The Barry County Board of Commissioners Tuesday asked County Administrator Michael Brown to gather information on the feasibility of hiring a Human Resources Director for the county. He will work with Commissioner Vivian Conner who brought the request to the board.

“Barry County is an employer of a significant number of people and the county needs to assess the needs and benefits of having its own HR director,” Conner said.

If such a person were in place in recent history, the board could have prevented problems, “like the compensation study,” she said. At one time the county evaluated every employee every year, but that hasn’t been done for some time, she said.

A professional HR director would handle employees relations and reviews, negotiations with unions on wages, hiring, insurance, benefits, workers compensation, keep up with stricter and stricter state and federal regulations, assure compliance with laws, training and development, which would bring more uniformity to the county and help department heads, administrators and employees with a more streamlined process, Conner said.

Several areas to be researched were brought up by commissioners during discussion, including what other counties are doing, if the director would cover other county entities, like the COA, Charlton Park, County Road Commission, Thornapple Manor, Transit, 911 and the Barry Eaton District Health Department, and if they did, would there be fees for services like payroll, benefits, legal matters and other services that the county now provides free?

Questions about salary and benefits, if there would be additional staff, recruiting, and what duties might be moved from other departments also were raised.

“It’s worth taking a look at. It may change the look of county departments, but we should at least look at it. We have to protect the county in many ways. A human resources person could be a help that way,” Conner said. The board agreed by consensus that Conner and Brown should get more information report back to the commission.