Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Human Resources topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Arapahoe County advances HR updates tied to HCM: compensatory time cap, accruals, holiday schedule and language‑testing changes
Summary
County HR staff presented a package of Human Capital Management (HCM) policy changes including aligning compensatory‑time caps to 80 hours, changing accrual rules to credit first/last month if any hour worked, proposing a second holiday schedule for court staff, defining 24‑hour on‑call shifts and revising dual‑language testing cadence/guardrails; commissioners approved most items as direction and asked HR to draft guardrails for language retesting.
Patrick Hernandez, Arapahoe County director of human resources, briefed commissioners on a set of HR policy changes tied to the county's HCM implementation and market‑based compensation work.
Key proposals and outcomes:
• Compensatory time cap: HR proposed standardizing the compensatory time cap to 80 hours (up from the previous 78 in some units). Commissioners indicated support and gave thumbs up to align the cap countywide.
• First/last month accruals: HR recommended that employees who work any hour in a month receive the full accrual for that month (bringing first and last months into parity with the county’s existing accrual policy). Commissioners indicated support and asked HR to track fiscal implications; HR said financial impacts are being vetted by the e‑team.
• Exempt‑employee holiday/bereavement/jury pay: For exempt employees HR proposed treating those leave categories as full days off rather than hourly, and to refund vacation hours some exempt employees used in 2025 to supplement those paid days. Commissioners supported the direction to make employees whole for 2025 and to adopt consistent treatment going forward.
• Court holiday schedule: HR proposed a third holiday schedule for courthouse staff (11 scheduled holidays plus five floating holidays) to address courts’ variable closures on the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Commissioners generally supported creating a separate schedule; HR will prepare details for formal adoption (holiday schedules are approved annually by statute).
• On‑call pay: HR proposed defining an on‑call shift as a 24‑hour period starting at the shift start to avoid overlapping pay for employees whose on‑call periods cross midnight. The board approved the clarification and HR said it will adjust flat rates to market in a future comp package.
• Dual‑language testing and pay: HR asked to move away from automatic retesting every two years; staff proposed supervisor‑requested retesting under written guardrails and extending the retest cadence for ad‑hoc (tier‑3) positions. Commissioners debated the proposal and asked HR and legal to draft guardrails; Commissioner Campbell said she was uncomfortable with retesting “for any or no reason” without documented criteria. One commissioner abstained from the initial thumbs up. HR will circulate proposed guardrails for commissioner review.
• Compensation data and peer group: HR described transition from Employers Council to Colorado Public Employers Compensation (CPAC) and MarketPay (Payscale). Staff reported ~675 unique county jobs, ~75% benchmarked, and 77% of employees matched to benchmarked data. Commissioners approved adding the State of Colorado to the county’s approved peer group and to refine peers that are not participating in CPAC.
Several policy changes were approved by consensus (thumbs up) as direction to staff rather than as codified ordinances; HR will return with implementation details, fiscal notes and written guardrails where requested.
