2024-06-25 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board June 25, 2024 CHR. CABANAS: Are you having that—is your staff having that dialogue with them? MS. TOKIHIRO: I'm having that dialogue with department heads. CHR. CABANAS: You're having the dialogue. Okay. Because, actually, as the HR Director, you have the authority to tell them, "Hey, it's better to go internal first." I just want to make sure that the employees are given the opportunity for something like this and not just go straight out to a continuous recruitment—and a member of the public gets this training when you have an employee who could benefit from the training. MS. TOKIHIRO: I agree. CHR. CABANAS: Yeah. Yeah, that's really important. I think they need to understand that because I've done that, so I've been there, done that—and it can be done. It's like, it comes from HR that, "Hey, we need to make sure that you're engaging with the department" so they understand, yeah? Okay. MS. BOND: But then, she said that these positions wouldn't necessarily get a job at the end, right? MS. TOKIHIRO: So, we can't promise that there will be a vacant position at the end of the two-year training period, where we can't—because we can't promise a specific job to a person today that they're not qualified for. So, what we're providing is an opportunity to be in a civil service position towards a career path, at the end of this training period, they will be able to apply for any opening, within the County, as an internal applicant—but we can't promise them a position. We are not sure what the vacancies are going to be at that time. CHR. CABANAS: How is that—well, I can see how it's different but HR, several years, ago had developed a professional trainee position and the employee eventually works their way up. MS. TOKIHIRO: So, this is the path to get to Professional Trainee. So, this is that precursor step before Professional Trainee that's why we call it "Professional Development Trainee" because Professional Trainee requires a 4 -year degree— CHR. CABANAS: Correct. MS. TOKIHIRO: or education and experience substantially equivalent to having a 4 -year degree. So, this program is—was developed to help people who have a two-year degree, gain the professional level experience. Because a lot of times if someone has a two-year degree, even if they have work experience, it may not qualify as "professional level" when being considered—when their application is being screened for openings. Page 12