Personnel

 

The City of Somerville prides itself on being a learning organization. We believe that innovation and growth stem from learning and trying new things. Our goal is to encourage employees to be creative and learn new skills by providing easy access to opportunities for professional growth and development in a variety of ways.

Access to Training and Professional Development Opportunities

The City provides routine training on employment-related policies and best practices.

Department Heads are encouraged to work with staff to assess and plan for a variety of job-related programs to support continued learning, growth, and professional engagement of employees.

The Personnel Department further supports learning opportunities and access when departmental budgetary constraints may arise. Additionally, the Personnel Department administers the Non-Union Education Reimbursement Program.

Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement may be provided opportunities and/or incentives for advancing education and professional growth as outlined in the appropriate agreement.

Resources

• Non-Union Education Reimbursement Policy
• Non-Union Employee Education Reimbursement Application

Questions

For more information about professional development opportunities, programs, and access please feel free to contact the Personnel Department at (617) 625-6600 x3300. 

Recruitment and Retention

The City of Somerville’s Personnel Department is responsible for the recruitment and retention efforts of the City. Recruitment includes filling vacant positions and some retention efforts include internal promotional opportunities resulting in a transfer to a new position. Both of these items are captured in the data below.

The chart below shows the increases and decreases by fiscal year (July 1 through June 30) in new hires and transfers that the Personnel Department processed.

Medical Leave Notifications / Applications

The City of Somerville’s Personnel Department oversees and administers medical leave notifications and applications in accordance with the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the City of Somerville’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Service Member Family Leave Policy located at this link.

The chart below shows the increases and decreases by fiscal year (July 1 through June 30) in employees who were notified of their eligibility to apply for leave due to medical necessity.

City Workforce Diversification Data

The City of Somerville is committed to maintaining an inclusive working environment that values the diverse backgrounds and characteristics of all people. The City embraces the different perspectives and experiences, increased innovation, expanded skills pool, and enhanced teamwork created by a rich environment that reflects the community it serves. These values are integral to the City’s provision of services and broad vision for its future.

The City has a hiring policy that supports workforce diversification. The policy can be located at this link. Diversifying a workforce occurs over time, as employees retire or move on to other opportunities and recruitment efforts strive for a rich pool of diverse, qualified candidates to interview for open positions.  It is the City’s belief that community engagement and education efforts, combined with a consciously inclusive work environment, will increase interest and applications from local diverse candidates for the varied professional careers available with the City of Somerville. The best way to report diversification efforts is to review current employee data in relation to new hires. Below are charts that demonstrate the effects of the City of Somerville’s diversification efforts on gender and race for the period of May 2017 through May 2018.

Please note that Public Safety (Police and Fire) hires and promotions are governed by the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission’s statutory hiring process.  The City fills vacant Police Officer and Fire Fighter positions through the Massachusetts Human Resources Division (HRD), Civil Service Commission as required by the Commonwealth, using eligible lists established by the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission for the City of Somerville. Eligible lists are active for a period of approximately 2 years, and are based on residency and candidate score (as determined by Civil Service). City recruitment and diversification strategies for Police and Fire are therefore focused on increasing interest in the public safety field and providing knowledge about civil service and civil service testing. In this way, the City hopes to attract non-traditional candidates to consider and pursue local public safety careers. 

Personnel Investigated Sexual Harassment Complaint Data

The City of Somerville prides itself on being as transparent as possible. Sexual harassment in the workplace is a very sensitive and serious topic. The City of Somerville has a clear Equal Opportunity policy prohibiting a variety of unacceptable behaviors including but not limited to sexual harassment. This policy can be located at this link.

Sharing data in relation to sexual harassment is a delicate matter. It is critical that certain information remains private, including identifying information, which is exempt from public disclosure.  One reason for this is that sharing identifying information can re-victimize reporters of sexual harassment.  It can also increase fear of or actual retaliation, and may lead to suppressed reporting. It is critical to provide a safe place for employees to report their concerns. The data below is thus provided without identifying information. With that in mind, the City wants to make clear that it conducts fair and thorough investigations and takes proportional action against employees who are found in violation of City policy on sexual harassment.   

This table summarizes the number of sexual harassment reports the Personnel Department received from 2013 through 2018, the findings, and the actions the City of Somerville took in relation to substantiated complaints.

Employee Benefits

The City of Somerville monitors ad hoc benefits such as enrollments to flexible spending accounts and cost savings derived from the City’s health insurance opt-out program. Data provided below captures increases and decreases by fiscal year (July 1 through June 30).

Flexible Spending and Dependent Care Accounts are expense accounts for certain out-of-pocket medical or dependent care costs that are funded with pre-tax deductions from an employee’s paycheck.

The Opt-Out Program is designed to reduce the amount the City spends to provide medical insurance to employees by offering a financial incentive to benefit-eligible staff who choose to cancel their City-provided medical insurance and acquire insurance through another source. The fiscal year 2018 Opt-Out incentive was $2,000 for an individual plan and $4,000 for a family plan, resulting in a net $625,836 savings for the City.  Participation is voluntary and intended to benefit both employee participants and the City. The policy can be located at this link.