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Large Agency - Fairfax County Department of Human Resources
Peter J. Schroth, IPMA-CP, Director
Fairfax County is one of the northernmost counties in Virginia,
comprised of nearly one million residents with a regular workforce
of approximately 11,500 full time employees. Its Human Resources
Department consists of 36 professional, 24 administrative, and
8 professional employees operating as a central support organization
to some 47 different agencies. The organization provides a full
range of human resource services and programs anchored in functional
groupings each led by a team leader. The budget of the organization
is $6.5 million dollars.
The County's Human Resources Department has
built, nurtured and maintained an exceptional and comprehensive
program focused on recruiting, retaining and rewarding its most
valuable asset-its employees.
In the area of Staffing/Employment, Fairfax
County HR has initiated a business redesign process with agency
representation to streamline the applicant tracking and hiring
process. Agencies now have the option of being trained to use
a decentralized certification process or continue with the more
traditional centralized process. Agencies may only advertise
"open until filled" and extend offers up to and including
the midpoint of the appropriate pay range without additional
approval. Results include a significantly reduced processing
time, greater agency ownership of the process and actual hires
being made in 2-3 days from the time of employment requisition
approval.
In Compensation/Workforce Analysis, Fairfax
County HR has revamped the performance management and compensation
systems for more than 8,000 non-public safety personnel. Historically,
these employees had been part of a grade and step pay system
that provided nearly 100% of employees with a 5% step increment,
unless they were at a minimum of their pay range. All employees
also received a cost of living analysis (COLA) that was applied
to the pay ranges and the employees' base pay.
To improve Employee Relations, the HR Department
fostered communication in the workforce in a variety of new
ways, all of which were crucial to the successful implementation
of new programs and initiatives. To support communication throughout
the organization, the Department provided regular employee newsletter
coverage, training classes, workshops, brown bag lunches, and
embraced technology by establishing an e-mail based, guaranteed
24 hour response hotline called "HR Express." Additionally,
a website for employees provides information on job vacancies,
personnel policies, pay for performance, training and ongoing
initiatives.
In Training/Development, the HR Department
supported the County Executives' initiative to provide Leadership
Training to senior and mid-level managers. To do this, they
contracted with the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service
at the University of Virginia to provide weeklong leadership
development seminars for the County's top and mid-management.
Currently, the program has reached critical mass in the sense
of common semantics, committed philosophies and processes, as
well as visibility.
Employee Benefits and Payroll is an area where
automation has taken the place of a slow, cumbersome paper time
and attendance reporting system. The new automated process allows
time to be entered from any location from the traditional office
environment, to remote work sites by employees at every level
of the organization. The new process also provides employees
with access to view their own personnel and pay information,
as well as the ability to make changes to certain personal information.
This monumental task was completed over a two-year period using
in-house resources to design the system, develop training materials,
and train over 10,000 employees at varying levels of computer
experience. An estimated 30-50% time saving over the paper process,
along with $100,000 operational cost savings attest to the program's
success.
In summary, the Fairfax County Department
of Human Resources is an organization that has re-validated
its vision, mission, and strategic goals in a countywide process
that partners with agencies to build ownership and continuing
commitment to these and other initiatives reflective of a high-performance
organization.
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