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Human services division reports about 30 vacancies in Children & Youth; county outlines recruitment and retention steps
Summary
At the Feb. 18 Human Services Committee meeting, county staff reported roughly 30 vacancies in Children & Youth and additional vacancies in aging services; HR now provides weekly vacancy tracking and the administration said it has improved retention metrics and will provide more data to council.
County human services officials briefed the Human Services Committee on Feb. 18 about staffing, vacancies and retention work across divisions.
Miss Wandelowski presented the human services staffing overview and described weekly HR vacancy reporting produced by Katie Hunsicker; the tracker lists each job posting, status (open/closed), whether it is advertised internally or externally and position counts. Wandelowski said the county now manages postings through HR after exiting civil service rules and uses consolidated "bucket" postings for repeated position types.
She reported roughly 30 vacancies in the Children & Youth division (across clerical, caseworker, supervisor and administrative support roles) and noted the number represents an improvement from past years: annual separations ranged between 30 and 43 from 2020 onward but the 2025 separations figure was 21. Wandelowski described ongoing retention initiatives, monitoring of how many staff leave within 6 or 12 months and revamped interview processes for aging positions that include realistic preview materials.
Wandelowski also said aging services has several open positions (care manager, case aid and other protective services roles) and emphasized protective services as a legally required function that must remain staffed. Committee members asked for more granular data and for continued updates to the dashboard and biweekly reports so council can track whether recruitment and retention efforts reduce reliance on agency staff.
No formal action was taken during the briefing; personnel details and proposed position upgrades were reserved for an upcoming Personnel and Finance committee meeting.
