Human Resources

Our HR Mission

Moving our Madison forward by hiring, developing, and sustaining a diverse and engaged workforce.

Our HR Strategic Priorities

To fulfill its mission, Human Resources will incorporate the principles of racial equity and social justice to:

• Provide an equitable and innovative system for attracting and hiring City employees.
• Develop and deliver an effective onboarding, classification, compensation and performance management system.
• Build capacity for inclusion, innovation and continuous improvement, and support City-wide change by providing access to learning and leadership development opportunities.
• Foster valuable partnerships with City agencies, elected officials, employees, employee associations, labor unions, and the community.
• Support employees by providing resources for workplace accommodations, retirement, leave, benefits, wellness and a healthy workplace culture.
• Effectively frame and evaluate decisions and priorities by using qualitative and quantitative data and racial equity principles and practices.

Our HR Structure

Our HR Goals

Human Resources Administration

Long Term Strategic Objectives:

• Employee Data Governance Policies and Practices that ensure employee privacy is ensured, compliance with legal requirements , and efficiency is maximized.
• Manage the Human Resources Budget in a way that balances employee and organizational needs and necessary services with sustainability and effective stewardship of City resources.
• Support the Human resources function through information and data gathering, records collection and management, resource identification, budget management, and consultation with senior staff across the City.
• Provide departmental staff with direction and vision for the future role of Human Resources, and its staff, within the City management structure.

Human Resources Services

What We Do: Manage recruitment, classification and compensation, and position studies, and provides strategic HR support and training for agencies and employees.

Long Term Strategic Goals:

• Partner with diverse community groups throughout Madison and the surrounding area to attract a diverse workforce which reflects the community.
• Actively participate on all agency management teams and provide support, coaching, and consultation on HR-related issues to supervisors and managers.
• Recruit a diverse pool of well qualified candidates for each agency hiring process.
• Develop and oversee an equitable, flexible, and innovative civil service system, which includes recruitment, classification, and compensation.
• Support successful implementation of the agency’s Equitable Workforce Plan.
• Model and promote a culture of wellness and inclusion throughout the City.

Employee and Labor Relations

What We Do: Coordinate benefits, labor relations, leave, and occupational accommodations. Provides assistance to managers, supervisors, and employees related to supervision, performance management and conflict resolution.

Long Term Strategic Goals:

• Provide innovative, sustainable, and attractive employee benefits that attract and retain high quality employees.

• Implement leave benefits and occupational accommodations in a manner that is both legally compliant and geared toward ensuring employee and organizational wellbeing.
• Partner with Labor Unions, Employee Associations, and other employee groups to ensure policies and practices are fair, equitable, and maximize employee wellbeing.
• Partner with agency leaders to manage performance in a manner that is trauma informed, and creates an organization that is welcoming and inclusive for all employees.
• Reinforce the use of organizational management strategies that are employee centered, empathetic, and equitable, while balancing operational needs.

Organizational Development

What We Do: Support employees and agencies by providing Organizational Leadership, and Learning+ Development opportunities, Performance Excellence, and Organizational Development support.

Long Term Strategic Goals:

• Develop and deliver a learning and development framework, policy, and standards to ensure high quality, effective, and innovative employee development opportunities.

• Develop and deliver a series of annual courses that consistently move the organization closer to long term objectives through individual and organizational competency building.
• Provide tools for a learning culture for leaders & accelerate the creation of strategic leadership networks across departments.
• Develop leaders at each level through differentiated, practical development that is responsive to the intersection of people’s identities, specifically race, gender, sexuality, and disability.
• Provide a framework and resources to reinforce best organizational practices in change management, continuous improvement, strategic planning, and Performance Excellence.
• Provide Human Resources and agency support to provide an exceptional employee experience.
• Consistently enhance organizational effectiveness through agency and workgroup assessment and consultation.