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Q&A
DYCD staffing and vacancy challenges
2:29:10
·
3 min
Council Member Brannan inquires about DYCD's vacancy rate and challenges in staff retention and recruitment across programs. DYCD representatives discuss the current vacancy situation, hiring processes, and specific issues in the finance department.
- DYCD's vacancy rate is about 10.5%, with recent improvements bringing it down to 55 vacancies
- The finance department has the highest number of vacancies, accounting for about 30% of all agency vacancies
- Challenges include the two-for-one hiring freeze, lengthy approval processes for new hires, and competition with other city agencies and the private sector
Justin L. Brannan
2:29:10
So it looks like your vacancy rate is about 10 and a half percent.
2:29:14
Could you talk about what the challenge are challenges are relating to retention and recruitment of of qualified staff against you know, that you're experiencing across all programs?
Alan Cheng
2:29:25
Sure.
2:29:26
Could take that.
2:29:26
Thank you for that question.
2:29:28
Our vacancy as of March, as you pointed out, was at that level.
2:29:33
Over the last couple of months, we were able to make a little bit of a dent there.
2:29:37
So we are at 55 vacancies right now, So a little bit less than what was in March.
2:29:44
And a lot of those vacancies were in our areas that process contracting, did payments.
2:29:53
There is a, I would say, not necessarily a difficulty in hiring for all of those positions.
2:30:01
It was just a matter of just getting a lot of those vacancies approved over the last few months, and we did get the majority of them approved just in the last month and a half or so.
Justin L. Brannan
2:30:15
How many staffers do you have that do contract processing?
Alan Cheng
2:30:21
So it's probably half of our agency does administrative work.
2:30:26
So whether it's directly or indirectly with contracts, you know, we have IT that obviously supports a lot of that work.
2:30:34
So I would count probably more than half of our agency headcount as supporting contracting.
2:30:39
And then the other half is actually overseeing the programs which is also crucial to, you know, just contract management.
Justin L. Brannan
2:30:46
So and and OMB still has you as on the two for one hiring freeze.
2:30:52
Right?
Alan Cheng
2:30:52
I think that is still the case across the city.
Justin L. Brannan
2:30:56
It's not.
2:30:56
So which positions at DYCD are not part of the two for one hiring freeze?
Alan Cheng
2:31:01
We did get a lot of our admin ones approved recently as I mentioned.
2:31:05
So those were probably exempt as you mentioned.
Justin L. Brannan
2:31:08
How long does it take typically to onboard someone?
Alan Cheng
2:31:12
It varies.
2:31:14
You know, some of these are noncompetitive so they're a little faster.
2:31:18
And some of these are competitive titles where we have to abide by civil service lists and things like that.
2:31:22
So those could take a little longer.
Justin L. Brannan
2:31:25
Which area has the highest number of vacancies?
Alan Cheng
2:31:30
Right now probably I would say in our finance department.
Justin L. Brannan
2:31:37
And what do those folks do?
Alan Cheng
2:31:39
They do budget approvals and they do payments.
Justin L. Brannan
2:31:44
So you have people who are processing the paperwork but then the people who actually cut the checks.
2:31:50
You have a lot of vacancies there?
Alan Cheng
2:31:52
We do have a number of vacancies there right now.
2:31:54
If you're talking about all of our vacancies, it's probably about I would say at least 30% of
Jess Dannhauser
2:32:00
them are in that area.
Justin L. Brannan
2:32:01
30% of your vacancies are in the finance department?
Mistou
2:32:04
Yeah.
Justin L. Brannan
2:32:06
And why do you think that is?
Alan Cheng
2:32:08
Again, I think it's getting the par approvals and then now working through civil service lists.
Justin L. Brannan
2:32:15
So how long does it take to get the prior approval?
Alan Cheng
2:32:18
The par approvals all came in recently.
2:32:20
So right now it's a matter of just getting people on board, getting the interview.
Justin L. Brannan
2:32:24
So they all came recently, but how long were you waiting for them?
Alan Cheng
2:32:27
They probably we had for about six months or so, we we had some vacancy a lot of vacancies there.
Justin L. Brannan
2:32:39
Six months seems like a long time.
Alan Cheng
2:32:43
Yeah.
2:32:44
And then this constant movement, you know, obviously, folks leaving and then, you know, we're sometimes not able to keep up with or or we're breaking even in terms of bringing people on board and people leaving the city service.
Keith Howard
2:32:58
And then the competitive nature of the civil service process with other city agencies as well and also private sector.