APPLICABILITY & PURPOSE
This Personnel Management Regulation (PMR) defines the rules for selection, interviewing, and offers of employment.
CONTENTS
33.1 Selection Interviews
33.2 Offer of Employment
33.3 Background Investigations
33.4 Physical and/or Psychological Examination
33.5 Appointing Authority Responsibilities
33.6 Selection Appeals
APPROVAL
FORMS AND ATTACHMENTS
33.1 Selection Interviews
A. The appointing authority or designee will interview all certified candidates who are interested in being considered for a vacancy. If a candidate is recertified (from the same eligible list) for a vacancy within the department, the department will not be required to re-interview the candidate. No job offer will be made to any certified candidate until all required interviews are completed.
B. The department interview will consist of job-related questions which provide candidates an equal opportunity to describe and/or demonstrate their qualifications. When certification is made from a continuous recruitment process, the department will discontinue interviews when existing vacancies are filled.
33.2 Offer of Employment
Department heads or their appointed representative will be authorized to make an offer of employment or promotion. All offers of employment will be made on a conditional basis subject to satisfactory completion of a pre-placement physical and, where relevant and/or mandated, psychological examination, a drug test if required, and successful completion of the probationary period.
33.3 Background Investigations
A. Background review, including reference checks, will be conducted prior to a conditional offer of employment and, in some cases, promotion.
B. Law enforcement, child and adult protective, and other personnel to be employed or promoted to security or safety positions, or having access to vulnerable client populations as defined by State or federal law or designated by the Director of Human Resources as having access to restricted security areas and information and/or vulnerable client populations will, prior to a conditional offer, be fingerprinted for the purpose of criminal offender search or other violation inconsistent with County employment.
C. For positions in financial or related service, the County has the right to obtain a credit report consistent with federal law.
33.4 Physical and/or Psychological Examination
A. Employee physical and/or psychological examinations where relevant and/or mandated, will be part of a conditional offer of employment or, in some cases, promotion. The department is responsible for scheduling all such physical and/or psychological examinations with the County’s medical provider as administered by the Human Resources Department.
B. The purpose of the examination is to determine the candidate’s ability to perform the essential functions of the job for which he or she applied. This examination is paid for by the County.
C. At any time during employment where there is cause for concern as to fitness for duty, an employee may be required by the department head or designee to take a physical and/or psychological examination paid for by the County to determine fitness for duty in the position in which he or she is currently employed, or for which he or she is applying.
33.5 Appointing Authority Responsibilities
A. Prior to appointment or promotion, the appointing authority will review the personnel file of candidates who are past or current employees.
B. The appointing authority will confirm the offer in writing with a copy to the Human Resources Department. The following should be included in the offer letter:
1. Title of position.
2. Salary/benefit package.
3. Agreed-upon starting date and time.
4. Office and person to whom the candidate will report.
5. A statement that employment is contingent upon passing the pre-employment physical and/or psychological examination and that resignations from current employment should not be finalized until this process is successfully completed. This will also contain information about whom to contact to arrange this examination.
6. A statement that employment is contingent upon submission of evidence that he or she is legally entitled to work in the United States.
7. A statement that the probationary period is part of the selection process. The statement will also indicate the length of probation to be served, and that regular status will be dependent upon the satisfactory completion of probation.
C. Candidates not selected will also be so notified promptly in writing, or by other appropriate means if the appointment is by promotion, by the appointing authority.
33.6 Selection Appeals
A. This procedure is for an individual certified as eligible for appointment to positions in the Merit System to appeal departmental selection procedures regarding appointment to vacant positions. The sole basis for appeal is failure to follow uniform, job related selection procedures.
B. Any applicant or employee who contends there has been a violation of this rule must utilize the following procedures:
1. Within fourteen calendar days after the notice of the selection has been mailed by the department, a written appeal may be filed with the Director of Human Resources. The written statement will include the specific grounds and reasons upon which the claim is based.
2. The Director of Human Resources or designated representative will refer the written appeal statement to the affected County department for review and evaluation of the appeal factors.
3. Within fourteen calendar days after the Human Resources Department has referred the appeal of selection to the department, the department head or designated representative will meet with the appellant and subsequently issue a written decision. The decision will be mailed by the department to the appellant and a copy filed with the Human Resources Department.
4. Within fourteen calendar days after such written decision is mailed, the appellant may petition in writing to the Executive Secretary to the Personnel Commission for a hearing before the Personnel Commission if the decision rendered by the department head is unsatisfactory to the appellant and the appellant chooses to further appeal.
5. The Personnel Commission will establish a date for hearing the selection appeal at its next regular meeting. Hearings will be conducted pursuant to PMR 3. They will be informal and the Commission’s rules of evidence, rather than formal judicial rules, will apply. The burden of proof shall be upon the appellant who may appear and produce evidence at the hearing. It shall be the burden of the appellant to allege and prove, by preponderance of the evidences that the selection process failed to follow uniform job related procedures. Appellants may be represented by a representative of their choice at their own expense.
6. Within fifteen calendar days after concluding the hearing, the Personnel Commission will certify its findings and decision. The determination of the Personnel Commission will be final and binding unless the action involves the expenditure of unbudgeted funds, in which case it must be ratified by the Board of Supervisors.
7. The decision of the Director of Human Resources or Personnel Commission may, but is not required to, invalidate an appointment already made.
APPROVAL
Effective Date: January 2005
Revisions No. : 0
Prepared By: Laura Armor
Approved: ss/President, Board of Supervisors