Report 2021-104 Recommendation 15 Responses

Report 2021-104: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California: Its Leadership Has Failed to Promote Transparency or Ensure a Fair and Equitable Workplace (Release Date: April 2022)

Recommendation #15 To: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

To promote consistency in the hiring process, by April 2023 MWD should formally train hiring managers and human resources staff on their roles and responsibilities.

1-Year Agency Response

Metropolitan fully implemented the recommendation to train hiring managers and HR staff on their roles and responsibilities to promote consistency in the hiring process. After adopting formal hiring procedures in October, during the week of March 20, 2023, a total of 276 hiring managers and human resources staff were trained on their roles and responsibilities. This will be an annual training for hiring managers and human resources staff. Additionally, this training will be provided to new managers and human resources staff upon their hire into one of these roles.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

MWD provided us its presentation materials for the March 2023 training it references in its response, along with evidence that it tracked staff attendance. The training identifies that promoting consistency in MWD's hiring process as one of its purposes, and includes content relevant to MWD's process generally as well as its new written hiring procedures in particular.

6-Month Agency Response

Metropolitan adopted comprehensive formal hiring procedures in October 2022 and has started to develop training for hiring managers and human resources staff.

Training is scheduled to be completed by April 2023.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

Metropolitan is developing a comprehensive formal hiring procedure, scheduled to be completed later this year. Training will be provided to all managers and human resources staff once the comprehensive formal hiring procedure document is finalized.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2021-104

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.