AUDIT COMMITTEE SUMMARY
January 19, 2016
Audit of Human Resources COSA Hiring Practices
Report Issued November 2, 2015
Background
The Human Resources Department (HR) supports the City with human resource management services to include attracting and retaining a qualified and capable workforce to provide high quality services to the citizens of San Antonio. In FY 2015, the City filled approximately 1,520 civilian positions.
HR partners with departments to provide strategic workforce planning, management strategies and core human resource services. Services include compensation and job content analysis and recommendations; review of City-wide and departmental personnel and HR practices; organizational effectiveness assessments; and delivery of training programs.
HR uses performance measures to demonstrate the department’s efforts in achieving its goals and objectives.
Audit Objective
Determine if COSA hiring practices are consistent with internal policies and metrics are reported accurately.
Audit Scope & Methodology
The audit scope included civilian positions filled between October 1, 2014 and May 31, 2015.
Our Methodology consisted of conducting interviews and walkthroughs with key HR staff. We reviewed HR’s activities to comply with laws and regulations applicable to the hiring process, including verification and monitoring of employees’ work eligibility. We tested the processes for selecting, screening, and processing candidates. Additionally, we reviewed HR contracts related to staffing agencies, HR systems, and HR consulting services for compliance with key terms.
Audit Conclusions
Overall, COSA hiring practices are consistent with internal polices and metrics are accurately reported per current HR guidelines. However, we identified areas that need improvement to serve as effective controls for monitoring and tracking of HR hiring processes.
• Independent reviews are not taking place for various data used throughout the hiring and on-boarding processes.
• Signatures of acknowledgement and approval were not always recorded on the forms used to process new employees.
• Training that communicates HR guidelines, laws, and regulations is not provided to all employees responsible for interviewing and selecting candidates.
• Contracts with staffing agencies and other HR service providers are not being monitored to ensure that contract terms, including the screening of temporary employees, are being met.
• Monitoring controls to ensure appropriate system user access are not effective.
• Performance measures used to track achievement of goals do not provide sufficient indication of the effectiveness of HR activities.
We made recommendations to address the issues identified. Human Resources Management concurred with our observations and recommendations and developed a positive corrective action plan.