Tag Archives: Department of Human Resources

“Why don’t Vermonters want to work for Phil Scott?”

4 Replies

This Just In: According to the Phil Scott administration, the Phil Scott administration is a terrible place to work. This is the implicit conclusion of the Department of Human Resources’ Workforce Report, whose most recent edition covers fiscal year 2023.

The report doesn’t offer that conclusion, but it’s the inescapable takeaway from its pages full of facts, figures, charts and tables. They show a state government that’s experiencing very high employee turnover and having trouble hiring new workers. it all adds up to unsustainably high vacancy rates in many areas of state government.

All those empty positions have a tangible benefit for the Scott administration, whose FY2025 budget is “balanced” only because it banks on the savings from having so many positions unfilled.

As for what this is doing to the quality of government services, well, it can’t be good.

Continue reading →

Too Many Cooks Equals No Broth

7 Replies

Sorry to do this to you first thing in the morning, but it’s time for a reading and math comprehension test!

Take a look at this table, and see if any numbers jump out at you.

AuditorTable 7.16

The abbreviations in the first column are for three departments in state government: Human Resources, Information & Innovation, and Finance & Management. And the answer, or at least the answer I’m looking for, is on the DHR line.

The Department of Human Resources has 25 supervisors and 82 classified employees. That’s a rather stunning ratio of one supervisor for every 3.28 supervisees.

There is no absolute ideal ratio; it depends on many factors. But rarely, if ever, is 1:3 a reasonable figure.

There may be perfectly good explanations for DHR’s ratio. But to the outside eye, it looks like featherbedding.

This table comes to us courtesy of State Auditor Doug Hoffer. It’s included in his latest performance audit, which exposes a dismaying case of administrative sloppiness in state government. In those three departments, administrators routinely failed to conduct annual performance reviews with their staff.

Continue reading →