Source: RCPS, Human Resources Department
An executive director oversees the department of human resources with a staff of eight – a director, a supervisor, four specialists, an administrative secretary, and a building receptionist. The eight staff members are responsible for a myriad of functions that include:
Implementing and interpreting personnel policies and laws. Recruiting teachers and administrators.
Hiring and processing employees. Conducting new hire orientation. Licensing and re-licensing of staff.
Processing employee benefits and compensation. Developing and maintaining employee handbooks. Hiring and managing substitutes.
Managing employee performance evaluations.
Overseeing employee relations and grievance procedures. Processing retirees.
Monitoring personnel records system. Answering phones and greeting visitors.
Each staff member in the department is assigned specific responsibilities for ensuring that all of the above functions are covered. This rather small staff accomplishes an exceptional amount of work.
Executive Director HR Specialist Substitutes HR Specialist Employment Professional Staff HR Supervisor Certification HR Specialist Employment Classified Staff Building Receptionist Administrative Secretary HR Specialist Benefits Director
FINDING
The work of staff in human resources is hampered when their requests for feedback or justification for personnel transactions/changes are not met.
Human resources policy is that an interview form provided by the HR office must be used when interviewing candidates for positions. However, since the forms used by principals and division offices are out-of-date, with many grammatical and spelling errors, the forms were revised by one of the HR specialists. The specialist then requested that directors and school coordinators review the revised forms so they would be accurate to specific positions and would replace the current interview form. Only 40 percent replied to the request even after a follow-up e-mail. HR does not want to submit interview forms to principals and supervisors based on only what HR thinks the questions should be to evaluate potential new teachers, principals, or other staff. Thus, the revised interview form has not yet been provided to the schools because of the lack of requested input.
Human resources at times processes individuals in new positions where information regarding budget/account codes is lacking. For instance, in one case in processing a new hire HR requested the account code for the position. The director over the position did not know that the position was to come out of the department’s budget, as there were no dollars available to hire. As a result the new hire was processed regardless and fiscal services was then left to find the money to fund the new position.
Some schools and departments are not notifying human resources when changes are made to an employee’s status. For instance, one employee’s salary was charged to another grant fund at the school level but HR was not notified of the change. In another incident, an employee was working extra hours and again HR was not notified.
To effectively maintain employee records, human resources needs to be kept aware of what is happening to maintain accurate data on an employee’s status. Divisions with strong human resources offices ensure that all division staff maintain timely communications with the human resources department and that division administrators and supervisors follow the procedures and practices of the department.
RECOMMENDATION 3-1:
Communicate regularly to employees the procedures and practices that are to be followed in hiring new staff, changing an employee’s status and/or salary, and issuing responses to requests from human resources.
Respect for the department of human resources can be improved greatly by the division communicating the practices and procedures that are to be followed regarding personnel transactions. HR needs to communicate this as well.
FISCAL IMPACT
This recommendation can be implemented by division administrators and HR staff, who should ensure that procedures and practices are communicated regularly to employees. Employees should be held accountable for data and other information that is required by
HR The division is not fiscally impacted by this recommendation.
FINDING
Personnel hiring policies, practices, and procedures are not always followed in the division resulting in potential morale problems and internal inconsistencies.
According to hiring procedures, once a vacancy is announced, the job position is posted with a closing date – usually a two-week period is allowed for the individual to submit an application. Once the applications are received and screened for academic work, experience, and qualifications required for the particular position, applicants are interviewed. After selection, the candidate is placed on the appropriate salary scale according to experience (steps) and salary range for that particular position.
Salary scales/schedules are so designed that there is no misinterpretation to the employee or to the hiring agency as to where an employee falls under a particular schedule. Confidence, assurance, and accuracy are established when a division adheres to such salary determinations. When a job is posted the salary range is clearly stated on the position vacancy posting.
The consultant learned while reviewing salaries of personnel that one position hired in human resources was placed at nearly two grades higher than the grade level posted in advertising the job.
Over 30 applications were received for the position that was initially advertised in early 2006 but no selection was made. While the candidate selected was the most qualified of those interviewed and has performed admirably in the position, the position’s responsibilities do not warrant a higher grade than was advertised.
The consultant came across only this single incident. Such hiring practices can result in damaging effects on employee morale. The responsibility of HR and the division is to see that such incidents do not occur.
RECOMMENDATION 3-2:
Adhere to division procedures and policies in regard to hiring practices and salary administration.
