Consent Item 4d
STAFF REPORT
City Council Consent Item
DATE: December 5, 2022
TO: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
FROM: Siana Emmons, City Clerk/Human Resources Manager
THROUGH: Merritt Perry, City Manager
SUBJECT: Approve Supplemental Budget Request to Purchase “Insight” and “Onboard” Subscriptions from NEOGOV and Authorize the City Manager to Execute a Three-year Agreement not to exceed $28,887.80
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Approve a Supplemental Budget Request (SBR) for the Purchase “Insight” and “Onboard” Subscriptions from NEOGOV, to be used for employee recruitment and onboarding for new hires.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Over the last several years, the City has partnered with NEOGOV to provide online recruitment, or job posting software services, to the City. The City uses NEOGOV to post jobs in a widespread and professional manner to audiences looking for employment in the public sector. NEOGOV is well known, used commonly by municipalities and provides a cloud-based management suite that specifically serves public sector and education industries. The suite supports the entire employee lifecycle including automated applicant tracking, onboarding and can include training and performance management. The City would like to improve our application process to include online services for applying, internal ranking, scheduling interviews and completing pre-hire tasks, and to provide online onboarding services for new hires.
The Onboarding module will allow the City to process hiring documents online for newly hired employees, and then transition the information into the City’s current Human Resources (HR) and payroll systems. This will reduce the amount of duplicative information that an applicant has to type and allow the City to process the information electronically. The software will save time by allowing the applicant to complete new-hire paperwork prior to starting work, and allowing City staff to process new hire information more efficiently. Another key goal the software will meet is to create continuity for the HR department by training multiple employees to perform all tasks associated with recruiting, hiring and onboarding new employees. This redundancy is vital to the City’s succession planning and forward thinking and will be a great asset for the City by having multiple employees capable of performing necessary tasks using the software.
Together, these two modules (posting/hiring, onboarding) will create a powerful tool for the City’s HR Department to minimize paperwork, reduce staff time for processing hiring paperwork, and Consent Item 4d
create a digital process for hiring. This will be more appealing to interested candidates and presents the City’s onboarding process in a highly efficient and more professional light.
NEOGOV is an industry standard for hiring software. Their customer lists span the entire United States, and the City has successfully used them for the past few years. NEOGOV also has the capability to transfer data to current City enterprise software (Tyler Technologies), which is important in saving time and data entry accuracy. The two services provided by NEOGOV will allow the City to take an applicant from application to hiring with integration into the City’s HR and payroll systems in a quick and effortless process. The amount of time saved will be measurable and increase productivity. This will allow HR staff to spend less time processing paperwork and more time assisting employees. The process will also be more flexible for new employees as they will have a seamless, time saving process to fill out their new hire paperwork online. Overall, these new software modules will allow for a streamlined process for all involved.
City staff worked with representatives from NEOGOV who provided software demonstrations, and meetings about training, implementation, and to obtain estimates for costs. The request for funding was not included in the previous budget cycle, because staff did not have detailed information about the software at that time. Currently the quote provided by NEOGOV is a locked rate they have offered the City upon Council approval, however, rates will increase after January 1, 2023. Staff is requesting approval of the SBR instead of including the costs in the next budget cycle to get the best pricing, but also due to timing. Full implementation of the new systems will take anywhere from three to six months so waiting for the next budget cycle would push this project out by another year.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
On August 2, 2021 and November 15, 2021 Council approved a total of $45,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for Council Chamber audio and visual upgrades. The actual costs for the upgrades came in under budget, at $41,713.10. Staff also applied for a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Grant to help cover the costs. The City was successful in obtaining the USDA grant, which reimburses qualifying projects at 60%.
As part of the annual ARPA reporting requirements, the City reported the use of $26,282.00 of ARPA Funds to the United States Department of Treasury for the Council Upgrade Project prior to receiving the USDA Grant, which can’t be changed. This means the City will be able to submit $15,431.10 through the USDA Grant and will receive $9,258.66 from the grant. Below is a table which hopefully simplifies the approved ARPA funds and available USDA grant funds, less the cost of the Chamber Upgrade Project and the cost of the first year and subscription to NEOGOV.
Total Amount of ARPA Funds Approved by Council for Chamber Upgrades
$45,000.00
Total Cost of Chamber Upgrades -$41,713.10
Remaining Unspent ARPA Funds that can be re-allocated for NEOGOV $3,286.90 Total USDA Grant Funds that will offset the use of ARPA funds left from the Chamber Upgrades
$9,258.66
Amount of ARPA and Grant funds to be re-allocated and allocated for NEOGOV Year 1 and Setup Fees
$12,545.56
Cost of NeoGov Year 1 (FY 22-23) -$11,701.40
Remaining Balance $844.16
Consent Item 4d
The purchase of the two modules and subscription will cost the City $28,887.810 over the next three years. The costs incurred during the first year will include the discounted subscriptions and set up fees of $11,701.40, which will be funded from the surplus ARPA funds from the Chamber Upgrade Project and the USDA Grant funds. The SBR is only required for the first year, and the two subsequent years will be included in the City’s annual budget process and could be paid for by other grant funds currently being sought.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
Approve Supplemental Budget Request for to Purchase “Insight” and “Onboard” Subscriptions from NEOGOV including the use of ARPA funds and Authorize the City Manager to Execute a Three-year Agreement not to exceed $28,887.80 Consent Agenda vote.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Supplemental Budget Request
2. NEOGOV Quote