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Select Board, personnel board discuss updated Personnel Board charge and annual reporting
Summary
At a lengthy presentation on Feb. 24, the personnel board outlined a new policy-oriented charge and the Select Board and staff discussed expectations for annual reporting on recruitment, retention and employee morale.
Bill Moraczek, co-chair of the Personnel Board, presented a revised charge and a short history of the board’s recent work at the Select Board meeting on Feb. 24.
Moraczek summarized the personnel board’s recent work since a governance study in 2014 and a personnel study task force report in 2022. He told the Select Board that the updated charge reframes the personnel board as a policy board and lists expectations around advising the town manager and monitoring human-resources initiatives. Moraczek said the personnel board has helped implement a new classification and compensation program and a dashboard to monitor recruitment and retention.
Town Manager Carrie LaFleur and board members discussed how the personnel board should interface with HR and the town manager’s office. LaFleur described the board’s role under the personnel bylaw as primarily advisory to the town manager and noted that many administrative items (vacation accruals, accrual schedules) belong in the employee handbook rather than the charge. The board and staff agreed the personnel board should not replace day-to-day HR administration but should review and advise on classification changes, performance-management rollouts, and larger HR initiatives.
Select Board members suggested the personnel board provide a concise annual report in June that covers recruitment and retention status, employee morale, major HR initiatives undertaken that fiscal year (for example, conversion of payroll systems), and any recommendations the Select Board could consider for its own goal-setting. That timing was proposed so the Select Board and town manager evaluations can incorporate personnel-board input.
Other details from the discussion
- Scope: Board members emphasized the personnel board should be a policy-level body that advises the town manager; staff continues to handle classification reviews and routine administrative changes. Supervisors or employees may raise classification requests with HR, and staff will bring proposed classification placements to the personnel board for review.
- Coverage: The personnel classification and compensation system now covers roughly 175 regular positions townwide (the number was given as an approximate count during Q&A).
- Performance reviews: The town reported it has implemented a new performance review system and completed initial manager/supervisor training; the first review cycle under the new system is scheduled for the end of the current fiscal year.
- Diversity and inclusion: Staff described ongoing internal initiatives, including an internal staff person advancing equity work and a monthly “inclusion chronicles” brief for employees; outreach and recruitment channels have been broadened in recent hiring efforts.
The Select Board asked the personnel board to incorporate the suggested annual reporting items into the charge and for the personnel board to return a final draft after discussion. The personnel board indicated it could produce a final draft in roughly two meetings’ time.
