The City of Atlanta Merit System was inaugurated in 1939 with the appointment of a three-man Personnel Board, and a department comprised of a Personnel Director and a stenographer. The Personnel Board was housed on the second floor of City Hall. To enter the classified service, City employees, 1,277 in all, were required to complete an application.
By 1952, when the City, and Fulton and DeKalb counties implemented the Plan of Improvement, Atlanta's workforce had grown to 4,500 classified employees, excluding sworn personnel. The workforce was supported by a booming post-war economy and Personnel had grown to a staff of 12. This staff was responsible for processing over 8,158 applications a year, in an effort to keep pace with the City's 23% turnover rate.
In 1964 when the Merit System celebrated its 25th anniversary, the staff in Personnel had grown to 20. There were 5,874 classified employees—90% were labor, skilled trades, or technical jobs; and 93% of these positions were filled by men. In an effort to improve recruitment and retention, the Personnel Board adopted a uniform sick leave policy and established a five-day work week in 1961. The City purchased and renovated a building at 260 Central Avenue and Personnel relocated to the Annex in 1965.
The 1970's were filled with rapid changes. There were now 9,403 City Employees, and the Personnel Department increased to a staff of 44. From July 1971 through May 1972, the City experimented with the 4-day work week, and Personnel served as one of the pilot departments.
The City adopted a new charter in 1973, which changed the three-person Personnel Board to a five-person Civil Service Board. The Charter also authorized the new City Council to adopt changes made to the Civil Service Code – formerly these had to be ratified by the State Legislature. Under the reorganization, authorized by the new Charter, the Personnel Department became a bureau in the Department of Administrative Services.
The City's Executive branch reorganized in 1990, and the Bureau of Personnel became the Department of Personnel and Human Resources (DPHR), with its own Commissioner, and moved to the second floor, close to its original 1939 location. DPHR consisted of the bureaus of personnel administration, training, labor relations and the employee assistance program. Included in the functions and duties of the department were recruitment and selection, preparing and administering a pay and classification plan, administering the affirmative action program, investigating employee grievance and appeals, and providing psychological counseling.
The next decade saw a number of changes in policy and practices that reflected the rapidly changing economic and social environment in Atlanta. Under the leadership of Commissioner Benita Ransom, the unclassified service was expanded to include middle management and professional positions. This allowed for more flexibility in hiring and retention, and fewer obstacles when imposing disciplinary action.
The 2003 budget allocation required DPHR to reduce its staff by approximately a third, from 70 to 47 employees. In order to function, the Commissioner recognized the need to restructure the department and implemented zero-based staffing to acquire the necessary skills and competencies to deliver “Best-in-Class” Human Resources (HR) services. During that process, DPHR was also renamed the Department Human Resources (DHR), to reflect the transformation from a paper driven back-office function to a proactive strategic business partner, with a strong customer focus.
The new structure eliminated the bureaus and provided for functional areas—Departmental Support, Business Support, Diversity Management, Organizational and Employee Development, Policy and Planning and Psychological Services. Utilizing the HR Generalist concept, customer departments are given a single contact for all HR services that is more versatile and facilitates the delivery of a comprehensive business solution. Currently, over half of the DHR team maintains a professional certification or licenses, including the Senior Profession in Human Resources (SPHR) and Profession in Human Resources (PHR), National Certified Counselor (NCC), Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Development Dimension International (DDI) and others.
This year, the insurance component of the Department of Finance’s Employee Benefits was transferred to DHR, along with staff. With this added function, DHR will achieve a “one-stop” service delivery for City employees.
Sixty-six years after the Atlanta Merit System was inaugurated, DHR has expanded its involvement in the strategic aspects of managing human capital. As a result, Commissioner Ransom has joined other leaders in City government at the decision-making table. This is a positive trend that recognizes the importance of human capital as a fundamental building block of organizational success.