Policies and guidelines for hiring and administering salaries are developed so that hiring of staff is fair and equitable. Thus, the division should be keenly attuned to not letting such incidents as reported to occur.
FISCAL IMPACT
This recommendation will not impact RCPS fiscally. Staff should be held accountable for fair and equitable hiring of staff and salary administration.
3.3 Job Descriptions and Personnel Records
A recommendation was made by MGT in its report of November 2005 that all job descriptions that had not been reviewed, revised, or rewritten by the City of Roanoke (City) be reviewed and updated and that procedures be established to review and update job descriptions on a regular basis. The review of job descriptions for classified staff was part of a larger Classified Pay Study conducted by the city. The study was completed in February 2006 and classified job descriptions were revised, rewritten, or developed. However, human resources has not completed its review and update of all other job descriptions (administrative and professional) nor has it developed a procedure for reviewing all job descriptions on a regular basis.
Since job descriptions are essential to hiring employees, the use of such as a basis for annual performance evaluations, and the increasingly importance in defending workers’ compensation and civil lawsuits, the issue of job descriptions is once again addressed in this section.
FINDING
Many RCPS job descriptions have not been reviewed nor revised or rewritten. Most of the job descriptions that are on file other than classified are job postings without the required elements of an effectively written job description. Additionally those job descriptions of classified staff that were revised or developed do not show a date of revision or update as was previously recommended in MGT’s November 2005 study. When the consultant reviewed job descriptions on the last visit to RCPS, job descriptions for professional employees were misplaced and thus the consultant did not conduct the review of these job descriptions. In this review, some of these administrative positions were available but were job postings and not job descriptions.
Job descriptions for some positions were not found, such as the director of food services and the director of human resources. Further, employees reported that they do not have a copy of their job description. In addition, the department has not developed a procedure for reviewing job descriptions periodically or for departments and schools to assist in this process.
In fairness to the human resources department, staff reported that time and staff have not been available to undertake this task. The executive director is in the process of making some staff changes and plans to begin this process as soon as staff becomes available.
RECOMMENDATION 3-3:
Review and update job descriptions that have not been reviewed, revised, and/or rewritten and develop a procedure for reviewing job descriptions on a regular basis.
The human resources department should begin its review of job descriptions not reviewed, and rewrite job postings into a standard job description for each employee as
recommended in November of 2005. For those positions that have neither a job posting nor a job description, one should be written. To standardize the format, the following elements should be included: physical demands and work environment; a footer that includes the date the position was developed, updated, or revised; fonts and style should be standardized across all job descriptions and consistently structured.
Further processes and procedures should be developed to review job descriptions on a three-year cycle, with one-third of them reviewed and updated each year. All employees should be provided with a copy of their job descriptions; job descriptions should be posted on the RCPS Web site with an electronic and hard copy with index maintained in human resources.
FISCAL IMPACT
This recommendation can be accomplished by HR staff. Time and effort required will depend upon the extent of the number of job descriptions that must be reviewed, revised, written, or rewritten. The process should begin immediately.
FINDING
RCPS purchased a new rolling filing system to store personnel records.
The human resources department previously stored personnel files in metal cabinets and boxes that were not fire proofed. When the new executive director came aboard, the records were unorganized and not properly filed. Accessing records was difficult and filing was made even more so.
Now personnel records are filed in a fireproofed room of its own. Staff can now more easily locate files since they are no longer stuffed together in filing cabinets. Time is saved as records are filed more quickly.
COMMENDATION 3-A:
Human resources is commended for recognizing and acting upon the need for a more efficient and more secure filing system for personnel records, which can now be more easily accessed by HR staff.
3.4 Employment of Staff
The department of human resources is responsible for maintaining an adequate workforce by ensuring that all available employee positions are filled. To maintain appropriate staffing levels, the department monitors the positions allocated to schools and departments, and ensures that personnel are recruited, hired, and processed to fill vacant positions.
Exhibit 3-2 provides an overview of personnel employed full-time as of January 2007 according to employee category. As shown, there are 2,418 full-time employees. Approximately 67 percent of the total are school based while approximately three percent are central office administrators and instructional and classified support positions. Clerical staff, food services employees, transportation workers, and
maintenance personnel make up approximately 29 percent of the total employees. Of the total full-time employees, 1,345 are teachers and other instructional personnel. The division hires approximately 781 temporary and part-time employees.
Subsequent to MGT’s site visit, additional data were provided on the number of