North Carolina hopes to improve its hiring and retention of state employees under the Stein Administration. (Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)
182 days.
That’s the average length of time it takes for North Carolina’s state employee hiring process, and Staci Meyer, director of the Office of State Human Resources (OSHR) knows the state could do better.
For an hour last Thursday, Meyer was peppered with questions from the House Committee on Oversight about how she would help state agencies address lingering staffing vacancies in hard-to-fill positions.
“My commitment begins with our first strategic priority. That is offering all of the available assistance and support to those in western North Carolina recovering from Hurricane Helene,” Meyer pledged. “I intend to address the high vacancy and turnover rates in critical positions, such as nurses, correctional officers, and engineers.”
But Meyer said North Carolina must modernize and simplify the state Human Resources Act.
“We need to allow candidates to apply for state jobs with resumes or online profiles. We need to increase temporary-to-permanent hiring.”
Meyer said she was confident that with the transformation of the current HR system, the state’s workforce would be stronger and more responsive to the needs of North Carolinians.
Lawmaker frustration
Rep. Allison Dahle (D-Wake) said while she meant no ill will toward Meyer, she was very frustrated with the notion that it would take Human Resources more than six months to fill an open position with the state.
Meyer did not argue with Dahle’s assessment, noting that the average hiring time in the private sector is closer to 44 days.
“We have built a system that is so complex to apply for a job. Our state application is lengthy,” Meyer said.
Meyer, who was appointed to the position by Gov. Josh Stein just 75 days ago, said the office is now examining every form it has to simplify what it means to apply for a job in state government.
“We want people moving here from everywhere. We want to tell a different story about working for North Carolina,” said Meyer.
Meyer said she is now working in her tenth administration, and the state of North Carolina has not changed its application process since the late 1980s.
“I’m not attacking,” Dahle offered. “I do have a family member who has been waiting for almost three months to hear about a job, and then they keep on reposting that position, so you don’t know if you did or didn’t [get the job] or whatever. So how can we speed this up with the resources that we have now?”
Meyer said recent funding from the General Assembly has allowed Human Resources to contract in December with a company called Workday, which will give state agencies one platform for building its workforce. Some agencies have been using their own legacy systems for hiring.
“It is on track, and I commit to you that that will go live in October.”
Meyer said in the interim the state should look more closely at temp hiring and allowing qualified workers to become permanent employees if they are doing a good job.
An antiquated system
Rep. Allen Chesser (R-Nash) said before he won his state House seat he was working in an engineering position within the state Department of Transportation.
“It makes no sense to me. How do we not have the ability to scan and interpret resumes that are uploaded into the system? What is the point in having them uploaded if we don’t have the ability to use them in the hiring process?” Chesser asked.
“We do need statutory changes that reflect modern day and how the real world is operating. But at the same time, I think that with a basic rule change and a basic policy change that we will be able to use resumes and online application in order to schedule interviews,” Meyer said.
Chesser said OSHR needed to also address changes in the promotion process for existing state employees.
“For instance, when I put in for a promotion, when I was with DOT, because of the antiquated system, it kicked back and said I wasn’t even eligible for the job that I had been in for four years,” Chesser shared. “It’s almost like cheating on a test. You gotta’ have somebody who knows how to work the system, standing over your shoulder, telling you what [keywords] to type into the system.”
Meyer said the General Assembly had the power to simplify the process.
“I think there are absolutely ways that we can do that. But I think we have to start by looking internally at our own processes and what our own barriers are in terms of our rules, our policies, and the state Human Resources Act,” she said.
Meyer told lawmakers the act is 60 years old and isn’t keeping up with modern technology and changes to job recruitment and the application process in the private sector.
A need for improved benefits, hiring incentives
Rep. Carla Cunningham (D-Mecklenburg) said what troubled her was the 33% vacancy rate in state health care jobs. Cunningham said that outside of state government, nurses are paid significantly well with additional incentives to keep them happy.
“I want to know, has there been a survey inside of your employees to look at what is a priority benefit?” Cunningham asked. “If you work for Atrium, if you work for Novant, they’re going to show you a benefits package on top of your recruitment pay, which could be $15,000 to sign you up and another $10,000 in a year if you stayed during the contract. So, I want us to think about what do our employees really value? Is it vacation time? Is it time to take care of their families when they’re sick? Is it the time that they want to just take care of themselves, a mental health day?”
Meyer said OSHR has not conducted a survey, but with employees soon being asked to pay higher rates under the State Health Plan, it’s critical the state re-examine its benefits package.
“We have talked about going on a listening tour to meet with people across North Carolina to say, what would make you want to work for North Carolina?”
Better retention practices
Cunningham said while the state has had recent success in hiring, it’s also spending excessive money training new employees while not retaining those workers.
“I have a granddaughter who graduated from nursing school a couple of years ago. She’s had four jobs. If she doesn’t like that one, she leaves it and goes and gets another one. If they’re not paying what she wants, she leaves that one and goes and gets another one. That’s just how the young people think. They’re not thinking I’m going to stay somewhere for 30 years,” Cunningham shared.
Meyer said OSHR will be looking at the structure of longevity pay and whether paying that additional stipend at different intervals would help keep some talented employees.
“I think there are a lot of things that we can do up front with the abilities that we have now, like incentive leave. I remember when I started in state government, I had to work a year before I had time that I could take off or be sick because of the way you earn.”
Meyer said her agency will also evaluate when state workers receive their paycheck.
“One of the secretaries met with me recently and he said, you know, people really want money up front. It’s hard for them to wait a whole month to be paid.”
Meyer told the oversight committee there was both opportunity and urgency to fill the state’s open positions.
The opportunity came from former federal workers looking to pivot to the stability of a state job.
As for the urgency, over the next five years, 25% of the state workforce will be retirement eligible with 30 years or more of service.
North Carolina currently has more than 1,000 job openings.