Dallas’ Development Services Department is putting heavy emphasis on recruitment in 2024 to ensure quick turnaround times for building permits and inspections.
The department told Dallas’ Economic Development Committee (EDC) Tuesday that it is working in coordination with applicable city departments to implement new recruitment strategies that will attract and retain top talent in the industry.
“DSD needs to hire and recruit smarter and faster,” DSD Director Andrew Espinoza said during the January 9 EDC meeting.
Some of the strategies DSD intends to implement for 2024 include offering certificate pay, performance pay, sign-on pay, and referral pay.
DSD also added five part-time intern positions for engineering students and graduates and 15 part-time positions to promote the acquisition of hard-to-fill jobs, increase flexibility, attract retired trade professionals, and improve inspection turnaround times.
By offering robust recruitment incentives for hard-to-fill positions like engineers, senior architects, and lead inspectors, DSD said it will help attract the right talent.
“These are the positions that have higher vacancy rates, that are critical to organizational success, and overall have been relatively short in the market,” said Espinoza.
While DSD’s latest presentation to EDC members showed the department had 73 open positions at the start of the year, Espinoza clarified that based on DSD’s current pipeline of recruitment, hiring, and onboarding, the true number of vacancies is “closer to 40.”
“And so we’re continuing to hire and fill positions as quickly as we can,” Espinoza said.
Another tool DSD will soon be using to fill vacant positions is the talent acquisition and recruitment software Workday, according to Nina Arias, human resource director for the City of Dallas.
The Workday platform will give the City of Dallas a better system for recruiting quicker and faster, said Arias during the meeting. Furthermore, she said the data will provide feedback to counsel and management about what recruitment areas need to be focused on and what areas need to be improved.
“We continue to recruit and fill positions as quickly as possible,” in addition to working “collaboratively with the department to make that happen,” she said.
