Human Resources Director Miss Cypress told the Quorum Court committee she ran a pilot advertising campaign to expand applicant reach and is seeking an increase in a professional services line item to continue the effort. The committee voted to forward the human resources budget (department 121) to the full court with a "due pass" recommendation.

Cypress said the office ran a pilot with Indeed and Glassdoor and recently added LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter for a six-month test. She provided contract figures for the committee: "LinkedIn, we have a contract. It's, about $8,263 every 6 months," she said. She said ZipRecruiter costs about $8,994 every six months and that Indeed cost about $6,000 per year.

Cypress told the committee she has been absorbing some of the costs in other areas but that current advertising spending for LinkedIn, Indeed and ZipRecruiter is "about 23 thousands" (her words) compared with a $20,000 line item in the proposed budget. She said the pilot increased the applicant pool and that a full year's data will better show whether the additional advertising produces hires.

Committee members questioned the timing and the return on investment. Justice Keith asked when advertising invoicing occurred; Cypress said most hiring-related contracts run from late summer into year-end. Justice Katz asked whether the committee should wait for a full year of pilot data before approving new recurring funds; Cypress said she moved some funds internally to continue the pilot so she could present a year's worth of results later but that she felt the current $20,000 line item was insufficient to cover actual costs.

The committee approved the motion to forward department 121 with a due-pass recommendation and asked HR to report back next year with data on applicants, apply-starts and hires resulting from the pilot. Miss Cypress said the pilot manager estimated a cost-per-apply of approximately $4 and anticipated "around 400 apply starts" for the recommended monthly budget in the vendor's memo.

Why it matters

The committee's vote lets the full court consider a recurring increase for recruitment advertising. HR argued more targeted online advertising could help county hiring amid staffing shortages, particularly in public safety departments; the committee requested follow-up data so it can evaluate whether to continue the expenditure.

Attribution and speakers

Quotes and specific contract figures in this article come from Miss Cypress, the county's human resources director, as recorded in the committee transcript. Committee members who asked questions include Justice Sauer, Justice Keith, Justice Robinson and Justice Katz.

Next steps

Human Resources was asked to provide a 12-month follow-up report to the committee showing where applicants came from, apply-to-hire conversion and retention data; the committee will review that report before considering further advertising budget increases.