Under the Dome: How long it takes North Carolina to hire a state employee
Good morning and welcome to the Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, The News & Observer’s Capitol bureau chief.
The big event of the week in state politics was Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s State of the State address Wednesday night. Avi Bajpai, photographer Travis Long and I were there to bring you full coverage of Stein’s speech, the scene inside the packed House chamber and House Speaker Destin Hall’s Republican response. You can read our story and see photos here.
IT TAKES 182 DAYS TO HIRE A STATE EMPLOYEE
The House Oversight Committee continued its questioning of agency heads on Thursday, and Office of State Human Resources Director Staci Meyer sounded the alarm about the obstacle-laden hiring process for state employees.
Meyer said their greatest challenge is recruitment and retention, and being able to provide competitive salaries compared to the private sector. She said it takes 182 days to fill a position. Nurses, correctional officers and engineers have high turnover rates, she said.
“Why does it take 182 days?” Wake County Democratic Rep. Allison Dahle asked, saying she was frustrated and wanted to know how to “speed this up.”
Meyer said the OSHR hiring system is “antiquated.” The average hiring time for the private sector is 44 days, she said. She said that onboarding is too long, and they need a system to set up interviews quickly once someone applies.
Meyer said North Carolina hasn’t changed how it hires state employees since she began her career in the late 1980s. She’s led OSHR for the past 75 days. Solutions include working with a new vendor so state agencies can use one system for hiring, which will go live in October.
Rep. Allen Chesser, a Nash County Republican who was previously a state employee as an engineer at the Department of Transportation, noted that applicants have to fill out the state application form rather than being able to just use their resume.
“Our own forms are a barrier,” Meyer said, adding that hiring needs to be modernized and simplified.
Meyer said the state employee vacancy rate of 20% “is not where it needs to be,” and lawmakers modernizing and simplifying the State Human Resources Act would help.
In one example of salary discrepancies, she said the pay for some state archaeologists with doctoral degrees is lower than administrative assistant salaries in different agencies. Meyer told lawmakers the agency would look at doing a new salary study. It’s not only about hiring, she said, but making sure employees stay.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE WORKING ON
Sen. Thom Tillis has been getting death threats since the election that targeted him, his staff and his family. Danielle Battaglia reports on why Tillis is now releasing recordings of the threats.
Bills filed by Democrats in the legislature would make lawmakers’ records public and prevent quick rollouts of state budgets. Dan Kane asked Republicans about them.
President Donald Trump’s Housing and Urban Development secretary, Scott Turner, objected to an Asheville plan for Helene recovery that called for prioritizing minority- and women-owned businesses. Briah Lumpkins explains what happened next.
A NOTE ABOUT YESTERDAY’S UNDER THE DOME
Thursday’s newsletter misidentified the immigration status that was revoked by the Trump administration for a Columbia University student. In fact, Mahmoud Khalil’s green card was revoked.
Today’s newsletter was by Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol.
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