BOARD AGENDA MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT:
Title
Workforce Development Report.
End
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Accept the Workforce Development Report.
Body
SUMMARY:
The District is committed to developing its workforce and has devoted significant financial and staffing resources in Workforce Development and Recruitment programs. This report and PowerPoint presentation (Attachment 2) will provide an overview of various initiatives related to Succession Planning, Staff Development, and the District’s commitment to invest in District staff to address the District’s future needs for a highly competent workforce.
This report will also provide information regarding the District’s recruitment processes and its strategy of creating a pipeline of talent to the public sector in general and to the District. Specifically, the report will:
• Review the FY 17 succession planning and staff development efforts.
• Describe planned FY 18 staff development programs.
• Provide information regarding recruitment related partnerships, programs, and activities
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT COURSES
The District is committed to providing opportunities and establishing programs, services, and system of value for the ongoing professional and technical development of the District’s staff to promote a diverse and performance driven workforces. To address the workforces and succession challenges various programs were implemented in 2016.
The District’s Workforce Development Unit in Human Resources (HR) has developed many training courses designed to provide technical skills and knowledge in the realm of supervision and management of the staff and resources. The courses, which are customized for the District, use a combination of outside trainers and internal staff to provide important training in many subject areas and are tailored to different segments of the District’s diverse employee population. HR’s Workforce Development staff is particularly proud to be able to offer industry recognized courses such as “Leading at the Speed of Trust,” “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” and “InsideOut GROW Coaching.”
HR’s Workforce Development staff and other District employees attended a certification program to teach some of the above leadership courses include FranklinCovey and InsideOut. As a result, the District has recognized significant financial savings since it allows the District to offer these valuable courses without incurring the cost of hiring consultants or sending employees to expensive off-site courses.
The collaboration of many employees throughout the District led to the development of the following leadership programs with a marketing theme of “INSPIRE - Taking Leadership to New Heights.”
Management 101: Management 101 is a 54-hour program over a 10-month period (Appendix A), tailored for newly hired and promoted supervisors and managers in which District subject matter experts teach courses on key District procedures. In addition to training on general supervision topics, participants learn about Labor Relations, Diversity & Inclusion, Recruitment and Selection, Budgeting, Procurement, Leave of Absence Management, Board Agenda Process, etc. To date, 25 employees have gone through the program and graduated in March 2017 and had great success as noted in the surveys (Appendix A). HR’s Workforce Development will continue to fine-tune this course to successfully prepare supervisors and managers in their new leadership roles.
Unit Manager Academy: The Unit Manager Academy is a 91-hour long program over a period of a year (Appendix B) comprised of 16 training courses for managers to enhance their leadership and coaching skills. The participants attended industry recognized courses such as “Leading at the Speed of Trust,” The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” and “InsideOut GROW Coaching,” along with soft skill development relative to delegation, project management, team building, making high-impact presentations, ethics, managing change, diversity and inclusion, etc. At the manager level, a key competency is an ability to present topics in an engaging and concise manner. The program allowed participants to practice this skill with a mock presentation while being videotaped so that they can reflect on their style. The courses also included team exercises and offered opportunities to build comradery and trust with each other as managers. To date, 18 participants have gone through the program and graduated in May 2017. The Unit Manager Academy had outstanding success of which, on average, 97% of the respondents said they strongly agree or agree the program was useful to their present job and/or career development (Appendix B).
Emerging Leaders Certification Program: The Emerging Leaders Certification Program (ELCP) is a 200-hour long program over a period of a year (Appendix C) designed for internal staff with no prior supervisory experience to gain theoretical knowledge about supervision and related topics to prepare them for future roles as supervisors and managers. Enrollment in this program required employees to compete for the 26 slots through a rigorous application process. This rigorous program included leadership and supervision classes and District specific eLearning courses developed by HR’s Workforce Development. In addition to this coursework, each participant provided lead direction to an intern or temporary worker as an opportunity to practice hands-on supervisory techniques.
Furthermore, the group was distributed into four teams which were required to select a project and assigned to analyze, research, and propose recommendations on a real-life District challenge. The project work was conducted outside the classroom and led participants to not only learn about District functions, but also how to function successfully in a cross-functional work environment. Upon completion of this program in September 2017, the graduates will be given the equivalency of two (2) years of supervisory experience allowing them to apply for positions requiring supervisory experience. The product of the team efforts includes a District memo and a presentation of the team’s findings at a mock board meeting consisting of members of Executive Leadership staff. The four projects of the ELCP are:
1. Transition of Capital Projects to Water Utility Operations
Purpose: Define a procedure for transitioning capital projects from construction to operations. Provide a documented process and/or checklist for use when a project’s construction is close to completion including timelines.
2. Culture Innovation Lab
Purpose: Create a set of actionable, innovative strategies to improve organizational culture, trust, engagement, and morale. Create a report that includes organizational strategy, implementation goals, measurements of success, and action items keeping in mind resource limitations and input from stakeholders.
3. Threat Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Project
Purpose: Using the Threat Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide, the team will complete a gap analysis of the District’s risk management and make recommendations on how to address those gaps
4. Infrastructure Reliability Project - Water Wheeling Study
Purpose: Recommend a project to study the ability to use the District’s pipelines to move retailer water in an emergency scenario.
