The Human Resources Department is responsible for coordinating the recruitment and hiring of City employees. It also administers such things as the City's retirement system, unemployment compensation and family medical leave programs, and the City's drug and alcohol abuse policy.

The team members and employees of the Human Resources Department are dedicated to providing quality, professional services for the citizens and employees of the City of Kansas City, Mo. We are committed to exceed the expectations of residents and employees with diligence, integrity and innovation.

The department is organized as follows:

Director's Office
The Director's Office is responsible for ensuring that the city upholds its merit system under which all departments may acquire and maintain a representative, efficient work force at a competitive cost and with fair and equitable treatment. The director supervises and coordinates the numerous functions described below, including the Human Resources Committee, and the department budget preparation.

Education and Development
Education and Development is a division of the Human Resources Department, charged with providing educational resources to City employees and performance consulting services to Departments. The division also administers the tuition assistance program for City employees.

Labor & Employee Relations/EEO Office

The Labor and Employee Relations Division is responsible for working with bargaining unions, employees and City supervisors and managers to promote an effective, safe and harmonious work environment. This section also handles claims for unemployment compensation, employee/applicant requests for reasonable job accommodations and negotiates and administers the City's Drug and Alcohol Misuse Testing Policy.

These responsibilities are met by overseeing the City's grievance process, providing supervisory training to supervisors and managers, assisting in the processing and orientation of new employees, reviewing and administering claims for unemployment compensation, negotiating work agreements with the City's public employee Unions and overseeing the drug and alcohol testing program.

The EEO Office is responsible for enforcing city ordinances related to equal opportunity of employment, diversity programs and anti-harassment policies. The EEO Office develops and implements policies and training in an attempt to ensure that all persons are afforded equal employment opportunities. The EEO Office investigates complaints of discrimination, harassment, and/or inappropriate sexual conduct , workplace anti-harassment and discrimination policies and initiatives that enable City work-sites to comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws prohibiting discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

Employee Benefits
The Benefits Division of Human Resources is responsible for coordinating City benefits between active employees and service providers. Benefits include health, dental, vision, life insurance, short term disability, long term, disability and flexible spending accounts for medical, dependent care, transit and parking,

The division also handles new employee processing and orientation, Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) administration, Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) compliance, sick leave donations, death claims, and administration/communication of City benefit plans..

Compensation Division
The Compensation Division is responsible for the City's classification and compensation plans. The staff works closely with departments in the development, maintenance, administration and education for these plans and prepares research and analysis on compensation and classification issues.

The division handles Limited Term Contract reviews and provides information and education to departments on this issue.

The Compensation Division also encompasses the Records Section, which is responsible for processing all personnel transactions (pay increases, promotions, separations, new hires, etc.) and maintaining the integrity of approximately 6,500 computerized and physical records.  The Records Section also is responsible for employment verifications and responding to legal and other requests for employment information.  The Records Section staff coordinates with departments and other divisions of Human Resources to ensure that employee records are updated and accurate.


Recruitment, Certification and Selection
The Recruitment and Selection Division is responsible for staffing all merit system positions. This includes ensuring that all employee recruiting, advertising, testing, certification and applicant record-keeping comply with legal, professional and merit system standards.

These responsibilities are met by advertising and recruiting, including specialized recruiting for technical, professional, or other positions that are difficult to fill; reviewing thousands of applications to determine whether or not the applicants meet position requirements; verifying experience and education when either is required for new or promoted employees; and establishing, maintaining and certifying eligibility lists for all city departments that have vacant positions to fill. Also, the staff of this division provides employment assistance to both current city employees and to applicants seeking employment in our city government.

Retirement
The Retirement Division administers the Employees' Retirement System and the Firefighters' Pension System. These mandatory participation plans provide a retirement benefit for all full-time city employees and firefighters. The plans are established by city ordinances enacted by the City Council and strive to provide retirement and survivor income in the most efficient manner possible. Financing of these systems is provided from employee contributions, investment earnings and City contributions.

Employees may elect to participate in the city's 457 deferred compensation plan, also administered by the Retirement Division, which is a voluntary contribution plan that provides a benefit based on accumulated employee contributions to the plan and any investment gains or losses.

City employees and retirees can now access retiree information online. The site includes facts about the City’s deferred compensation plan, retiree insurance plans, contact information, forms and frequently asked questions.