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Santa Fe County has been awarded a National Achievement Award by the National Association of Counties (NACo) for “effective” and “creative” programming for the County’s JobSearchprogram.  JobSearchis a weekly radio program aired on KSWV 810 AM hosted by Santa Fe County Employee Development Specialist, Gisele Gonzales. The program discusses pertinent County issues and always includes Job openings, job descriptions, salary, and job qualifications. Jobsearch includes an overview of County employee incentives such as insurance benefits, retirement, tuition assistance and where and how to apply for positions.  “NACo is extremely pleased with the high caliber of county programs and projects” NACo said in a statement “NACo is proud to confer this award and recognize ( Santa Fe ) County’s hard work to promote quality, efficiency and responsible and responsive county government management and administration.”

Recruitment and turnover is always a costly problem for any organization.  Even though job openings are posted on the County web site , not all residents had internet access.  Seeking to be more effective in developing human resources, a comprehensive approach was implemented.  The new approach began with ramping up the recruitment process, and included the radio program as a tool to reach out to the community. The objective was to have the program at the same time, and same day of the week to train the listeners to tune in for job information.

JobSearchbegan on February 7, 2007.  Since then, in one example of effectiveness, both the Adult and Youth Corrections Department has had double digit improvements in filling vacancies. JobSearchairs every Tuesday at 8:00 am, and is anywhere from 20 minutes to half an hour depending on openings.