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Personnel Services reports hiring freeze, pilot savings and employee handbook update
Summary
Personnel Services gave a department update June 16: 225 employees on payroll, multiple vacancies (posted and unposted), $20,000 in savings from a reduced-hours pilot, completion of employee-handbook phase one and plans to study midyear COLA, reclassifications and a compensation survey ahead of the 2027 budget cycle.
Tess Barger, director of Personnel Services, told the commission on June 16 that Grand County employs roughly 225 people across full-time, part-time, on-call and elected positions and administers payroll for a set of special districts.
She reported eight posted vacancies and 14 unposted vacancies (positions held under the county’s hiring-freeze category). Two positions have been approved for backfill (library clerks) but remain unposted pending departmental capacity. The county’s reduced-hours pilot — an experiment allowing some staff to work less than 40 hours per week — has saved approximately $20,000 to date, with about 10 employees currently opted in.
Phase one of a comprehensive employee-handbook revision was completed in May; that work consolidated resolutions, updated statutory references and refreshed terminology (the handbook had not been comprehensively revised since 2014). Tess said phase two will solicit staff feedback and may proceed via a handbook committee and section-by-section review.
Looking ahead, Personnel Services plans to present: (1) midyear cost-of-living-adjustment scenarios (the Social Security Administration is projecting a COLA in the range of 3.8%–4.7% for 2027), (2) reclassification requests that were deferred during budget season, and (3) a compensation survey — the county’s last comprehensive survey was completed in 2021. Tess said the county may decide to hire an outside consultant or perform the survey in-house and will return budget-impact scenarios when available.
Commissioners requested cost estimates for any midyear COLA and for approaches that would address long-tenure “stepped-out” employees who have reached top step rates and no longer receive step increases; personnel staff said they will return options and analyses.
