Pflugerville People & Culture director highlights hiring surge, new veteran partnership and safety, records improvements

Robbie Craig, Pflugerville’s People & Culture director, told the City Council at a Sept. 23 work session that the department has onboarded 97 new full-time employees this year and separately hired 167 seasonal workers as the city fills roles ahead of FY26. "As of today, we've brought on 97 new employees this year," Craig said, adding the city’s current head count is about 466, with 437 full‑time positions.

Craig said voluntary turnover is about 11% and total turnover about 17%, which she described as below industry averages. She told councilmembers the department uses onboarding surveys (first week, 30 days and 90 days) and exit interviews — with about an 85–90% response rate on exit interviews — to spot trends and improve retention. "We actually do 2 different surveys...we also check-in with them at 30 days and 90 days," Craig said.

The department announced a new partnership with the Department of Defense SkillBridge program to host eligible service members during their last 180 days of service for internships and training, with the goal of transitioning them into civilian roles. Craig said the city will receive an official designation at an upcoming council meeting near Veterans Day. "This allows eligible service members...to participate in civilian internships, apprenticeships, and training while still receiving their military benefits and pay," she said.

On safety and incident reporting, Craig credited the city’s new risk and safety officer and a building coordinator program for improving responses to incidents and training. She said an incident review board reviewed 26 cases and a new internal QR-code reporting tool produced 65 submissions in about 160 days. "That has reduced processing time by 95%," Craig said of a new workers' compensation reporting process, adding reports now are processed in about two hours compared with multiple days previously.

Craig also highlighted employee engagement and culture efforts: 361 employees completed an engagement survey (about a 79% response rate among those surveyed), staff logged 445 volunteer hours in the Pflugerville community, and the wellness committee hosted 12 events this year. She said the department worked with LEAP leadership to revise a police step plan and promotion matrix for FY26 to help recruit and retain law enforcement staff.

Looking ahead, Craig said the department will present its culture and retention work at the International City Managers Association conference, begin a Supervisor Fundamentals training for newly promoted supervisors, run an October benefits-education campaign and relaunch the city’s 457 plan with a new provider in November. She also said People & Culture is beginning a project to convert personnel files from paper to electronic format before the move into a new city hall; "How much of our personnel files are paper?" a councilmember asked; Craig answered, "100."