To date, 85% of the respondents said they strongly agree or agree the program was useful to their present job and/or career development (Appendix C).
Communication Skills: During the last couple of years the emphasis has been on supervisory skills since survey after survey had identified the need for investment in developing the skills of managers and supervisors. As described above, much has been done to enhance the supervisory skills and additional trainings are planned. So now HR is turning its focus on other skills including communications that have been identified for improvement. As a result, the District already provided over seven (7) hours (Appendix D) of Conflict Resolution for over 85 managers and supervisors. The program focused on finding new and effective techniques to enhance communication, increase trust, and to promote teamwork and cohesion between managers/supervisors and their teams. Additionally, all managers have attended classes on “Difficult Conversations” with applicability not just between supervisors and subordinates but also others to enhance clarity of the messages being delivered and organizational effectiveness. Workforce Development also facilitated advanced communication courses such as InsideOut GROW Coaching, FranklinCovey’s Leading at the Speed of Trust, and FranklinCovey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The InsideOut GROW Coaching program focuses on enhanced communication techniques between manager and staff while providing various coaching tools. FranklinCovey’s Leading at the Speed of Trust focuses on a leader’s self and how they can change their behaviors to influence and increase trust. FranklinCovey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People teaches 7 habits to profoundly make the students more effective in the things that matter most at work.
Computer Training: The District provided over 48 hours (Appendix E) of hands-on beginner, intermediate, and advanced computer trainings. These training focused on the upgrading skills in Microsoft Office Suite such as Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. This is another staff development program that is making employees more productive.
CULTIVATE SUCCESSION Development
In addition to attracting a diverse workforce, the District is also committed to enhancing the skills of existing employees to create more opportunity for professional growth. In anticipation of the District’s upcoming retirement wave, a succession development initiative was launched in 2013 and branded “Cultivate - Develop Talent, Recognize Experience.” A committee was established comprising of employees from throughout the District to develop a broad-based program to:
• Accelerate the development of the employees already in the District’s workforce
• Attract candidates into the District’s workforce pipeline
• Preserve and transfer knowledge before it leaves the District
Out of the Cultivate Succession Development Committee the following programs were launched:
Coaching Programs: The District is committed to providing various resources to help employees grow, improve their performance, and prepare for promotional opportunities. It is for this reason that the Employee Development Performance Process (EDPP) was overhauled in 2016. A major component of this overhaul included the implementation of numerous coaching programs designed to develop talent and provide honest and helpful feedback. This feedback from supervisors and managers coupled with a large variety of training and other learning options described below, provides employees with increased opportunities to develop themselves. To make the feedback process effective, supervisors and managers have been given training on how to coach employees. Below are some of the coaching programs the District has implemented:
InsideOut GROW Coaching Program: The InsideOut GROW model is the foundation for problem solving, decision making, and goal setting. The GROW Model is constructed upon a deceptively simple insight that breakthrough performance comes more often, not from acquiring additional knowledge, but from removing internal interference that allows the person to act on what they already know. Good decisions lead to effective actions which lead to productive results. The District utilizes this model for the EDPP to establish annual employee goals and for conducting performance evaluations.
1:1 Coaching Program: Having a coach is an integral part of staff development as there are many benefits including empowering staff to own and develop their careers, increases self-confidence, and provides for a safe space to talk openly without bias. In return, the coach benefits by sharing their career experiences and aids the coachee with their talent development. As part of the “1:1 Coaching Program”, there are 22 professionally trained District coaches. Employees have access to the coaches and utilize their experience, knowledge, and guidance to provide insight on professional development, increase effectiveness in navigating through work situations and increase effectiveness when interacting with people. This 1:1 coaching program is intended to be flexible enough to meet employees’ specific professional development needs; whether it be specific situation, a sounding board on career development opportunities, or discussions on traits managers look for when promoting or hiring employees.
ICMA Coaching Webinars: Each year, the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) hosted twelve (12) hours of complimentary webinars (Appendix F) that highlight best practices on the hottest, key topics submitted by local government professionals throughout the United States of America. At the District, the Workforce Development Unit hosts a live viewing of the webinar followed by a facilitated discussion among attendees to discuss how to apply tools and practices from the webinar to the District. In 2016, a total of 70 employees attended these coaching webinars. A new series of webinars for 2017 began in March and will continue through November. Topics covered include Thriving as a High-Performance Organization, Ethics in Action, Strategies for Having Difficult Conversations, Building Civic Leadership and Community, Survival Skills for Managers, and Being a Great Coach and a Winning Player in Your Organization.
Speed Coaching: In November 2016, the District held a Speed Coaching Event intended to be a lively, fast-paced opportunity to expand an employee’s network and develop professional connections. Employees participated in several ten (10) minute discussions with different coaches asking a variety of questions focused on career development. Out of this event, employees were paired up with available coaches.
