Recruiting, Hiring and Retention

**Eden Prairie police officers**

Recruiting, Hiring and Retention actions focus on strategies for diversifying the City's workforce and fostering an inclusive workplace.

The City of Eden Prairie has always valued and desired a diverse workforce, and fostered an inclusive workplace aligned with the City's values — collaboration, innovation, integrity, performance and relationships. There is now a more intentional effort in the area of recruitment to increase accessibility and flexibility to younger and diverse populations. New interview tools, updated job postings and staff interview training have been implemented with this effort in mind.

A newly expanded area of the City's website launched in 2023 is intended to help attract a wider range of applicants, and new ways for getting that information to the intended audience are being explored. In addition, updated recruitment videos have been launched or are in the works to demonstrate a variety of diversity in roles, career paths and backgrounds to potential candidates.

To recruit more diverse officers, the Police Department is partnering with neighboring agencies to launch a new cadet program that includes tuition assistance and paid learning opportunities to attract more diverse candidates.

The strategies underway are described in four areas of recommendations which are outlined in the Race Equity Report:

#1 | Strengthen recruiting and hiring practices to attract a more diverse workforce.

Activity/Goal	Measurement	Department	Timeline
Implement diversity, equity and inclusion interview questions to ask candidates at each stage of the interview process	Completion	Administration	Completed January 2023
Incorporate virtual interviews to increase accessibility and flexibility to diverse populations	Completion	Administration	Completed January 2023
Increase and build upon partnerships to establish a diverse pipeline of candidates	Attract, hire and retain people of color	Administration	End of 2023
Increase recruitment of diverse CERT team applicants	Number of applicants of color	Fire	Ongoing
Increase diversity of candidate pool for Duty Crew		Fire	Ongoing
Partner with neighboring agencies to launch new cadet program including tuition assistance and paid learning opportunities to attract more diverse candidates	Implementation	Police	Start recruitment summer 2023, launch program early 2024
Increased engagement with students of color at high school career fairs, offering senior internships and job shadow opportunities	Frequency of interaction with students of color reflects student population	Public Works	Ongoing

#2 | Build upon efforts to enhance, sustain and foster an inclusive work environment to retain a diverse workforce.

Activity/Goal	Measurement	Department	Timeline
Film Citywide employee recruitment video that demonstrates a variety of diversity in roles, career paths and backgrounds to potential candidates	Completion	Administration	Completed March 2023
Incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion values to be more prominent in the Employee Handbook, position profiles and the City website	Completion	Administration	End of 2023

#3 | Enhance professional development opportunities and performance management processes to support and strengthen a more diverse workforce.

Activity/Goal	Measurement	Department	Timeline
Implement diversity, equity and inclusion interview training for all hiring managers and employees who participate in the hiring process	Completion	Administration	Completed March 2023

#4 | Improve data collection, reporting and strategic use of data to support the recruitment, hiring and retention of a more diverse workforce.

Activity/Goal	Measurement	Department	Timeline
Determine and implement diversity, equity and inclusion metrics	Completion	Administration	Completed January 2023

Race Equity Implementation Progress