Transforming County HR

The most significant changes in the Department of Administration involved County HR’s Transformation Pilot. HR staff across County departments joined efforts with the Division of Personnel in February 2022 to form “County HR.”

The division focused on six teams to help streamline HR functions across all County departments to deliver equitable and efficient services. Those topics include compensation and classifications, benefits and compliance, employee experience, human resource information systems, talent strategy, and retirement.

Administration by the numbers

The Customer Service division saw a 400% increase in requests coming into the Customer Service portal in 2022 as compared to 2021. The portal makes it easier for residents to submit requests and it ensures that all requests are recorded, tracked, and serviced.

Customer Service staff offers guidance, answers questions, and works closely with all departments to facilitate business throughout the County. Customer Service provided in-person services to well over 33,659 people in Clayton. At the Northwest Crossings location, Customer Service works closely with the Collector of Revenue and over 39,279 people were provided with in-person customer service. The division also answered 54,100 phone calls and responded to over 6,500 combined service requests and emails.

400% increase in requests

Over 6,500 combined service requests and emails

70,000+ people helped with in-person services

54,000+ phone calls answered

Performance Management and Budget (PMB) was successful in maintaining the County’s AAA general obligation bond rating and coordinating the May sale of $124.6 million in special obligation bonds to finance the County’s portion of the expansion of the America’s Center in downtown St. Louis. In July, PMB coordinated the sale of an additional $20.3 million in special obligation bonds to complete the financing package for the construction of two new police precinct facilities and the County’s portion of a pump station at the Howard Bend Levy District.

The Records Center worked with County departments and updated 28 record retention schedules in 2022. The Records Compliance Manager began working with IT on a plan to move departments from file shares to the more user-friendly SharePoint, where records can properly be classified and maintained per the record retention schedules for each department.

Over 400,000 documents were digitally scanned in the Imaging Services Lab. These documents have either permanent or long-term retention requirements, and the digital images provide instant desktop access to departmental users and ensure long-term accessibility as well as efficient retrieval by multiple users.

Roughly 1,500 records were retrieved and processed for departments. In addition, over 1,300 records were retrieved, processed, and refiled in response to requests from various County departments. Requests are processed by using automated software and barcode technology and sent to requestors within two or fewer business days.

The Procurement Division revised and simplified standard County contracts. The Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) Program conducted four workshops in the first six months of the year to educate those who do business with the County on the updated MWBE program rules and regulations. The work of MWBE program helped the County exceed participation goals for the two new police precincts. The North County Precinct MWBE participation will be 49.7 percent with 15 minority and women-owned firms working on the project and the Affton-Southwest Precinct will be 50.3 percent with 14 minority and women-owned firms.

Risk Management reviewed over 291 workers compensation claims. Risk Management continued to develop a standardized claim tracking procedure which allows staff to review claim reserves and strategy with the County Counselor’s Office.

Treasury staff processed 64,773 transactions totaling over $118 million at the North and South satellite locations and processed over 5,303 check and electronic payments totaling over $998 million in Clayton. The division successfully reconciled over 15,904 bank transactions, an average of 1,325 monthly. Treasurer staff calculated and distributed over $600 million, an average of over $50 million of sales tax funds each month to county funds and 89 entities including municipalities, Bi-State Funds, Metro Parks, and Tax Increment Financing entities.

The County Administrative Processing Systems (CAPS) Division, responsible for managing the County’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and Time Management, upgraded the ERP Munis, Cashiering, and Tyler Content Management systems in January 2022. The team continues to work with Treasury to review a centralized payments.