Great Talent Developer: One of the most successful programs is the quarterly Great Talent Developer Recognition Award. Staff and peers nominate individuals who they have observed emulating the behaviors of a talent developer such as:
• Giving constructive feedback and coaching employees at least once per week
• Creating development opportunities within their unit such as cross-training, assigning work that exposes an employee to another part of the organization, pairing less experienced employees with more experienced staff to learn new skills
• Inviting employees to research new information in their field and to give a presentation in the unit to share their findings
• Connects employees with others that could become part of their dream team
• Having development conversations with their employees and suggesting possible training or educational pursuits that will help the employee meet their development needs
• Volunteers to be a 1:1 Coach
|
Total Awards |
14 |
|
Total for FY 14 |
2 |
|
Total for FY 15 |
4 |
|
Total for FY 16 |
3 |
|
Total for FY 17 |
5 |
|
Total Managers |
10 |
|
Total Unclassified |
1 |
|
Total Non-Managers |
3 |
Since the launch of the program, 14 employees were recipients of this coveted award. Their teams nominated them citing examples of positive leadership traits providing for staff development opportunities. Individuals receive recognition at Management Leadership Team meetings and at a celebration gathering with their team.
Supervisory Webinars: The ICMA (International City/County Management Associate) Effective Supervisory Practices Webinar Series was designed as a primer for new supervisors and aspiring leaders. It offers pragmatic recommendations about the day-to-day duties of a supervisor and offers guidance for addressing the more complex challenges all managers confront as they seek to effectively communicate, motivate, and model ethical decisions as they lead teams. In April 2016, 27 District staff graduated with a supervisory certificate. Coordinated by HR’s Workforce Development Unit and hosted by numerous leaders from the District, the ICMA webinar series covered a broad set of topics including team building, employee motivation, supervisory leadership and change leadership.
Regional Partnerships: To further build the growth of staff, the District participates in the recognized Santa Clara County Leadership Academy allowing employees to foster networking relationships with colleagues across local government agencies, enhance leadership skills and offer employees positive development opportunities and motivating experiences. Through District representation at the Two-County Next Generation Committee, sponsored by the ICMA of San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, District employees can attend Speed Coaching and Networking Lunch events and participate in the Management Talent Exchange Program (MTEP) in which high-potential employees are placed in another local government agencies for three months to further enhance leadership growth.
Santa Clara County Leadership Academy: In partnership with the cities, counties and special Districts of Santa Clara County, the District participated in the “Santa Clara County Leadership Academy”. The curriculum consists of leadership development presentations, critiques of case studies, a team project, one-on-one coaching, and follow-up alumni events along with approximately two hours of work per week on team projects outside of class. In 2015, five (5) District employees were selected to participate in this highly-recognized succession development program. Three (3) employees graduated in October 2016. Of those, two (2) are engineers and one (1) senior management analyst. The 2017 program began in April and District participants includes a supervisor and a senior management analyst. The goals of the seven (7) month Leadership Academy program include:
• Create a cost‐effective talent development program for the participating jurisdictions
• Enhance the leadership skills of the participants
• Assist the participating local governments in their succession planning efforts
• Enhance the network of participants across local government agencies in the county
• Offer employees positive development opportunities and motivating experiences
Management Talent Exchange Program: The Management Talent Exchange Program (MTEP), sponsored by the City Managers Association, is an innovate approach in which high-potential employees are placed in another local government agency for three months. The exchange creates new skills, experiences, and relationships. Agencies can place employees with other local governments and/or receive MTEP employees for the three months. In addition to supercharging the careers of participants, MTEP helps local governments expand their organizational capacity and effectiveness with fewer employees. The program occurs every two (2) years and participants remain employees of their home agency and continue to receive their pay and benefits. This year the District will host one (1) employee from a different agency.
Rotation Programs: In addition to the above supervision/management oriented programs, a rotation programs were instituted for all District employees. The goal was to expose employees to a different business area and allow employees to develop new skills with stretch opportunities. This included a pilot one (1) yearlong rotation program for six (6) designated positions with subsequent backfill rotational opportunities, six (6) month rotations for classifications represented by the Employees Association and drought reassignments. To date, a total of seventy (70) rotational opportunities were offered. A survey conducted to assess the success of the rotation program received positive feedback from rotating employees, their supervisors, as well as the receiving manager. Participating employees report that the rotations provided exposure to new responsibilities and staff and enabled them to expand their knowledge. Similarly, the receiving managers’ report that rotating employees performed valuable work and attained new skills. These job rotations are very popular and have given employees an opportunity to enhance their skills.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM OUTCOMES
The chart below highlights the success of the above listed programs in terms of the upward career mobility of participants, who in some cases, engaged in multiple programs. Of the total promotions, twelve (12) were promoted to, or within, leadership positions which include five (5) unclassified, five (5) manager, and two (2) supervisor positions.
|
Leadership Programs Promotion Metrics |
|
Program Type |
Permanent Promotions |
Leadership Positions |
|
Cultivate Coach |
4 |
2 |
|
Emerging Leaders |
3 |
1 |
|
Great Talent Developer |
4 |
3 |
|
ICMA Supervisory Practices |
2 |
1 |
|
Management 101 |
5 |
5 |
|
Management Talent Exchange |
2 |
2 |
|
Rotations |
9 |
-- |
|
Unit Manager Academy |
3 |
3 |
Workforce Development FY 18 Programs
Given the need to fill vacancies because of retiring management staff, as reflected in the charts below, it is critical that HR’s Workforce Development team are focused on maintaining many of the current training programs as well as developing new competency training programs for staff at all levels. The following charts reflect the trends in retirements as well as eligible retirees and the importance of the Learning and Development programs to prepare current and future employees to fill these positions. The actual average age of retirees is 58 and the average retiree Years of Service is 19 years for the period of 2006-2016.
