The California Department of Technology would be empowered to create and adjust job classifications and salary ranges for positions in the department, under proposed legislation from Assemblymember Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita. The responsibility currently rests in the state's Department of Human Resources.
The bill, amended two weeks ago into AB 1956, also would enable the Department of Technology to conduct competitive job examinations and make position appointments. The legislation would require authorization from the State Personnel Board to enact this new authority.
The California Department of Human Resources is working to reform California's civil service job classifications. The intent is to eliminate outdated and unused categories and replace them with fewer, more flexible job classifications.
In January, the human resources department asked state IT workers to complete an online survey to gather data that could help create new job classifications and update existing ones.
The IT Classification Consolidation/Update Project has convened a team of more than a hundred subject matter experts and state executives to consider how job classifications can be revised. CalHR and the Department of Technology are leading the effort, along with other stakeholders. The core project team has identified six domains of IT work and the associated major responsibilities: Client Services, Business Technology Management, Information Security Engineering, IT Project Management, Software Engineering, and System Engineering.
State IT organizations — in California and elsewhere — have long lamented that public-sector IT job classifications, in some cases, are inflexible and don't adequately keep pace with evolving technologies and changing organizational needs. In addition, IT positions in state government typically don't pay as much as their counterparts in the private sector.
These factors have made it challenging to recruit and retain talented IT staff, state officials have said repeatedly. A source with Wilk's office said competing with Silicon Valley companies was one of the motivations for AB 1956. One year ago, the Department of Technology said it was trying to raise pay for some positions in its IT oversight division, under the premise that the move would help reduce staff turnover.
Wilk's bill conceivably might give the Department of Technology more hiring flexibility and agility for new initiatives. For example, the Department of Technology has been hiring for a new Statewide Innovation Division using existing job classifications.
AB 1956 is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security on April 20.
