GEORGETOWN — Williamson County employees soon will see some changes to benefits, grievances and personal property in their policy manual.
The Williamson County Commissioners Court approved the updates presented by Chief People Officer Allen Frederick during Tuesday’s court session.
Frederick told commissioners many of the revisions to the employee manual concerned wording and clarity, but some benefit changes made earlier this year affected workers on leave without renumeration.
“We’ll pay their benefits and continue to pay those to keep them,” Frederick said Oct. 29. “We’re just requiring that when they go into a leave without pay status (for whatever reason), they work with our benefits department to keep their payments up.”
The employee grievance policy was also updated to reflect that department heads or appointed officials are ultimately responsible for making the call to investigate and settle grievances.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey asked, “What’s (human resource’s) role in this?”
“It depends on the department and the type of grievance,” Frederick said, noting his department is asked to be part of the process if the complaint is against a department head or official. “Then HR volunteers to help in the matter to make sure that it’s being properly addressed.”
Frederick noted a new addition to the employee manual covers personal property. The county has recently had instances in which employees who left their jobs requested the return of personal items left in the office.
“We can’t be responsible for that. We don’t know if they truly left it or if it’s nowhere to be found,” Frederick said. “We just ask that employees keep up with their personal property.”
The next Commissioners Court will be 9:30 a.m. Oct. 6 at the Williamson County Administration building, 1848 Texas Trail.
Sessions can also be streamed online at https://www. wilcotx.gov/331/ Commissioners-Court.
