Okaloosa County BOCC — July 28, 2015 — PBB Budget Reduction-Increase Notes - HR — reading text

PBB Budget Reduction/Increase Notes – HR 10: Salaries & Wage • Monies were budgeted to fully staff the Human Resources Department. 20: Benefits • This increase is due to the county-wide change in funding for health insurance premiums. 31: Professional Services • We were able to competitively bid our Employee Assistance Program. 34: Contract Services • We have seen a dramatic increase over the last several years in the number of positions we post annually. This increase is due to a high turnover rate, an increase in the number of employees leaving prior to one year of employment and a larger number of promotional opportunities due to employees retiring or finding other employment. Our temporary employee has been able to allow us to continue the thorough background check process we are accustomed to providing. These in-depth checks allow us to evaluate past performance with previous employers as this is the best predictor of future performance. This helps to ensure that Okaloosa County is getting good employees and minimizes the County’s risk. Having a dedicated person to check references, allows for the process to move much faster. In the past it was taking approximately 70 days to fill a position, we have been able to reduce that number to approximately 40 days. This reduction has helped each and every County department get their critical positions filled in a timely manner and helps them fulfill their mission. We anticipate the number of vacancies to continue to grow. In July 2011, the Florida Retirement System changed its rules related to the Deferred Retirement Option Program or DROP. As a result of these changes, 9 employees entered this five year program and are scheduled to terminate employment by the summer of next year. This will continue to place a heavier workload on our hiring desk. Therefore, it is imperative that we continue funding the temporary employee to complete background checks and keep the process moving efficiently for departments. 45: Risk Management Allocation • This reduction is due to the county-wide change in funding for the risk management department allocation. 49: Miscellaneous Charges • This account includes employee service award certificates and recognition items, motor vehicle report checks and background checks. In an effort to keep up with the increased number of candidates who were going through the background check process, we requested to outsource some of our references to a third party. Unfortunately, these third party companies normally charge by the reference called and will only verify name, title and dates of employment. This would be a significant change to the thorough background check process the Human Resources Department was accustomed to providing. While reviewing the prospect of outsourcing our reference checks, we had some salary savings due to turnover in the Human Resources Department, so we enlisted the services of a temporary employee. This has turned out to be a great investment and therefore we are requesting to fund a person through a temporary agency on a part-time basis during next fiscal year. This request can be found in our contract services line item – which reflects a $19,250 increase. 51: Office Supplies • We reviewed the historical spending of this account and feel comfortable reducing this account to more accurately reflect our actual costs. 55: Training & Education Expenses • Every 3 years we conduct a refresher prohibited harassment training for all employees. While this training is not required, it could put the County in a better position legally if a claim of unlawful discrimination were filed. In addition, we are also proposing to include anti-fraud and conflict of interest training with the prohibited harassment training. This would allow us to satisfy an Auditor General recommendation. • We also offer the County department’s an opportunity to send their newly hired and/or promoted employees to a leadership and/or supervisory training program. These programs are hosted through Northwest Florida State College’s Costa Leadership Institute with Dr. Goetsch. The costs for these classes will be going up next year in addition to the cost of the books. 60: Capital Outlay • We originally requested to purchase a monitor and a printer; however, that request was moved to the Information Systems’ department budget where it can be properly accounted for and procured. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 40: Travel & Per Diem • Each year we budget to attend the HR Florida Conference. This conference is a cost effective way to obtain knowledge on the latest legislation that affects the world of Human Resources, new and improved methods of developing and delivering training in a way that assists employees transfer their newly acquired skills and knowledge to their workplace as well as keep up with current HR trends. Last fiscal year, there were two HR Florida Conferences in one budget year. This fiscal year there will only be one – therefore negating the need to budget for travel & per diem twice.