LA ISD Station 5: Goal 3

Create a logo or a sticker for each work location, division, workshop, section. And have ISD managers and staff invest is visiting these sites, come back with a sticker, add it to their collection to publicize how much they know of ISD and how many areas they have been to. Make being a true ISD employee, a north star in itself. Someone who have seen all ISD and understand all ISD.

To further invest in the County’s existing talent while addressing evolving leadership needs, I propose the establishment of an Advanced Leadership Pipeline for Employees with Master’s Degrees.
Los Angeles County employs a highly educated workforce with strong leadership potential. Without structured development pathways, this talent may be underutilized or lost to other sectors. A formal leadership pipeline would strengthen succession planning, enhance long-term leadership capacity, and support employee retention.
Proposed Strategy:
Establish a targeted leadership development program that includes rotational leadership assignments, executive or senior-level mentorship, executive shadowing or cross-functional project leadership opportunities, and specialized training in public administration, policy, strategic management, and County-specific leadership competencies. More than a development initiative, this program represents a clear and meaningful investment in our employees, affirming that dedication, advanced education, and commitment to public service are recognized, valued, and rewarded. By intentionally preparing and promoting internal talent, the County strengthens its leadership pipeline, enhances the quality, consistency, and responsiveness of services delivered to our communities, and reinforces a lasting leadership legacy that clearly signals those who invest in their growth have a future here.
Thank you very much for your consideration.

I agree with all of these points but we also need to focus on retention.

One of the most effective ways to attract and retain top talent is by prioritizing merit-based criteria rather than over-indexing on DEI-driven selection. While inclusion matters, hiring and advancement decisions must ultimately be grounded in demonstrated skills, experience, and the ability to deliver results. Continuing current practices without adjustment risks diluting productivity, efficiency, and overall organizational performance.

In addition, the existing talent and applicant banding model needs to be revisited. The current approach introduces unintended bias and, too often, prevents highly qualified candidates from even reaching the interview stage simply because they are classified below an arbitrary threshold. As a result, strong candidates are filtered out before they have any opportunity to demonstrate their true capabilities.

All banded candidates should be given a fair opportunity to interview. A lower exam score or initial ranking should not automatically disqualify an applicant from showcasing their skills, experience, problem-solving ability, or leadership potential during an interview. Interviews exist precisely to validate aptitude beyond standardized assessments. Reforming this process would lead to stronger hiring outcomes, a deeper talent pool, and better long-term performance across the organization.

One of the most effective ways to attract and retain top talent is by prioritizing merit-based criteria rather than over-indexing on DEI-driven selection. While inclusion matters, hiring and advancement decisions must ultimately be grounded in demonstrated skills, experience, and the ability to deliver results. Continuing current practices without adjustment risks diluting productivity, efficiency, and overall organizational performance.

In addition, the existing talent and applicant banding model needs to be revisited. The current approach introduces unintended bias and, too often, prevents highly qualified candidates from even reaching the interview stage simply because they are classified below an arbitrary threshold. As a result, strong candidates are filtered out before they have any opportunity to demonstrate their true capabilities.

All banded candidates should be given a fair opportunity to interview. A lower exam score or initial ranking should not automatically disqualify an applicant from showcasing their skills, experience, problem-solving ability, or leadership potential during an interview. Interviews exist precisely to validate aptitude beyond standardized assessments. Reforming this process would lead to stronger hiring outcomes, a deeper talent pool, and better long-term performance across the organization.

Yes, this has been a topic that almost everyone understands and know needs to be addressed. But no director has been able to complete. mostly because the management team has never been up to the challenge. This a tough one but is really need. Myself I was mandated to move over to ISD. Unfairly forced into a new position that my title does not match. Forced to learn a new skill set to maintain pace, and now I'm stuck. When they moved us, we were supposed to get titles changed to match what we do. But that never happened. So, this would be great to see even if it's for those that come along when I leave.

As part of this process, I hope ISD management will revise billing rates as needed so that (for example) Principal Application Developers don't lose money for their sections because they bill at the same rate as Senior Application Developers even though they cost more. If this won't or can't be done, I'd hope to at least have some clear written explanation for why (e.g. ISD treats the PAD item as a Senior Member of Technical Staff instead of a Principal Member of Technical Staff as in some other departments because of [whatever]).

One way to improve both our recruitment pipeline and employee retention is to (1) make it easy to hire people on the most junior relevant titles (e.g. Application Developer 1 and Assistant Application Developer); and (2) let those junior employees occupy items with higher titles so that (3) employees actually have a path for upward promotion. What happens now is that ISD goes through feast-or-famine hiring binges in which people are attached to an item which itself has no upward mobility, so their only hope for advancement is for someone else to vacate a higher item. This pushes people not only outside of the teams which helped foster their skills, but also often outside of ISD more broadly or even the County as a whole, often before they've stayed long enough to accumulate enough employee or retirement benefits to act as a counter-pressure against seeking outside opportunities.

Upskill as in more training opportunities with vendors like Cisco, etc?

I suggest reintroducing Individual Development Plan (IDP) to encourage and help employees to further develop their existing skills and/or acquire new skills.

This is fantastic to hear!

It would be interesting to have coaches in place who could help workers understand options available to them for advancement.

It would be demoralizing when ISD only hire top leadership from outside and have not been promoting from within for the past so many years.

That is a great plan. I want to improve my career path every day while working here.

Modernizing our items and aligning them with the actual work would go a long way towards creating the workforce we want in 5 years.

This would be great!!

Agree

I am hoping that this question aligns with the strategy represented in 3.1. Is it possible to create a database that consist of multiple apps to select as needed when carrying out a request. Currently, for my desk, there are several apps that does different things pertaining to phone lines. some more complex than others, and they all have different passwords, some have desk tokens with passwords and complex log in prompts. While others are more complex and do not get used often, causing another concern, as the information can easily be forgotten if you do not use a system regularly. I truly believe this will help my desk a great deal and become a great asset to any new onboarding clerical team member.

Outstanding strategy that is much needed.

💕

This is awesome!

I am especially excited and interested in this goal. I believe it will play a huge part in my personal development.

3.5 Develop a professional development roadmap that aligns learning opportunities with career pathways, enabling staff to grow strategically within the organization.

That would be terrific!