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Human Resources asks court for tech and staff as pay‑equity costs shift into FY27
Summary
HRT officials told commissioners their FY27 request focuses on staffing to support new county responsibilities, technology to bring recruiting and performance management in‑house, and continued funding for pay‑equity implementation, citing large one‑time and annualized costs.
Human Resources and Talent leaders told the commissioners court they designed their FY27 request to sustain recent investments and build capacity for new county responsibilities.
The department’s chief people officer said HRT’s request centers on staff needed to support expanded functions, plus technology to enable recruiting, performance management and retiree support. “Our primary focus of our request is investment in the positions necessary to support new County responsibilities, sustain critical initiatives, and continue delivering the level of service that departments depend upon,” the presenter said.
Commissioners pressed HRT on the use of outside consultants and how consulting work could be moved in‑house. HRT said consultants remain necessary for specialized, episodic work such as total‑rewards benchmarking, but that new HRIS and applicant/customer experience tools (NeoGov replacement and ServiceNow for retiree support) would reduce future reliance on vendors.
On pay equity, HRT and OMB staff gave several cost figures during the hearing: a cited FY26 “hard cost” near $47,000,000, an annualized figure around $73,000,000, and an FY27 budget planning line near $80,000,000. The HRT presenter said a post‑implementation review remains underway for roughly 650 positions. “We still have about 650 to review in our post‑implementation review,” the presenter said. Commissioners asked that remaining Phase‑2 work be completed before final budget adoption to avoid mid‑year adjustments.
HRT also described retiree‑health plan changes and a projected reduction in OPEB exposure. The department said a retiree‑health strategy implemented with OMB is projected to generate recurring savings and that recent plan choices reduced long‑term liabilities; HRT representatives said those changes help sustain retiree benefits while lowering long‑term costs.
Next steps: HRT officials told court members they will return with additional implementation details and that some service enhancement requests (technology and retiree support positions) may be staged during FY27 pending final budget action.
