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County HR requests two new roles, leadership training platform and merit review process
Summary
Human resources proposed two new positions — a risk & benefits manager and an employee relations specialist — a leadership development platform, and a 3% merit pool tied to a supervisor training and evaluation schedule; HR also outlined rising FMLA and workers' comp workload and the start of a compensation study.
Tom (HR director) updated commissioners on workforce, training and benefit work and asked for two new positions and a modest investment in a leadership‑development platform.
Why it matters: The HR office said it is managing a complex set of tasks — benefits and insurance RFPs, workers’ compensation and FMLA case management, onboarding, performance management, and a forthcoming classification/compensation study — and argued additional staff would improve compliance, reduce risk and strengthen supervisor support.
Requests and rationale - New positions: a risk & benefits manager to consolidate oversight of employee benefits, workers’ compensation, subrogation, and insurance activity currently dispersed across several units; and an employee relations specialist to handle workplace investigations, employee engagement and to run a more proactive performance‑management program. - Leadership platform: HR tested multiple leadership development platforms and recommended WildSpark (or similar) as a cohort‑based supervisor development tool to improve communication and evaluation quality. Quoting vendor tiers, HR said per‑user pricing scales down at 50+ users. - Merit program: HR requested the court consider a 3% merit pool, with supervisor training in the fall, department evaluation submissions early next year and merit payments effective in April to allow time for training and verification.
Workload and metrics - FMLA: HR manages about 190 FMLA cases (recent year); workers’ compensation and unemployment appeals have also required significant staff time. The benefits coordinator and HR manager currently carry much of this workload. - Compensation study: HR will begin a classification and compensation study (first meetings July 8) to produce a rubric and market comparisons; HR said that could inform future step/grade adjustments across the county workforce.
Ending: HR said the two requested roles would be prioritized for the next budget year, with further details on costs to follow. Commissioners asked for follow‑up materials documenting position descriptions, cost estimates and the planned schedule for merit reviews.
