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