Message from Department of Personnel Director Eva Santos
September 2009 

Like other state agencies, the Department of Personnel (DOP) has felt the impacts of the tough economy. We’ve made changes to tighten up our operations, like consolidating facilities and combining services. We now have one DOP Service Center, replacing the formerly separate Help Desk and Jobseeker Support services.

There are bigger changes on the horizon, too. We’ll soon be transitioning from the state’s current online recruitment system, which is costly to maintain and isn’t meeting customer needs, to a system fully hosted and supported by a service provider. We expect to have the new online tool in place for all agencies to use by the end of 2010. This new tool would replace the state’s online application process now in use at careers.wa.gov.

State government must spend less on back office services. DOP is trimming our own “administrative” costs and exploring innovative ways to deliver state human resource services so that we can help save money for the whole state.

One idea now under consideration by state leaders is called “shared services.” Though there are many ways to define shared services, the concept generally means eliminating duplication of effort and better leveraging your economies of scale. If state agencies could more easily share services with each other or if more administrative processes could be standardized for more agencies, the state, as a whole, would operate more efficiently.

As the state’s HR Director, I am part of the central-service workgroup deciding what ideas to move forward and when. Most of the ideas I’ve put on the table specific to human resources came out of a series of brainstorming sessions held in July 2009 in which I asked state agencies for their feedback on things we could do better. I stay actively engaged with my client and partner agencies through an HR Governance structure, and will continue to use issue-based groups to feed the decision-making process.

DOP has already begun to explore several ideas that could reduce redundant work in agencies and better help them share resources. In addition to reducing state recruitment costs by replacing the current online tool, our customers have identified employee self service opportunities in the area of time and leave reporting, electronic earning statements and funds transfer, and on-line training offerings. Currently, our HR Manager for the Small Agencies is working to consolidate agencies policies and bring consistency to the application of those policies. In coming months, DOP and OFM will be working together to develop a scalable model for shared services starting with the small agencies.

We’re already making state workforce data, planning and employee management tools more accessible online. We’re investing in better, more efficient ways to deliver required employee training, through webinars and Online eLearning.

I’m confident that the work we’re engaged in today will produce results that make it easier for tomorrow’s state employees. Our work on these tasks has just begun and won’t be easy. I am confident that together we can get it done.