The HR manager told the Los Alamos County Personnel Board that she will retire with an effective date of June 1 and a last day in the office on Nov. 14, and used an eight-month summary to review staffing, policy work, training and risk-management updates.

In the meeting, the HR manager highlighted recent promotions and new hires in the department, certification achievements among staff, and a reduction in overall county vacancies from roughly 80 to single digits. She listed current HR team members and said the department now has one vacancy for an HR analyst to support training and development. She also credited county management, including former supervisor Steven Lynn and current county manager Anne Laurent, for leadership and support.

The presentation outlined several major policy initiatives in progress. The county’s alternate work schedule pilot policy took effect May 11 and will be evaluated after it runs through Nov. 2; the pilot allows options such as four 10-hour workdays, but employees on alternate schedules cannot also participate in the telework program. The HR manager said the county’s telework program generally permits one remote day per week for eligible positions, and that only two HR staff elected the alternate schedule.

A comprehensive compensation policy is under revision; the HR manager said the draft requires careful review with legal because changes could affect current employees’ placement and pay. She said she hoped to have the compensation policy finalized soon but did not commit to a date. The HR manager also reported near-final work to implement the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act for county employees.

The department is rewriting a 62-page drug-and-alcohol policy into several shorter, job-specific policies that separate procedures from policy text and ensure regulatory language aligns with agencies such as FMCSA and FTA for safety-sensitive positions. The HR manager said those revisions would be reviewed by senior management and legal before being returned to the board.

On recruitment and workforce metrics, the HR manager said the county employed an average of 892 people between January and August (including about 230 casuals and two temporaries), and noted a year-to-date turnover rate of roughly 10 percent. She described ongoing recruitments for the fire chief, HR manager, and public information officer positions; those searches use a national firm, MGT Consulting, for high-profile roles. The Police Department and Fire Department promotional and hiring activities were summarized, and the county’s summer internship program hired 25 students.

Benefits and employee recognition work also featured in the report. The benefits team manages multiple contracts, manages open enrollment (with an anticipated November health fair and online enrollment), and runs retirement- and service-award programs. The HR manager described efforts to redesign employee recognition to avoid legal and tax complications from monetary awards and to continue nonmonetary recognition coins.

Training and safety updates included rollout of a learning management system, an expanded new-employee orientation that bundles mandatory safety and compliance training into the first week, and renewed site inspections to improve OSHA compliance. The risk manager has reviewed insurance renewals and asset listings with the New Mexico Self-Insurers Fund and New Mexico Counties and has conducted site visits (including hydropower plants) to address coverage gaps; the HR manager said the risk manager’s work reduced premium costs in at least one year.

The HR manager said a nurse-line triage program for workers’ compensation claims began in January to direct care decisions and reduce unnecessary emergency-room visits. She also reported that the county is tracking exit interviews to improve retention analysis.

The report closed with reminders about upcoming events and the board’s limited work plan for the year. The HR manager repeatedly noted that many of the policy projects remain drafts and will return to the board after legal and senior-management review.

Several board members asked clarifying questions during the report about alternate-schedule participation rates, the impact of pension rules on Social Security eligibility, drug-testing differences by trade and regulatory authority, and measures for training outcomes. The HR manager said some specific numbers (for example, countywide participation counts in the alternate schedule) were not yet available but could be provided at a future meeting.