|
Eligible to Retire as of 07/25/17 |
|
Business Area |
Employee Total |
Eligible to Retire Based on Age & Tenure |
Percent of Employees Eligible for Retirement |
|
Administration |
181 |
4 |
2.21% |
|
CEO/COB/ODC |
29 |
1 |
3.45% |
|
External Affairs |
27 |
0 |
0.00% |
|
Water Utility |
306 |
14 |
4.58% |
|
Watershed |
209 |
10 |
4.78% |
|
TOTAL |
752 |
29 |
3.86% |
|
The following chart summaries the retirement trends and averages. |
|
Retiree History as of 06/30/2017 |
|
Fiscal Year Ending |
Total Retirements |
Total Active Employees |
Percentage of Employees that Retired |
|
6/30/2006 |
22 |
775 |
2.8% |
|
6/30/2007 |
15 |
781 |
1.9% |
|
6/30/2008 |
15 |
780 |
1.9% |
|
6/30/2009 |
15 |
773 |
1.9% |
|
6/30/2010 |
15 |
766 |
2.0% |
|
6/30/2011 |
23 |
743 |
3.1% |
|
6/30/2012 |
46 |
704 |
6.5% |
|
6/30/2013 |
24 |
689 |
3.5% |
|
6/30/2014 |
32 |
681 |
4.7% |
|
6/30/2015 |
36 |
681 |
5.3% |
|
6/30/2016 |
32 |
718 |
4.5% |
|
6/30/2017 |
35 |
752 |
4.65% |
|
Averages |
26 |
737 |
3.56% |
The retiree forecast is in line with the actuals by 1%. The FY 18 training programs have been designed to help prepare the District for the projected retirements.
FY 18 Competency Trainings
In FY 18, HR’s Workforce Development team will roll out a comprehensive training program that is designed for all levels of employees. These new training programs have been broken out into competency groups for five (5) levels: executives, managers, supervisors, leads, and all employees. Within each of the five (5) competency levels is a robust curriculum that targets the specific skills the District is looking to develop. A competency is the skills, knowledge and attitude needed to complete specific workplace activities in a range of work environments and situations. Some of the Executives competencies include: vision, executive coaching, political savvy, and developing leaders. For the Managers, some of the competencies include: performance management, staff development, planning, and conflict management.
Classes in writing, computer software, project management, teambuilding, communications, and soft-skills will be offered to all employees as electives. A new Emerging Leaders Certification Program will roll-out in October of 2017, which will increase the number of District employees who are able to compete for supervisory and management positions. Numerous FranklinCovey programs such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Leading at the Speed of Trust, and Project Management Essentials will be launched along with courses designed to enhance their effectiveness, in areas such as strategic thinking and organizational change for managers and executive employees will be provided. Refer to Appendix G, Appendix H, and Appendix I for a detailed timeline, curriculum, and listing of all FY 18 projects and programs.
The table below highlights the competency training program that launched in FY 18.
|
Dates |
Executives Only Courses |
MLT (both Executive and Manager) Courses |
Manager Only Courses |
|
Jun 2017 |
|
Managing Difficult Conversations: 3 hours |
|
|
Aug 2017 |
Leading at the Speed of Trust (Aug 29): 8 hours |
|
Leading at the Speed of Trust (Aug 30): 8 hours |
|
Sep 2017 |
|
|
Leading at the Speed of Trust (Sept 19): 8 hours |
|
Nov 2017 |
|
Speed of Trust of Follow-up Session: 7 hours |
Contract Management: 4 hours |
|
Dec 2017 |
|
Gratitude Exercise: 2 hours |
Franklin Covey Project Management: 8 hours |
|
Jan 2018 |
|
InsideOut GROW Coaching (session 1): 2 hours |
|
|
Feb 2018 |
|
|
Advanced Staff Dev. and Coaching: 4 hours |
|
Mar 2018 |
|
Speed of Trust of Follow-up Session: 4-8 hours |
|
|
Apr 2018 |
|
|
Flexibility and Ability to Promote Change: 4 hours |
|
May 2018 |
|
Succession Planning Retreat: 6 hours |
Advanced Staff Dev. and Coaching: 4 hours |
|
Jun 2018 |
Team Cohesion & Celebrating Joys: 3 hours |
InsideOut GROW Coaching (session 2): 2 hours |
|
|
Dates |
Supervisor Courses |
Leads Courses |
All Employee Courses |
|
Jun 2017 |
Managing Difficult Conversations: 4 hours |
|
New Hire Bus Tour: 6 hours Excel Training: 4 hours |
|
Aug 2017 |
|
Project Management Basics (Aug 23): 4 hours |
Managing Your Career (Aug 15): 4 hours |
|
Sep 2017 |
Franklin Covey Project Planning and Management: 8hours |
|
MS Office Classes (Word, Outlook): 4 hours |
|
Oct 2017 |
Getting Along with Different Personality Types (Myers Briggs): 4 hours |
|
|
|
Nov 2017 |
Progressing from Buddy to Boss: 4 hours Contract Management: 4 hours |
|
New Hire Bus Tour: 6 hours |
|
Dec 2017 |
InsideOut GROW Coaching: 8 hours |
|
MS Office (Excel, PowerPoint): 4 hours |
|
Jan 2018 |
InsideOut GROW Coaching: 8 hours |
Leading & Motivating Teams: 4 hours |
|
|
Feb 2018 |
Getting Along with Different Personality Types (Myers Briggs): 4 hours |
Project Management Basics: 4 hours |
District Mission, Vision, and Value: 1 hour |
|
Mar 2018 |
7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 8 hours |
|
Managing Your Career: 4 hours |
|
Apr 2018 |
Franklin Covey Project Planning and Management: 8 hours |
Leading & Motivating Teams: 4 hours |
|
|
May 2018 |
Labor Relations 101: 4 hours |
Project Management Basics: 4 hours |
|
|
Jun 2018 |
7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 8 hours Writing Performance Evaluations and Setting Clear Goals: 4 hours |
