The Development of County HR Policies: The Perspectives of Counties in Two States

We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with county HR directors (20 in New York, 20 in North Carolina) to learn more about the development of internal HR policies. Key resources used by directors in both states include other jurisdictions, colleagues in other county departments, state and federa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPublic personnel management Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 398 - 418
Main Authors Jacobson, Willow S., Lambright, Kristina T.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.12.2018
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Collective bargaining
College professors
Counties
Decision making
Departments
Employees
Employment
Ethics
Feedback
Human Capital
Human resource management
Human Resources
Information sources
Interviews
Labor Force
Legal Problems
Local government
Managers
Organizational Effectiveness
Personnel Evaluation
Personnel policies
Personnel Policy
Policy Formation
Public administration
Research Methodology
Semi Structured Interviews
Stakeholders
Strategic planning
Systematic review
Teams
Workforce
North Carolina
New York
United States > US
HRM
policymaking
local government
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Summary:We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with county HR directors (20 in New York, 20 in North Carolina) to learn more about the development of internal HR policies. Key resources used by directors in both states include other jurisdictions, colleagues in other county departments, state and federal agencies, laws and statutes, professional associations, and information gathered from general Internet searches. More than half of the HR directors reported using internal working groups, and almost two-thirds indicated that they systematically reviewed the implications of policies for specific departments. Yet, only a handful of HR directors reported utilizing other promising practices such as engaging rank-and-file employees in the policy process, reviewing a new or revised policy’s consistency with existing policy, and using evidence-based decision making to develop policies. Although there was little difference by state, our findings indicate the characteristics of HR directors can shape how a jurisdiction approaches policymaking.
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ISSN:0091-0260
1945-7421
DOI:10.1177/0091026018770233