COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Employee and Public Services Department

DATE:

January 15, 2002

BOARD MEETING DATE:

January 29, 2002

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Mary Welch, Employee and Public Services Director

SUBJECT:

New Recruitment Strategies

Recommendation
Adopt a resolution enabling the Employee and Public Services Director to restore sick leave and grant advanced vacation accruals to former County employees who are re-hired within two years of separation.

Background
Over the past years the County has developed a number of programs and services that have improved the County's competitive recruitment and retention position. These include competitive salaries and excellent benefit programs, aggressive recruiting outreach strategies, expedited hiring processes, on-line filing of job applications, on-site accelerated degree programs, health and fitness programs, flexible work schedules, telecommuting, transportation assistance and others. These programs have enabled the County to attract many new employees and to encourage current employees to remain with the County.

During the January 2001 offsite meeting of top level County management personnel on Recruitment and Retention, a number of strategies were identified as the most appropriate for our County to implement to improve recruitment and retention of employees. Several of the suggested strategies have been implemented and we continue to look at additional ideas to improve recruitment and retention.

A significant number of former County employees are expressing interest in returning to employment with the County. Hiring departments have reported that several of these individuals have indicated that they would be more interested in returning if they could have sick leave that they lost upon separation restored and if their vacation accrual rates could be set at the same level as when they separated. This concept has also been suggested by one of our employee organizations as a recruitment tool.

Discussion
Under this proposal, the Employee and Public Services Director would be authorized, upon the request of a hiring Department Director, to restore sick leave and grant advanced vacation accrual rates to former County employees who are re-hired within two years of separation under the following conditions:

· The approval must be recommended by the hiring Department Director.

· The receiving employee must be a former County employee who is being rehired within two years of separation from the County.

· Sick leave will be restored at the same amount as the employee had when they separated.

· Vacation accrual rates will be set at the same number of years of service as the employee had when they separated.

Fiscal Impact

The cost of this change would depend on the following factors:

· The amount of sick leave an employee had when they originally separated and whether they eventually retire from the County. If the employee does not retire, restoration of sick leave has no direct additional cost.

· The number of years of service an employee had when they originally separated. Since accrued vacation is paid out upon separation, this would result in an additional direct cost

These additional costs would be offset by savings resulting from reduced recruiting costs and reduced costs of training new hires. For example, newly hired Communications Dispatchers go through six months of training. A Dispatcher who previously worked for the County would require only a short period of on-the-job refresher training.