Human Resources commissioner tells committee telework is here to stay, cites staffing progress and big ERP project

The Vermont Department of Human Resources’ commissioner, Beth Vistigee, told the Senate Committee on Government Operations on March 20 that telework is now an enduring feature of the state workforce and that the department has largely recovered staffing levels lost during the pandemic.

Vistigee told the panel she started as commissioner in 2017 and that the department now employs about 106 people. “Our telework policy was put in place in 2012,” she said, and expanded sharply during the pandemic; many employees now telework some or all of their hours under formal telework agreements with supervisors. She said the department added several positions during her tenure — three positions moved under DHR from another agency and about eight positions were added roughly two years ago to respond to post‑pandemic hiring and administrative workload.

The discussion centered on several operational priorities for DHR: maintaining recruitment momentum, coordinating telework with the state’s real‑estate needs, stabilizing vacancies, and launching a major enterprise resource planning (ERP) replacement for payroll and related systems.…