State HR director on hiring, retaining state employees | Under the Dome podcast
The vacancy rate for state employee jobs in North Carolina is 20%. The leader of the state human resources agency wants that to change.
State Human Resources Director Staci Meyer has spent her career in public service, mostly at state agencies, including the attorney general’s office and Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. She was named director of the Office of State Human Resources earlier this year after Democratic Gov. Josh Stein took office.
Good morning and welcome to our Under the Dome newsletter, which on Tuesdays is a preview of our new podcast. I’m Dawn Vaughan, Capitol bureau chief and host of the Under the Dome podcast.
Meyer, who is a member of Stein’s Cabinet, is my guest on this latest episode. We talk about what Meyer’s agency is doing to address the vacancy rate and where she’d like that number to be.
“I think people are state employees because they have a public service heart,” she said.
A bill this legislative session made hiring easier, and Meyer explains what it does, as well as what the needs are as the General Assembly works out a final budget.
“There’s been universal agreement that we need to do something to modernize and simplify the State Human Resources Act, to do a better job in telling what it means to be a state employee — and to retain, recruit and retain, the most qualified people to be state employees. And that retention piece is important,” Meyer said.
Meyer said that in six years, 25% of state employees can retire, and they need to plan for that.
Listen to our full conversation as well as our picks for Headliner of the Week.
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Thanks for reading and listening. If you work in state government, politics or policy and are interested in being a podcast guest or have topic recommendations, email me at dvaughan@newsobserver.com.
This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
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