The Personnel Board of Jefferson County (PBJC) was established by the State of Alabama legislature in 1935 as the human resources agency responsible for administering the civil service (Merit) system in Jefferson County, Alabama. Alabama’s civil service statute applies to all counties in the state with four-hundred thousand (400,000) or more inhabitants. Within counties having multiple municipalities, the County’s Merit System is inclusive of municipalities having five thousand (5,000) or more inhabitants and whose borders lie geographically within the county. Police Officers of municipalities having two-thousand five hundred (2,500) inhabitants are also statutorily included. Currently, employees of 17 cities are part of the County’s Merit System. These 17 cities, together with five countywide agencies, make up the Merit System’s twenty-two member “agencies”. The Personnel Board proudly provides services to some 8,000 employees in approximately 700 occupations encompassing such diverse fields as accountants, information technologists, nurses, environmental specialists, and city administrators.
The Personnel Board advances the interests of employees, appointing authorities, and the citizens of Jefferson County by providing the following services:
Our Applicant Services Department is responsible for developing recruiting and marketing strategies that encourage individuals to consider careers in civil service and promote the Merit System as an employer of choice in Jefferson County. The department is committed to providing equal opportunity in the recruitment process regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, religion, age, disability, or veteran status to the full extent protected by the law. Work within this department includes announcing the acceptance of applications for Merit System jobs, implementing targeted recruiting efforts for hard to fill positions, reviewing and screening applications, receiving requests to fill vacancies for our member agencies, and issuing certification lists containing application information for individuals eligible for hire.
Our Employment Testing Department facilitates the hiring of well-qualified and successful employees into Merit System positions through valid and legally defensible employee selection processes. To accomplish this, Employment Testing performs thorough job analyses on Merit System jobs; develops selection tests that are fair, valid, and that relate to the job; and establishes eligible registers for use by Merit System agencies for the hiring of top talent. The types of selection systems developed and administered include structured interviews, computer-based skills assessments, high-fidelity job simulations, work samples, and assessment centers. The division strives to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of large-scale test administrations by leveraging technology to enhance and facilitate the test administration and candidate evaluation process.
Our Training & Organizational Development Department provides opportunities for employees to develop their personal and professional knowledge, skills, and abilities through a wide array of training and development offerings. In all, the department offers over 50 training programs in both technical and nontechnical area for Merit System employees. Courses include, among many other topics, leadership, management, communications, customer service, computer skills, diversity, ethics, and legal issues. These training opportunities provided are always free of charge to employees of the Merit System. Additionally, the department provides customized training based on the individual needs of our Merit System customers. Employee Services is comprised of Classification & Compensation and Employee Relations.
The Personnel Board Classification & Compensation unit is responsible for ensuring that employees are properly assigned to job classes and that job classes are appropriately assigned to salary grades. The department administers the annual classification survey, conducts job audits, reviews independent contractor services, and collects and analyzes labor market data to ensure the competitive positioning of Merit System jobs.
Employee Relations is the workforce compliance arm for the Merit System, tasked with ensuring that the Rules and Regulations of the Personnel Board and the Enabling Act are adhered to in the administration of the grievance and disciplinary appeals processes. Employee Relations interacts daily with employees, supervisors, and department heads to provide guidance on the interpretation and application of the Rules and Regulations. Additionally, Employee Relations advisors facilitate the administrative hearing process, a quasi-judicial forum where disciplinary appeals are heard by a third-party Hearing Officer, who renders a report and recommendation to the Three-Member Board.
The Personnel Board Information Services Department consists of Business Processing, Systems & Reporting, Information Technology, and Application Development. Information Services serves as a technical hub for the Personnel Board and the central operations unit responsible for processing personnel actions, maintaining employee history, troubleshooting functional system issues, training and assisting system users, creating management reports, maintaining systems authorization, calculating seniority and eligibility, network system maintenance and support, and web–based and desktop application development. The department also provides technical assistance to our member agencies that use the Board’s information systems.