Waterbury HR urges more staff and training as city modernizes hiring systems

Human Resources Director Tara Shaw told the Board of Aldermen during a May 14 budget review that her office relies on Lawson for requisitions and encumbrance reporting but supplements it with manual spreadsheets to track vendor and expenditure trends. Shaw said the department will rely on a cloud‑based applicant‑tracking portal scheduled to go live June 1 and that initial requisitions continue to be opened in Lawson.

Shaw said personnel is the department’s highest priority and that HR requested an additional HR generalist to handle recruitment, grievance hearings and collective‑bargaining administration. “We did request an additional human resource generalist,” she said, adding the workload “is immense” given the number of employees served. Shaw said the department had one vacancy at the time of the meeting.

Aldermen pressed on training and technology costs. Shaw said the department had asked for increased training funds to contract outside providers for city‑wide supervisory and safety training if a new generalist could not deliver it in‑house. She also described auditing processes: the department reported 16 grievances that reached the director level last year and said it conducts personnel‑file audits to verify licenses and certifications.

Assistant Director Sherry Lam described how the department contracts testing for police and fire examinations and said those vendor costs can be large (Shaw estimated an entry‑level fire exam contract at about $92,000 because of the number of applicants and defensibility requirements). Board members asked for reports that would show vacancy lists and time‑to‑fill metrics; Shaw said HRIS can produce vacancy reports and that staff would provide data to the board.

The discussion left several operational items for follow‑up: the board asked for a city‑wide vacancy list with time‑vacant details, clarification of where HR software licensing fees would be budgeted (IT will hold some contracts), and further detail on training line items. Shaw said the requested additions were essential to maintain services for roughly 2,300 civil‑service and general government employees the department supports, about 58% of whom are Waterbury residents.