Accomplishments:
San Mateo County Hackathon (Hack-SMC)
On June 6th, 2015, the County hosted its first San Mateo County Hackathon, Hack-SMC. Over 70 participants (22 teams) attended this day-long event to create unique technological solutions to some of the County’s most challenging issues: homelessness, resources for foster youth, and third-grade reading levels.
San Mateo County Management Fellowship Program
In January 2015, the Human Resources Department launched the San Mateo County Management Fellowship Program. This program gives masters graduates the opportunity to work on high-level, complex assignments and initiatives in one or more County departments for a period of 1-3 years. Fellows will also participate in a variety of professional development opportunities organized by the Human Resources Department. This program has enabled the County to form strong partnerships with local universities including San Francisco State University, the University of San Francisco, and UC Berkeley.
STEP Program Expansion
In March 2015, the Board of Supervisors approved increased funding to expand the County’s Supported Training and Development Program (STEP) for emancipated foster youth. STEP is a twelve-week paid internship program designed to help foster youth transition into the workforce. The program currently gives 20 participating foster youth the opportunity to work in one of the County’s departments for the summer. With the increase in funding, STEP will be a year-round program and will be able to accommodate 35 interns per year.
Agile Organization Website Redesign
At the outset of the Agile Organization initiative, the Human Resources Department created a website dedicated to the Agile Organization initiative. We have since redesigned the website to make it more user-friendly and accessible. We have also created more informational content to help San Mateo County employees better understand what the Agile initiative is all about.
Volunteer Tracking Survey
In July 2014, the Human Resources Department sent out a survey to gather data on all volunteers in each County department. The goal was to establish baseline data on the number and types of volunteers in San Mateo County to determine effective ways to track volunteers in the future. Currently, we are looking into different options for volunteer management database systems.
Implementation Guides
The Human Resources Department created Implementation Guides, which are one-page descriptions of each of the various work delivery models (ie: Term, Fellow, Extra-Help). The guides provide information on the work that each type of employee should perform, compensation/benefits, the advantages to each type of employee, and examples of each employee type. In addition to the individual implementation guides, we also created a matrix that provides a side-by-side comparison of each work delivery model. The purpose of these guides is to give hiring managers tools to determine what type of employee to hire.
Pilot Program Evaluation Criteria
The Human Resources Department developed evaluation criteria at the outset of the Agile Organization initiative in order to have a tool that would allow HR to comprehensively and effectively review each of the pilot programs for term employees. The evaluation criteria involve many different metrics that cover areas such as service delivery, finance, department operations, and employee.
Works in Progress:
Volunteer Reporting
The Human Resources Department is currently exploring different strategies for collectively reporting Countywide volunteer statistics.