Jared, a Civil Service Department staff member, briefed the City of Dallas Civil Service Board on Jan. 7, 2025, on the department's fiscal-year 2024–25 priorities, focusing on talent attraction, talent assessment and operational excellence, and on using newly available Workday reporting to inform equity planning.

Jared outlined the department’s three operational units — recruitment and examining, test/validation and assessment, and administration — and said the priorities are intended to expand candidate reach, refine sourcing strategies, cultivate community and educational partnerships, and embed the citywide equity plan into talent strategy.

He said the department has preliminarily identified about 25 positions to prioritize in pipeline-building work; examples discussed in the meeting included skilled trades and roles tied to public safety and revenue generation, and he specifically mentioned 911/police communications as examples of positions they are evaluating for focused recruitment.

Jared said Workday now provides extractable diversity data that the department did not previously have, enabling a data-driven review of representation. He also said Workday integration is not yet complete for all testing and promotional functions: some promotional hiring is still being facilitated in the old system while the department and ITS test solutions.

Board members asked about specific pipelines and local partnerships. Board member Kutak pressed for identification of concrete roles to target; Jared said the team has preliminarily identified positions and will return with a more detailed plan. Board member Gerber asked for a list of current partners so board members could suggest additional community contacts; Jared agreed to circulate the existing partnership list.

Jared said the department is coordinating with Dallas Police Department, Dallas Fire-Rescue and HR on a marketing/branding strategy and is seeking an external firm to help generate awareness. He emphasized shifting from general job fairs to targeted hiring events — noting the department participated in a countywide Red, White and Blue job fair with about 1,500 attendees and recently held hiring events with Dallas Water and the Dallas Police Department.

He also said the department cleared a backlog of hearings but has seen an uptick in administrative law judge hearing requests and is engaged in a judicial nominating process to recruit additional administrative law judges to handle demand and preserve rotation and diversity among hearing officers.

Jared said the department provides quarterly updates and plans to circulate a draft annual report and cover letter; board members were asked to send feedback by Jan. 17, 2025, with a target to include the final draft with board materials by Jan. 31.

Board members offered operational suggestions: better tracking of which recruitment activities yield hires, sharing existing outreach partners so board members can contribute contacts, and using social media where appropriate for younger candidate pools. Jared said staff will compile outreach and partnership data across city departments and return with more detail in a future quarterly update.