Board Minutes Board of Supervisors, County of Ventura, State of California Supervisors Steve Bennett, Linda Parks,*

The County's 28 agencies and departments are so highly diverse that managing their multifaceted human resources responsibilities is extremely complicated and demanding.

The County's structured and consistent hiring process is intended to avoid the fact and appearance of any bias, thereby tending to preclude legal actions based on alleged discrimination. Sometimes, however, such a tightly structured process results in bypassing well-qualified candidates. This clearly happens in Fire Department lotteries, and it can also occur if minimum qualifications are very narrowly worded. Partially Agree. The County Personnel Rules and Regulations (PR&Rs) conform to all legal requirements and are intended to produce a highly qualified pool of candidates to meet the County's needs in a fair and unbiased process. HRD establishes Minimum Qualifications (MQs) for recruitments after collaboration, and in partnership with County agencies and departments based on the conduct of a Job Analysis. MQs set a bar of the lowest possible KSAs required to perform a job. Desirable qualifications, which are Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications (BFOQs) established by a Job Analysis, are utilized in the application evaluation/review process to distinguish the most qualified candidates from those who only meet the MQs. In Fiscal Year 2013-14 the County received approximately 37,000 applications for 1,500 job openings. At times, the number of applicants for a recruitment can be so voluminous that it becomes necessary to limit the number of applicants so that a timely and cost-efficient recruitment can be conducted while still providing an abundant pool of qualified candidates. For example, in the case of the most recent recruitment for Firefighter Trainee, the County received 3,378 applications for only 21 projected job openings. As advertised in the job announcement, the County accepted applications for twelve days and then randomly selected 600 applicants who met the minimum qualifications (MQs) for continuance in the examination process. It should be noted that other public entities have utilized similar methodologies to enhance testing efficiencies while providing an abundant pool of qualified candidates. Clearly, this methodology does eliminate some qualified applicants, but on the balance it can be an effective tool given the volume of applicants for specific job openings.

Establishing minimum qualifications is a critical step in the recruiting/ hiring process, because an entity's satellite HR staff or its central HR analyst will use these qualifications to cull ineligible candidates from all the applications received. Hiring authorities and other SMEs do not review applications until a candidate is a finalist. In preparing job descriptions, which include minimum qualifications, hiring authorities are often asked to list qualifications of the "ideal" candidate as opposed to the "acceptable" candidate. If these qualifications are not carefully worded, viable candidates may be excluded. Some potentially good hires do not get through the application-screening step because qualifications are too narrowly expressed. For example: "Must have Lean Six Sigma experience" could exclude applicants with similar "Quality Circles" experience; "Must have public-sector management experience" could eliminate excellent managers from the private sector. Such equivalent or supplemental experience is not considered if core qualifications are not met.

Other rules intended to prevent bias mandate that the same person cannot take part in more than one of three crucial steps: helping to prepare the oral exam, rating the oral exam, or serving on the hiring-interview panel. This can mean that the person who knows the job best-often the one who has been performing it- has very limited input. Especially for technical/specialized positions, such restricted participation by the key SME may constitute a major challenge to hiring the best candidate. Partially Agree. The County's Personnel Rules & Regulations create a separation of duties that at times can be cumbersome but are intended to prevent bias and promote a fair hiring process. In the absence of the current checks and balances prescribed by the Personnel Rules & Regulations, it is feasible that the County would experience additional hiring appeals alleging inappropriate or non-merit bias. It has been our experience that while the rules do at times pose a short term logistical challenge, we have been able to find a sufficient number of experts to successfully accomplish each recruitment.

The HRD has committed to continuous process improvement and "Service Excellence." The County's Strategic Plan reflects this commitment. Some HR analysts and managers have taken Lean Six Sigma courses and applied the process to recruitment and hiring with impressive success.

Limited public knowledge of available student-worker positions gives a possible advantage to those who manage to become aware of them. Over time student workers can acquire on-the-job training, agency contacts who can be used as references, and knowledge of the hiring process. This can benefit them when applying for future posted positions. Partially Agree. Student Worker jobs are generally not subject to the County's Civil Service Rules; however, they are, "organized" and represented by SEIU Local 721. Departments hire students on an as-need and "at-will" basis, subject to budgetary realities, meritorious performance, and on the condition they provide documentation that they are enrolled in school (college students must be enrolled in at least 9 units; post graduate students must be enrolled in at least 6 units). Until March of 2015, students were allowed to work an unlimited number of hours per year, and (assuming all conditions were met) could be a student worker for an unlimited number of years. Recent changes to the SEIU Memorandum of