|
Managing Your Career: 4 hours |
FY 18 Workforce Development Budget
The District is committed to ensuring its current and future employees are prepared for their roles and careers at the District. The FY 18 budget reflects this commitment as shown below:
|
FY 18 PROGRAM |
ANNUAL BUDGET |
|
Leadership programs, competency training programs, computer/software training programs, and staff development programs |
$311,000 |
|
Performance management, learning management system, and technology/software |
$128,000 |
|
Succession Planning Program |
$40,000 |
|
Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) |
$40,000 |
|
Rotation Program |
$723,000 |
|
Total FY 18 Budget |
$1,242,000 |
Workforce development SUMMARY
In FY 17, the Workforce Development program offered over 406 instructor led classroom hours of leadership and professional development trainings for District employees. The programs in FY 18 budget will continually develop existing and future employees which is critical to the long-term effectiveness of any organization. These programs will include the latest methodology in adult learning theory and technology such as utilizing instructor led trainings, eLearnings, webinars, videos, written job aids and guides, peer-to-peer learning, and an advanced Learning Management System (LMS). This blended approach will be more efficient and accessible to the learners and contribute to succession planning efforts. This budget will support all these initiatives under the Diversity and Inclusion Master Plan, specifically:
• Support Goal 1, Strategy 1.1, Tactic 1.1.1: Develop a comprehensive workforce development plan that presents the structure for developing the workforce
• Support Goal 1, Strategy 1.1, Tactic 1.1.3: Identify and develop District-wide competencies for core leadership functions including leading, managing, and collaborating across differences
• Support Goal 1, Strategy 2.1: Strengthen Trust in Senior Leaders
• Support Goal 1, Strategy 2.1, Tactic 2.1.3.a: All new managers/supervisors and emerging leaders at the District, including ERG leaders, will participate in a leadership course focused on leading across differences within their first year
• Support Goal 1, Strategy 2.2: Recognize and Promote the Value of Employees
• Support Goal 1, Strategy 2.1, Tactic 2.2.1.a: Supporting LT and MLT in their understanding of the responsibility for developing their staff, by requiring participating in one or more performance management workshops (e.g., on effective performers, and providing effective feedback) no less than every two years
• Support Goal 1, Strategy 2.1, Tactic 2.2.1.b: Tracking development conversations with staff by reporting out with LT and MLT semi-annually on the extent of completed development conversations that link employee goals to future achievement at the District
• Support Goal 1, Strategy 2.5, Tactic 2.5.1.a: Implement an on-boarding program that orients and acclimates all new employees to the business and culture of our organization
• Support Goal 1, Strategy 2.6, Tactic 2.6.2: Develop ongoing opportunities for training to enhance skills to effectively lead and collaborate among diverse teams (e.g., communication and listening, meeting facilitation)
Working closely with the Recruitment team is equally as important to help with these succession planning efforts.
DIVERSITY
According to the Diversity and Inclusion Master Plan, embracing the rich array of differences and similarities that exists among employees enriches employee perspectives, builds bridges to greater creativity and shared purpose, and therefore helps promote engagement. One of Workforce Development’s goals is to contribute to the Diversity and Inclusion efforts by facilitating courses designed to build leadership, communication, and engagement skills. Franklin Covey’s Leading at the Speed of Trust directly contributes to this goal by providing the skills and tools to strengthen trust in senior leaders. When staff have trust in their leaders this creates an environment that opens communication and drives performance. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People also contributes to the goal by teaching habits that emphasize the importance of differences. For example, Habit 4 emphasizes a win-win mentality, Habit 5 Seek First to Understand and Then be Understood, and Habit 6 focuses on Synergy, all of which focus on collaborating with others, listening, and creating diverse teams to develop solutions. InsideOut GROW coaching is another important program that helps supervisors and managers create breakthrough performance with their staff by removing internal interference that allows staff member to act on what they already know, not from acquiring additional knowledge. Because of these important programs that contribute to the District’s Diversity and Inclusion efforts, Workforce Development would like to continue these great programs and be able to offer them more frequently and to all levels of staff.
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
As HR continues to help build the District’s workforce of tomorrow, the recruitment and selection processes are continually fine-tuned to maximize the probability that the District attracts, selects, and retains high performing individuals.
