties may include, but are not limited to, the following: Essential Job Duties • Provide responsible technical and administrative staff support, including preparation of correspondence and reports. • Conduct special studies and surveys; perform research and statistical analyses; compile and assemble data and prepare related reports. • Assist in the development and implementation of goals, objectives, policies and procedures. • Verify and review materials for completeness, accuracy and conformity with established procedures. • Respond to complaints and requests for information from the public and City staff. • May provide functional and technical direction and oversight to clerical staff. Page 1 of 5 25-6 WHEN ASSIGNED TO THE HUMAN RESOURCES DIVISION: • Plan and initiate recruitment and selection activities including: composing job announcements and advertisements; reviewing job applications; scheduling, administering, and proctoring, examinations; preparing and maintaining eligibility lists; and making offers of employment to candidates. • Monitor and maintain employee data base; act as administrator for the on-line applicant tracking system; and monitor and maintain on-line position control system; verify requests from personnel vacancy replacements against position control system • Process personnel action forms for employee status change and track hours worked to determine benefit eligibility. • Implement personnel status changes resulting from new labor agreements. WHEN ASSIGNED TO THE RISK MANAGEMENT DIVISION: • Provide assistance and information to employees and others concerning benefits and disability programs; • Conduct new employee orientations and enroll new employees in health plans; • Process employee benefit applications and requests for disability leave, FMLA, COBRA, over -aged dependents, retirement, death and other qualifying events. • Assist in coordination of annual open enrollment and health fair. • Monitor medical, dental, life and long term disability utilization trends, expenditures and claims administration. • Assist with employee transition to retirement healthcare; assist with Medicare and Medicare supplement enrollment; communicate coverage, rates and changes to retiree benefits claims administrator; coordinate all status changes and reconcile premium billing statements and reimbursements; and perform exit processing services for terminating and retiring employees. • Process all Workers' Compensation claims; complete Workers' Compensation payroll reporting and assist with related Workers' Compensation claims management activities. • Assist with general liability claims administration and other risk management programs as assigned. Page 2 of 5 25-7 • Perform related duties as assigned. QUALIFICATIONS: Knowledge of: Basic principles, practices and techniques of public personnel administration, benefits administration, and recruitment and selection; Applicable state and federal legislation and codes; Basic principles and methods of administrative research, report preparation and methods of statistical analysis; English language usage necessary to compose correspondence and administrative reports; Organizational and management practices as applied to the analysis and evaluation of programs, policies and operational needs; Human resources information systems, applicant tracking systems, and word processing, spreadsheet, database and presentation software applications. Ability to: Analyze problems, identify alternative solutions, project consequences of proposed actions and implement recommendations in support of goals; Interpret and apply memorandums of understanding, City policies, procedures, rules and regulations; Interpret and apply Federal, State and local policies, procedures and laws and regulations pertaining to personnel administration; Perform a variety of administrative duties with general supervision, after training period; Prepare clear and concise correspondence and reports; Select appropriate methods of data analysis and reporting and make arithmetic and statistical calculations accurately; Communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing; Provide assistance to the public and staff and handle sensitive and emotional situations with empathy, appropriate firmness and good judgment; Page 3 of 5 25-8 Maintain the confidentiality of privileged and confidential information; Appear for work on time; Follow directions from a supervisor; Understand and follow posted work rules and procedures; Accept constructive criticism; Establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with those contacted in the course of work; Work overtime hours as needed. EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING: Human Resources Specialist I: Experience: Six months responsible Human Resources experience is required. Training: Equivalent to an Associate of Art's degree from an accredited college or university with major course work in business administration, public administration, psychology or a related field. Human Resources Specialist II: Experience: One or more years of responsible Human Resources experience is required. Six months related public sector human resources experience can be substituted for the one year requirement. Training: Equivalent to a Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university with major course work in business administration, public administration, psychology or a related field. LICENSE OR CERTIFICATE: Possession of, or ability to obtain, an appropriate, valid California driver's license. Confidential Group FLSA: Non -Exempt Adopted: 1/19/07 Page 4 of 5 25-9 Salary Schedule - Bargain unit City of Newport Beach Citywide Salary Schedule KEY & MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES Salary Title Group Grade Hourly Monthly Annual Revision Effective Date 1/15/2022 HUMAN RESOURCES 7000 03 $30.94 $5,363.58 $64,363.00 SPECIALIST I $32.49 $5,631.49 $67,577.90 $34.11 $5,911.53 $70,938.40 $35.79 $6,203.75 $74,445.02 $37.59 $6,516.27 $78,195.26 $39.46 $6,838.95 $82,067.44 $41.47 $7,187.98 $86,255.78 $43.48 $7,537.05 $90,444.64 Page 5 of 5 25-10 ATTACHMENT C JEW poi) or�' ! ! City of Newport Beach s, BUDGET AMENDMENT 2022-23 BA#: 23-031 Department: Human Resources Requestor: Barbara Salvini ONETIME: []yes ❑� No Approvals ❑ CITY MANAGER'S APPROVAL ONLY 1 Finance Director: Date A =IU— El COUNCIL APPROVAL REQUIRED City Clerk: Date EXPLANATION FOR REQUEST: To appropriate budget in salary and benefit accounts to fund a new Human Resources Specialist I position. ❑ from existing budget appropriations ❑ from additional estimated revenues Q from unappropriated fund balance REVENUES Fund # Org Object Project Description Increase or (Decrease) $ --- ------ - ------ Subtotal $ — _-- EXPENDITURES Fund # Org Object Project Description Increase or (Decrease) $ 010 01025005 711001 HUMAN RESOURCES - SALARIES MISCELLANEOUS 53,536.00 010 01025005 721001 HUMAN RESOURCES - CAFETERIA ALLOWANCE FT 12,974.00 010 01025005 727003 HUMAN RESOURCES - CELL PHONE STIPEND 554.00 010 01025005 727016 HUMAN RESOURCES - MEDICARE FRINGES 964.00 010 01025005 722001 HUMAN RESOURCES - PENSION EE NORMAL COST MISC 3,480.00 010 01025005 724001 HUMAN RESOURCES - PENSION EE CONTRIB MISC (6,960.00) 010 01025005 723002 HUMAN RESOURCES - PENSION ER NORMAL COST MISC 5,145.00 010 01025005 728003 HUMAN RESOURCES - COMPENSATED ABSENCES 1,874.00 010 01025005 727013 HUMAN RESOURCES - EMP ASSISTANCE PROGRAM 12.00 010 01025005 727012 HUMAN RESOURCES - LIFE INSURANCE 61.00 Subtotal $ — _ 71,640.00 FUND BALANCE Fund # Object Description Increase or (Decrease) $ 010 300000 GENERAL FUND - FUND BALANCE CONTROL (71,640.00) Subtotal $ (71,640.00) Fund Balance Change Required 25-11