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Albany HR touts recruitment gains, civil-service workshops and expanded parental leave
Summary
Human Resources Director Tatiana Diaz described the ‘Join Albany’ recruitment campaign, manual review of thousands of applications, civil-service workshop partnerships and a new parental/prenatal leave policy that offers 12 weeks at 67% pay with eligibility after three months of service.
Tatiana Diaz, the City of Albany’s Human Resources Director, told commissioners the city has expanded outreach and recruitment under the Join Albany campaign and has built a civil-service workshop that the county and state now emulate. Diaz said the HR team of eight oversees benefits, labor relations and civil-service administration for the city and other local entities.
Diaz described recruitment metrics and processes: since launching the campaign, HR has attended dozens of local events (38 to date this year), and she said her team manually reviewed roughly 7,000 applications rather than relying on automated-screening tools. “These 7,000 applications were reviewed by people on my team. We don't use AI,” Diaz said, adding the team uses uniform templates to make hiring decisions consistent with New York State Civil Service rules.
She reviewed benefits and leave updates: the city added prenatal leave (time to attend appointments) and broadened parental leave to 12 weeks at 67% pay; employees may use accrued paid time to top up pay to 100%. Diaz said the city shortened eligibility from the state’s typical six-month threshold to three months of continuous service for the local parental-leave policy.
Diaz highlighted workforce-development efforts aimed at younger residents: the HR office supports the Summer Youth Employment Program and is formalizing an internship and student-assistant pathway to encourage students to pursue public-service careers. She also noted the city submitted more than 250 civil-service titles to a New York State health program that allows the city to waive certain examinations and make permanent appointments for provisional employees; she said the program’s current special appointment authority is expected to run through 2026.
The presentation emphasized collaboration: the civil-service workshop brought county and state partners into a tri-jurisdiction initiative to help job-seekers navigate competitive hiring processes and access training and retirement-planning resources. Diaz said the city will continue targeted outreach in wards with low application rates and is rolling out retention activities such as recognition events, an employee-wellness fair and an employee-discount portal.
Commissioners reacted positively and asked follow-up questions on reach, event scheduling and internship details. Diaz invited feedback and said more information is available in the meeting packet.