The following section of this report provides covers three essential objectives:
1) Outreach for Developing Our Future Workforce
2) Recruitment Process Overview
3) Diversity and Inclusiveness
OUTREACH FOR DEVELOPING OUR FUTURE WORKFORCE
The District’s outreach strategy includes developing relationships with colleges and universities and to collaborate with staff in career centers and student organizations to assist in recruiting students for both internships and regular positions. Working closely with Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) is necessary to be successful in outreach to communities and college students.
Career Fairs and Advertisement: HR has Increased District participation in career fairs, especially with colleges, STEM fairs and college events, trade organizations and diverse professional organizations (e.g., La Raza, NAACP, and Veterans organizations, etc.), and continues to seek additional opportunities to increase outreach and recruiting efforts. For example, D&I encouraged Employee Resource Group (ERG) Leaders to post job openings on their social media pages and has provided helpful suggestions.
In FY17, HR staff attended twenty events, interacting with almost 1,000 possible applicants.
HR staff is often accompanied by District Engineers who provide personal connection for engineering students.
HR regularly advertises the District as a great place to work with general informational posting on web-sites such as the Berkeley Science Review, LinkedIn, and Indeed.com. Job announcements are posted on multiple websites/locations, including some that distribute to a large number of other job boards, specializing in government, veterans, and diversity outreach.
The District continues to play a lead role with BAYWORK, a regional industry consortium of 29 water and wastewater utilities working on workforce reliability for our industry. Through BAYWORK, the District partnered with the Water Career Pathways Grant Consortium (West Valley College), building water career pathways from High Schools to college and JVS, a workforce development organization, completed a gap analysis of the training and pathways to these careers. BAYWORK projects that the HR department has supported includes:
• Annual BAYWORK Career Fair
• Conducted two training modules at the BAYWORK Annual Training Buffet
• Designing a Knowledge Transfer Tool Kit
• Water Career Challenge at West Valley College
• Initial implementation of a pilot Skills Trades Internship Program
Internship Programs
Creating a pipeline for public sector jobs in general and specifically for District jobs, HR has led the effort to build a very strong internship program, providing opportunities for over 100 college students each year. This includes Recent Graduates, Year-Round College Interns, Summer College Interns, and Summer High School Interns.
Summer High School Internship Program: This is the second year of the high school summer internships. The District partnered closely with San Jose based MetroEd and TeenForce to provide relevant work experiences for ten high school students (many from underprivileged or foster care programs).
Summer College Internship Program: In 2017, 24 college students participated in the District’s 12-week Summer Internship Program; half from Santa Clara County colleges. For the second year, the program also offered internships in skilled trades. The District’s 2017 college summer intern group was very diverse, with 54% of the interns being female, 46% were male and 71% were ethnically diverse. The key areas of academic study include Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Business Administration, and Skilled Trades.
Diversity of Summer College Interns:
Year-Round College Internship Program: The District’s year-round internship program successfully represents students from our local community. This year 88 interns participated in the program, of which 87% are from colleges within Santa Clara County, including 4 community colleges. It was no surprise that 74% of the interns are majoring in Science or Engineering.
Diversity of Year-Round College Interns:
South County Internships: Planning for the future, a new partnership between the District and the City of Gilroy was created this year to help south county students explore employment in the water industry and provide on-the-job training in water careers through internships. Encouraging students to pursue careers relating to water management and flood protection is one strategy to increase the number of candidates to fill the District’s future job needs.
Intern PROGRAM OUTCOMES
To increase the pool of qualified candidates HR emails all previous interns for entry level job openings in their field. This tactic has paid off and since FY12, 26 former interns have joined the District as regular employees, almost 75% of them in engineering (10 from the summer intern program and 16 from the year-round program).
A total of 396 interns have worked at the District since FY 11/12. The District has hired 6.6% of them into regular positions, making the internship program a valuable pipeline for high performing employees. Specifically, the hires of previous interns have been:
• 8.5% (10) of our summer interns have been hired
• 5.7% (16) of our year-round interns have been hired since FY 11/12
• 46% (12) were ethnically diverse and 46% (12) were females.
Fellowship Program
The District has had a robust internship program for high school and college students, this year the District joined the ICMA Fellowship Program. This is a well-regarded program that offers individuals who have obtained a postgraduate degree an opportunity to lead and support high-level, complex projects. The four (4) Fellows who started on July 3, 2017, receive a wide variety of professional development and networking opportunities, personalized coaching, and will gain in-depth working experience, learn about local government, and possibly become future public-sector leaders inside or outside the district. Here is an overview of our first Fellows:
|
Master’s Degree |
Division |
|
Hydrologic Sciences UC Davis |
Watersheds Stewardship and Planning |
|
Business Administration Vanderbilt University |
Financial Planning and Management Services |
|
Environmental Engineering UC Berkeley |
Water Supply |
|
Environment Studies SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry |
External Affairs |
Job Shadow Day
An additional outreach method to attract the younger generation, “Job Shadow Day” in February 2016 provided 35 high school students from 24 high schools the opportunity to “shadow” 30 District staff on a day in the life as a District employee. Encouraging students to start thinking about a potential career in the water industry, specifically at the District, included visits to water treatment plants, raw water pumping stations and the water quality lab, with 87% enthusiastic about the opportunities they learned about.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS ENHANCEMENTS
Over the last two years, the recruitment process has been re-engineered to result in better quality and diversity of candidates, shorter recruitment cycles, and an improved experience for all stakeholders including hiring managers and candidates. Management and the unions had agreed that the previously laborious and paper intensive process needed to be overhauled, and a cross-functional project resulted in a more effective and efficient process. Key enhancements include:
• Recruiters are actively sourcing applicants and reaching out to them rather than waiting for applicants to apply.
