Ramsey County Board Workshop: Workforce Forward Presentation - July 28, 2026
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Ramsey County Board Workshop: Workforce Forward Presentation - July 28, 2026
The Ramsey County Board convened a workshop on July 28, 2026, originally scheduled for 10:30 a.m. but called to order just after 11:00 a.m. The session focused on the evolution of the county's workforce strategy from the Talent Attraction, Retention, and Promotion (TARP) initiative to a new phase called "Workforce Forward." The presentation was led by Human Resources leadership, including CHRO Patience, COO Alex, and new Deputy Director Abby Redea. No votes were taken during this workshop; it was a discussion and informational session.
Presentation Overview
Patience, CHRO, opened by explaining that TARP had been the county's workforce strategy since 2019 and had made significant progress, including increased workforce diversity to 42% (first increase in four years) and reduced average time-to-hire from 160 days to 76 days. However, the county now aims to focus beyond attraction to include onboarding, leadership development, and performance management. Abby outlined the three strategic pillars for the next 18 months:
- Enhanced Onboarding: A comprehensive 12-month onboarding experience for new hires, including structured check-ins at 30, 60, 90 days and one year, to improve retention and set employees up for success.
- Leadership Development: Creation of a people-leader orientation and a leadership essentials training series for all supervisors, with emphasis on supporting new supervisors and existing leaders.
- Performance Management: A new focus on probation-period management, providing tools for coaching and feedback to foster continuous improvement and reduce early turnover.
Key Metrics and Goals
The HR team presented initial performance measures:
- 80% retention of new hires (current baseline approximately 70%)
- 95% participation of people leaders in orientation sessions
- 85% participation in leadership essentials training
- 90% of employees passing probation These goals were based on research and benchmarking with Hennepin County and other organizations. The strategy is internally developed with no additional costs outside existing resources, though future leadership development may incur costs within budget.
Commissioner Discussion
Commissioners raised several questions:
- Commissioner Moran asked why targets were not 100%, and noted that success depends on department partnership, not just HR.
- Commissioner Sean asked about implementation with departments like corrections (e.g., correctional officers) and how HR will collaborate with supervisors. Patience emphasized a collaborative, not top-down, approach, piloting micro-learnings and tailoring to different "lines of business."
- Commissioner McGuire inquired about existing metrics and praised the presentation's key takeaways. County Manager confirmed that workforce metrics will be integrated into departmental performance measures beginning in the fall.
- Commissioner Brand asked about disaggregating data by race, disability, and department. Patience agreed this is important and will be addressed. He also asked if the goals were based on employee feedback; the team responded they relied on research and best practices rather than pre-existing surveys.
- Commissioner McMurtry emphasized the need to include long-tenured leaders in training, not just new supervisors, and asked about support for leaders during high-pressure periods. Patience acknowledged the challenge and stressed building trusting relationships and creating safe spaces for leaders.
Key Outcomes
- The "Workforce Forward" strategy was formally introduced as Ramsey County's new long-term workforce framework, building on TARP.
- Implementation will occur over 18 months with phased collaboration, including piloting and evaluation every two years.
- The HR team will work with departments to align initiatives and will provide data to track progress.
- No formal votes or decisions were taken; the workshop served to inform the Board and gather feedback for further development.
- The county manager noted that performance indicators related to workforce forward will be included in the 2027 supplemental budget process.
Meeting Transcript
So it does. All right, I'm going to call us to order today as we are running a little late in our schedule. It's just after 11. Welcome to the Ramsey County Board Workshop. Today's workshop will be a presentation on workforce forward, the evolution of talent attraction, retention, and promotions. Put us a reminder that this board workshop is recorded and it's live streamed on a Zoom webinar. There'll be no votes taken during this workshop. Let's start with introductions of commissioners and presenters around the table and then the rest of the room. I am Tara Jevinsing, Commissioner of District One. Mary Joe McGuire, Commissioner District 2. Rafael or Tania Commissioner District 5. Night Chan Sean, Commissioner District 6. Harrison McMurtry, Commissioner District 3. How do you go to the end? Patient Services, CHRO. Alex put to Chief Operating Officer, Fulling Becker County Manager. Miranda Harrison, Division Director Labor Relations. Welcome. Yeah, welcome. I'm here to design management of service. Christy Cox Planning County Manager's Office. Going downway, Admin Director. Okay. Rena Moran, Ramsey Garmouth Commissioner, District 4. And do we have anybody online? All righty. All right. Since 2019, talent attraction, retention, promotion or TARP has served as Ramsey County workforce strategy. TARP has enabled the county to make significant progress in strengthening the systems, policies, and initiatives that provide the foundation for the next phase. Today we'll hear how TARP is evolving into Workforce Forward, an exciting new chapter in advancing operational excellence. Workforce Forward focuses on strengthening our workforce, serving our community and developing the employees and leaders. Um, a Ramsey County needs for the future. Um, I will just say that uh due to the time, um, we're gonna have uh Patience and her team do her full presentation and then have questions at the end. So I instruct our commissioners just to write down you know the number of the slide and the questions you have. Hopefully, by the time patients and her team get to the end, half of them will be answered and we'll be able to get out of here on time today. So Patience, I turn it over to you. Thank you very much, Commissioner Damon Sane. Um, I'm just going to briefly go over the goals. Alex is going to do a piece that lays some context with regard to what will be moving forward. What you have in front of you is our um our agenda for today. I'll start off by introducing Abby Redea, who has been here a total of two months. Two months. And so we're very excited. Uh, she is the deputy director for talent management and workforce development. And what you see in front of you are our goals in terms of what we'll be discussing today. Um, Abby is going to do an overview also of uh we'll provide a little bit of context. We will not spend a lot of time on the TARP piece. We'll just do a little bit of that. Ed is going to also share what we're going to be doing with our pillars and what our roadmap will be. And then hopefully there will be time at the end for questions because we always roll questions.
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