Grand Jury Releases Report on the County’s Hiring Practices

Press release from the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury:

The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has released the fifth report of their 2023-2024 term, entitled Humboldt County Hiring: Status, Process, and the Future. 

Understaffing in Humboldt County government is systemic, appearing in all departments, and affects how well or poorly our county government serves the public. The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury investigated county hiring practices, finding that understaffing is one of our largest challenges, that the causes are many, and that while there may be no complete solutions, there are things the county can do to help. 

We reviewed current hiring processes for the three largest Humboldt County employee groups: The Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Public Works. These three entities employ approximately seventy percent of county employees and account for a majority of the county’s general fund budget. As of April 2024, approximately 500 of the 2400 currently allocated positions were vacant.  

We did a statistical comparison with six other Northern California counties of similar population to get an idea of where Humboldt County stands, finding we have a vacancy rate of twenty-one percent, second highest in our survey, and an employee retention rate of eighty-four percent, average for all but two of the counties in our survey. The survey also revealed that all the counties are struggling with the same hard-to-fill positions such as Social Workers, Deputy Sheriffs, Correctional Officers, and Engineers. 

Challenges to recruitment and retention are not limited to financial considerations like salary and benefits. The length of time from recruitment to onboarding can be an obstacle to hiring, and the requirement to use the services of the California Department of Human Resources for some of the hardest to fill positions is a major impediment. A relative lack of recruitment and retention tools and incentives is another factor. 

Crucially and ironically, Humboldt County Human Resources is itself understaffed. As of April of 2024, two of the eighteen allocated positions were unfilled. Three positions are funded by a COVID era federal grant that expires in the summer of 2024, leaving just fifteen funded positions. Widely accepted industry standards call for a County of our size to have about twenty-five people in Human Resources.

Certain hiring practices vary by department, with some departments having been more proactive than others in recruiting and shortening hiring timelines. Unlike the other counties surveyed, Humboldt County Human Resources does not have a single Policies and Procedures manual, instead relying on informal guidelines and a collection of documents and PowerPoint slides. No standard metrics to measure county-wide hiring success or internal performance of the hiring steps exist, and the use of annual performance reviews is inconsistent.  

It is the conclusion of the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury that bold, sweeping ways to address these issues, such as raising salaries and improving benefits packages, are not practical given Humboldt County’s financial situation. There are, however, many small, inexpensive, and relatively easy to implement things that can be used to make hiring and retention faster, smoother, and more effective. These recommendations and much more information can be found in our report. 

The 2024-2025 term for the Civil Gand Jury is right around the corner, and the Superior Court is seeking more jurors. If you want to serve your community in a unique way that could improve local government this is your opportunity. Applications to serve on the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury can be found at https://humboldtgov.org/510/Civil-Grand-Jury. Additional information provided by the Civil Grand Jurors Association of California can be found at https://cgja.org/.