• To assure vetting of interview panels, recruitment implemented the viewing of an unconscious bias video to all interview panels prior to the interview. In advance of the interview, the panel also receives the applications and resumes of all being interviewed along with a confidentiality statement. The recruiter asks all panelists to notify them if they believe they cannot provide an objective and fair review of a candidate. The panelist will be removed from the interview if there is bias towards a candidate. Furthermore, the recruiter notifies candidates of the panelist names when they are invited to the interview. The recruiter asks the candidates if they have any issues or relationship with a panelist. If yes, then the Recruitment Supervisor and Employment Services Manager will jointly decide if the panelist should be removed from the interview panel.
Following is a high-level view of our current recruitment and selection process:
Create Requisition: The Hiring Manager submits a Position Request Form with all the vital information about the position, including why it is vacant, previous incumbent, chain of command, Primary purpose of the position, and key responsibilities. The Recruiter reviews the duties to appropriately classify the position for recruitment.
Plan Recruitment: The Recruiters and the Hiring Managers partner closely together during all steps of the recruitment and selection process. The first step is to develop a detailed and thorough statement of the responsibilities of the position and related duties. By thoroughly describing the attributes of a top candidate for the position, the Hiring Manager sets the parameters for the ideal candidate criteria which is used in the job posting and screening the applicants. In addition to the minimum qualifications, the ideal candidate criteria describe the job knowledge, experience, skills, and education of those candidates that meet the needs of the position to be highly successful. This is extremely helpful to applicants by providing a good overview of the knowledge, skills and abilities highly sought for.
Job Posted, Advertised: Together the Hiring Manager and Recruiter plan each step of the Recruitment, including whether the job posting will be open or promotional only (such as an adequate internal pool), how long the job should be posted and where the position should be advertised, including specific job boards and industry organizations.
Screen Applications, Pick Interviewees: The Recruiter screens the applicants against the ideal candidate criteria, seeking those applicants that meet all or most of those criteria to be considered for the top pool of candidates, with those meeting less or none to fall lower in the pool. The supplemental questions on the application are specifically designed to draw out these qualities. The top candidates are presented to the Hiring Manager for review, and the Hiring Manager has the option of reviewing all the applications or just the top group. After reviewing the applications online, the Hiring Manager works with the Recruiter to select those to be interviewed, who often conducts screening interview calls to get additional information prior to the interviews.
Interviews Conducted: The Recruiter assists the Hiring Manager with developing relevant and pertinent interview questions designed to draw out their knowledge, experience, and fit for the job and for the District. The Recruiter holds a brief training session for the interview panel, including the specific instructions and confidentiality requirement, the need to be fair and consistent (and to recuse themselves if they cannot be fair), and they watch a video on understanding and dealing with Unconscious Bias. To further emphasize the District’s importance of diversity, HR implemented an educational video in April 2017 focusing on unconscious biases in the hiring process. Prior to the interview session, the interview panel has a briefing and orientation by the Recruiter and Hiring Manager, including this video on understanding and addressing unconscious bias. This thought-provoking video covers five topics:
|
Five Primary Points of Video on Unconscious Bias |
|
What is your first thought? |
Pay attention to your first thought upon engagement recognize or be aware of the bias for what it is. |
|
Use the power of logic |
How many people do you know whom conform to your bias? |
|
Hit the pause button |
Before deciding or judgment based on your bias |
|
Act as if the bias doesn’t exist |
Ignore and/or remove your bias before concluding |
|
Cultivate common ground |
Look for what we have in common |
The structured interview process is followed by a debriefing led by the Recruiter, who compiles all the ratings and comments of the panel members and discusses notable differences. The input from the panel is very helpful to the Hiring Manager in getting additional insight into each of the candidates. Sometimes a second round of interviews is held with the top two or three candidates before the final decision is made.
Hiring Selection and Approvals: The Hiring Manager reviews the information available on each candidate and makes the selection, discussing it with the Recruiter and chain of command. The Hiring Manager documents the decision and justification on the Hiring Justification Form, including the recommended salary step for external hires, reviews with the Recruiter and gets approvals through the chain of command before sending to HR. The Recruiter calls the candidate as a warming call, both to collect any additional information needed and to let the candidate know he/she is a finalist.
Verbal Offer / Offer Letter: Once approved, the Hiring Manager makes the contingent verbal offer, gets authorization to begin the reference checks and background investigation, and HR sends the contingent offer letter and packet to the selected candidate.
Background Check, References, Medical: HR conducts the background check and schedules medical if needed, coordinates the start date with the Hiring Manager, Applicant and Benefits, and closes out the recruitment file.
Support Of Employees’ Career Development
The Recruitment Team invests significant effort into assisting fellow employees as they prepare for promotional opportunities.
