8A.402 - STATE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT -- RESPONSIBILITIES. - Iowa Statutes

8A.402 STATE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT -- RESPONSIBILITIES. 1. The department is the central agency responsible for state human resource management, including the following: a. Policy and program development, workforce planning, and research. b. Employment activities and transactions, including recruitment, examination, and certification of personnel seeking employment or promotion. c. Compensation and benefits, including position classification, wages and salaries, and employee benefits. Employee benefits include, but are not limited to, group medical, dental, life, and long-term disability insurance, workers' compensation, unemployment benefits, sick leave, deferred compensation, holidays and vacations, tuition reimbursement, and educational leaves. d. Equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, and workforce diversity programs. e. Education, training, and workforce development programs. f. Personnel records and administration, including the audit of all personnel-related documents. g. Employment relations, including the negotiation and administration of collective bargaining agreements on behalf of the executive branch of the state and its departments and agencies as provided in chapter 20. However, the state board of regents, for the purposes of implementing and administering collective bargaining pursuant to chapter 20, shall act as the exclusive representative of the state with respect to its faculty, scientific, and other professional staff. h. The coordination and management of the state's human resource information system, except as otherwise required for those employees governed by chapter 262. 2. The department, as it relates to the human resources of state government, shall do the following: a. Establish and maintain a list of all employees in the executive branch of state government and set forth, as to each employee, the class title, pay, status, and other pertinent data. For employees governed by chapter 262, the director shall work collaboratively with the state board of regents to collect such information. b. Foster and develop, in cooperation with appointing authorities and others, programs for the improvement of employee effectiveness, including training, safety, health, counseling, and welfare. c. Encourage and exercise leadership in the development of effective personnel administration within the several state agencies, and make available the facilities of the department to this end. d. The director may delegate any or all aspects of the recruitment, examination, and selection processes to an agency in the executive branch upon request by that agency. The director shall oversee all activities delegated to that agency. e. Utilize appropriate persons, including officers and employees in the executive branch, to assist in the recruitment and examination of applicants for employment. These officers and employees are not entitled to extra pay for their services, but shall be paid their necessary traveling and other expenses. f. Develop, in consultation with the department of veterans affairs, programs to inform members of the national guard or organized reserves of the armed forces of the United States returning to Iowa following active federal service about job opportunities in state government. g. (1) (a) Consult with the department of management and discuss and collaborate with executive branch agencies to implement and maintain a policy for increasing the aggregate ratio in the number of employees per supervisor in executive branch agencies to be fourteen employees for one supervisor. For purposes of determining the effects of the policy on the state employee workforce, the base date of July 1, 2008, shall be used and the target date for full implementation shall be July 1, 2011. (b) The policy shall allow appropriation units with twenty-eight or fewer full-time equivalent employee positions to apply for an exception to the policy through the executive council. (c) The department shall present an interim report to the governor and general assembly on or before April 1, 2010, and a final report on or before April 1, 2011, detailing the effects of the policy on the composition of the workforce, cost savings, government efficiency, and outcomes. (d) The policy developed pursuant to this paragraph "g" shall not encompass employees under the state board of regents, the department of human services, or a judicial district department of correctional services. However, the department of administrative services shall work with the state board of regents, the department of human services, and the judicial district departments of correctional services to advance the policy as a goal for the supervisory staff of these units of state government. (2) Evaluate the state's systems for job classification of executive branch employees in order to ensure the existence of technical skill-based career paths for such employees which do not depend upon an employee gaining supervisory responsibility for advancement, and which provide incentives for such employees to broaden their knowledge and skill base. The evaluation shall include but is not limited to options for eliminating obsolete, duplicative, or unnecessary job classifications. The department shall present interim reports to the general assembly on or before January 15, 2010, and January 14, 2011, concerning the department's progress in completing the evaluation and associated outcomes. 3. The human resource management powers and duties of the department do not extend to the legislative branch or the judicial branch of state government, except for functions related to administering compensation and benefit programs.          Section History: Recent Form 2003 Acts, ch 145, §58; 2004 Acts, ch 1086, §7; 2008 Acts, ch 1184, §33; 2009 Acts, ch 179, §27 Referred to in § 432.13