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Report Highlights September 7, 2017 Hiring Practices at the County of Hawai`i's Department of Human Resources What was the purpose o this audit? This performance audit was undertaken to evaluate if the County's hiring practices were adequate to ensure equitable, uniform, and transparent selections of civil service candidates and to identify areas for improvement. The audit also looked to see if hiring practices complied with applicable laws, regulations, County policies, procedures, and industry best practices. We evaluated internal controls over hiring practices during calendar year 2016 through January 2017. We also examined 46 new hire civil service positions in four departments during calendar year 2016. We initiated the audit due to the inherent risk of hiring practices and numerous constituent concerns regarding unfair hiring practices at the County. iialkyj QQANNW This situation resulted, in part, from: • A fear of retaliation including a lack of a safe mechanism for reporting concerns or complaints; • Inappropriate involvement by the Staffing Review Committee (SRC), which was established by the prior Office of the Mayor and DHR in March 2013. The current Office of the Mayor eliminated the committee in early 2017; • Insufficient monitoring by DHR to ensure departmental compliance; • The human resources software (NeoGov) was not fully utilized; • Extended open recruitment of not "difficult -to - fill" positions; and • Unclear guidance of prohibited personnel practices. According to Hawai"i state law, the Department of Human Resources has the ultimate authority and responsibility of the human resource function for the County of Hawaii. The County's hiring practices did not ensure equitable, uniform, and transparent selection of candidates and may have resulted in non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations. In 42 out of 46 positions, our audit found numerous questionable hiring practices including how applicants were identified to be interviewed, how applicants were assessed, and how departments were using DHR's referred list of eligible applicants. Management at the Office of the Mayor and individual departments have generally agreed with the comments and recommendations in this report. Their complete response to this audit can be found on page 20: Department's Comment. W11 1. • • • "" i The recommendations identify improvements for Office of the Mayor and DHR management to better administer the County's hiring practices. Our audit report offers recommendations designed to address these issues through: • Ensuring that hiring selection rests solely with the appointing authority and prevents preferential treatment of new hire candidates; • Implementing an independent whistleblower program; • Implementing monitoring and oversight procedures; • Requiring individual departments to fully use the human resources recruitment software (NeoGov); • Providing mandated on-going HR training; • Only using continuous open recruitments for "difficult -to -fill" positions; and • Developing and implementing written policies and procedures to clearly define prohibited personnel hiring practices at the County and work with other jurisdictions to update the state law. This audit was conducted in accordance with general accepted government auditing standards.