• Formal classes on preparing for each step of the recruitment process for promotional opportunities (application, supplemental questions, interviews)
• 1:1 coaching and mentoring
• Practice interviews and feedback on interview performance
• Coaching Hiring Managers on giving appropriate and effective feedback to employees
Recruitment And Selection Outcomes
Given the recent increases in staffing levels and simultaneous large number of retirements, HR’s Recruitment Team completed 147 recruitments in FY 2016-17, which includes 10 executive level positions (6 of which were completed by an executive search firm).
One measurement of the District’s commitment in supporting employee career development is the successful promotion of employees after competing for openings. During the last year, 54 employees, or 36.7% of our recruitments, resulted in a current employee being selected. The following charts illustrate the positions filled in each bargaining unit and the overall promotions and external new hires, including unclassified in both.
Promotions and External Hires: Of the 147 vacant positions filled this year, almost a third were because the previous incumbent promoted into a higher-level position. Roughly one quarter were due to retirements, another quarter to new positions, and the remainder to resignations and separations. Promotion and new hire metrics for this year show significant gender and ethnic diversity. This year almost half of the District’s promotions and newly hired employees are ethnically diverse, 28% Asian, 14% Hispanic, and 3% Black, along with 43.5% of women.
To further emphasize the commitment of succession development into key management positions, 31.5%, or 17 employees, were promoted into supervisory/managerial leadership positions this past year, almost half of them female.
|
|
Open/Ext Hires |
Promotion |
|
EA |
67 |
68% |
32 |
32% |
|
ES |
21 |
66% |
11 |
34% |
|
PMA |
0 |
0% |
6 |
100% |
|
UNC |
5 |
50% |
5 |
50% |
|
Total |
93 |
|
54 |
|
|
|
63.30% |
|
36.70% |
|
Employees Promoted into positions of Leadership:
To ensure fairness to all applicants, the District’s recruiters reviewed 5,490 job applications (to fill vacancies, summer internships and fellowships) in search for those top candidates to be interviewed. All efforts, including outreach throughout the year, paid off, resulting in an extremely talented and diverse applicant pool from which to make selections. Approximately sixty percent (3,312 applicants) of the pool was comprised of minority applicants as noted below.
As part of the hiring process, the District strives to attract and hire from all segments of Santa Clara County. Almost half of the external hires in FY 17, were comprised of minorities with 40.2% filled by females. As a comparison to the entire workforce demographics comprised of all occupations in Santa Clara County, many of which the District does not hire, the statistics are noted below. Overall, the applicant pool, which also includes internal applicants, is relatively aligned with the county. When comparing the number of female applicants (36%) against the hires (40.2%), the District hired a higher percentage of females than the make-up of females in the overall applicant pool. In the coming year, HR will develop a thorough outreach plan to further attract applicants of diverse communities.
|
|
Female |
White |
Black/ Af Am |
Hisp/ Latino |
Asian |
Native Am |
Other |
|
County Workforce Demographics |
44.0% |
39.0% |
3.0% |
25.0% |
32.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
|
Current District Workforce (6/30/17) |
39.4% |
47.3% |
4.9% |
18.2% |
22.2% |
1.6% |
5.7% |
|
Applicant Pool (FY 17) |
36.0% |
35.0% |
6.0% |
18.0% |
29.0% |
1.0% |
10.0% |
|
New Hires (FY 17) |
40.2% |
53.7% |
1.2% |
18.3% |
22.0% |
1.2% |
3.7% |
Another method to evaluate the District’s hiring efforts with the County’s workforce demographics is to compare the County demographics of only the positions filled by external candidates against the District’s overall workforce demographics. This shows a more realistic comparison since it excludes positions that the District does not employ. Therefore, the data is more credible and relevant. The data indicates that the District’s workforce for most of the positions hired with external applicants closely matched.
To represent and support the diversity of our community, HR staff is diligent about assembling qualified diverse interview panels. Of the 133 interview panels conducted for first round interviews, 96.2% of the initial interview panels had gender diversity and 91.7% had ethnic diversity. A total of six (6) unit manager positions were filled internally that included diverse panels. Hispanic and African-American ethnicities were not represented for these manager positions. In the coming year, the recruitment team will ensure that these ethnicities are included in the diversity of panels for manager positions.
Recruitment and selection Summary
The following is a list of upcoming improvement efforts and goals for the current fiscal year:
• Increase outreach and marketing to attract top candidates and enhance applicant diversity. Continue building connections with local colleges, especially with diverse student organizations on campus, local community groups and organizations, and market through relevant locations in the community.
• Monitor and evaluate outcomes to determine successes and plan/adjust future outreach efforts.
• Implement additional automation and electronic efficiencies to eliminate manual processes. Researching new technology for sourcing and screening applications.
• Continue to grow the Internship Programs to establish a strong pipeline of candidates.
• Selection of Interview Panel members are based on applicable knowledge of the position and ethnically and gender balanced.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact associated with this item.
CEQA:
The recommended action does not constitute a project under CEQA because it does not have a potential for resulting in direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1: Appendices
Attachment 2: PowerPoint
UNCLASSIFIED MANAGER:
Manager
Anil Comelo, 408-630-2470