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Greenwich HR director asks BET to approve staff to speed hiring, testing and training
Summary
Mary Pepe, the Town of Greenwich director of human resources, told the Board of Estimate and Taxation the HR office needs a new staff position to handle rising recruitment and civil-service testing demand; committee members pressed for data about higher hiring volumes, ADP/HIS costs and training spending.
The Board of Estimate and Taxation reconvened at 12:33 p.m. and heard from Mary Pepe, director of human resources for the Town of Greenwich, who outlined the HR department’s budget priorities and a request to add staff to assist with recruitment and civil-service testing.
Pepe told the committee HR’s structure has remained largely unchanged over the past decade but that workload has increased, noting the town now processes about 3,400 payrolls every two weeks through the HIS/ADP system that serves all town employees, including Board of Education staff. "We process payroll for roughly 3,400 pays every two weeks," Pepe said.
Why it matters: committee members said higher hiring volume, testing demands for union and public-safety jobs, and software or contract changes can drive HR costs and slow department responsiveness. The HR office is seeking the line-71 request to augment an existing 1.0 FTE so HR can administer more recruitment and testing concurrently and reduce bottlenecks.
Pepe described civil-service testing for Teamsters, GMEA and public-safety positions — written exams, oral panels and practicals — and said the town rents validated tests and sometimes uses outside consultants for police and fire exams. She said the town discontinued small exam fees years ago over administrative burden and fairness concerns.
Committee members pressed for context on hiring trends. "Ten years ago, we were adding about 60 new full-time hires a year; the last three years on average, about 120," said committee member Doug, noting police recruitment lists that once numbered in the dozens have shrunk to single digits. Pepe said retirements and national recruitment pressures, especially in public safety, are contributors but that HR has not yet benchmarked the pattern against other municipalities.
On training spending, Pepe said the department budgets roughly $110,000 for training annually, with about $20,000 for mandatory harassment-prevention training and about $90,000 for leadership development, inherent-bias work and other programs. "Education is the ultimate weapon," Pepe said in describing the leadership academy that runs 10 courses over a year and includes employees across departments.
Pepe also described records and software issues that affect costs. She said Connecticut statute requires hard-copy personnel files be retained for 30 years after employment ends, and that platform changes or legislative requirements (for example, recent changes tied to paid-leave rules) sometimes require one-time ADP/HIS reconfiguration costs. The department uses NEOGOV for online applications.
What’s next: the HR committee will review M&C (management and confidential) raise assumptions and requested new positions; committee members agreed to take up those items on Wednesday and report back to the budget committee. The presentation closed with a plan to update the meeting book with missing salary-schedule pages.
Sources: statements and data provided in committee discussion by Mary Pepe, director of human resources; Erica Mahoney, assistant director of human resources; and committee member Doug during the BET meeting.
