Item 5 - Briefing Contingent Hire 2026 Extension Presentation — original pdf

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Municipal Civil Service Municipal Civil Service Contingent Hiring Pilot Extension Contingent Hiring Pilot Extension Austin Human Resources | January 26, 2026 Purpose  In October 2024, the Municipal Civil Service Commission recommended that the City Council approve a 12-month pilot to waive the posting requirement for specific positions for Citywide hiring.  The City Council approved the waiver on November 21, 2024.  The pilot began in January 2025 and ended December 2025.  This focused on positions that require no experience or where substitution for minimum experience is allowed.  Austin Human Resources is requesting an extension of the pilot through December 2026. 2 Article IX – City Charter  At a minimum, the civil service rules must contain provisions governing:  (1) initial appointments, promotions, and lateral transfers, all of which shall be based on merit and fitness;  (2) disciplinary probation or suspension, involuntary demotion, denial of promotion, and discharge, all of which, in the case of non-probationary employees, must be for cause;  (3) the establishment of probationary periods not to exceed six months for all initial appointments, during which time the appointee may be removed from the position without cause;  (4) the establishment of probationary periods not to exceed three months for all promotional appointments, during which time the appointee may be removed from the position promoted to, and returned to his/her prior position, without cause;  (5) procedures for reductions in force that give consideration to the affected employees' length of service and past work performance; and  (6) other provisions, not inconsistent with this subsection, that may be required by the city council. 3 Pilot  Guidelines were developed stating that all departments are eligible to participate in the pilot if they have titles on the approved list. The process eliminated the posting requirement for those titles.  Eligible events included in the pilot:  City-sponsored job fairs,  University job events,  Reentry-initiative programs,  Community job events.  City-sponsored, community, or public events where contingent offers are provided are advertised to allow current employees and temporary employees the ability to participate. 4 4 Pilot  All candidates for vacant positions must complete an interview process where they are:  Evaluated for Merit and Fitness  Merit: Demonstrated education, training, experience, performance, knowledge, skills, ability, licenses, or certifications.  Fitness: Physical and/or mental ability to do a job with or without accommodation.  Screened to meet minimum & preferred qualifications  Contingent offer is made  Complete any assessments required for the position.  Successfully pass any required background checks.  Submit an application 5 5 Pilot Successes  Austin’s 14th Annual Career Expo  Wednesday, April 2, 2025, Palmer Events Center  41 vacant positions were available  108 interviews conducted  40 contingent offers made  Other Various Events  26 interviews conducted  9 contingent offers made 6 6 Pilot Successes  85 titles were on the original list.  Of the 85 titles on the list, employees were hired into 29 of those titles during the past year  Not all of these were hired at a contingent hiring event, but we did see improvement in filling those titles from the previous year.  At the start of the pilot, there were 123 vacant positions from the approved title list, and at the beginning of November there were 103 vacancies, which is a 16% improvement. 7 MCS Commission Recommendation  Austin Human Resources seeks a recommendation from the MCS Commission to  Extend the pilot through December 2026, temporarily waiving the Municipal Civil Service rules to exempt specific positions from posting or application requirements.  A competitive process will continue to be conducted for these positions  Selection will be made on Merit and Fitness  Maintain current list of titles, adding three from Municipal Court:  Clinical Case Manager  Court Clerk Assistant  Court Clerk Assistant, Bilingual  Austin Human Resources will seek council approval at an upcoming meeting 8