Any public sector HR leader knows that the competition for top talent is fierce, and public sector employers need any edge they can get. That said, some contend that the government hiring process is antiquated, or that it takes too long to fill vacancies. And that can lead some very qualified and talented candidates to drop out and start looking somewhere else for their next opportunity.

Melissa Barker, vice president of practice development with Phoenix, Ariz-based recruitment firm The Duffy Group, recently joined the Public Eye podcast to talk about how making tweaks to the hiring process can help public sector employers address such issues.

Earlier this year, PSHRA® conducted a survey of more than 400 public sector HR professionals, in an effort to identify patterns and trends with regard to public sector organizations’ focus on employee well-being. Overall, our findings suggest that public sector employers are still very much focusing on employee mental health, but many workers—including those in HR—are still experiencing mental well-being issues, driven by workload, burnout, poor work/life balance and other factors.

PSHRA CEO Cara Woodson Welch recently joined the Public Eye podcast to discuss the survey, what the findings say to her, and what the results should say to public sector HR leaders.

Leeza Garber is a cybersecurity and privacy attorney. She teaches Internet Law, Privacy, and Cybersecurity at The Wharton School, and Information Privacy Law at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Leeza also owns her own executive education company, and consults on best practices for the implementation of AI, cybersecurity and privacy programs.

Leeza recently joined the Public Eye podcast to talk about cybersecurity in public sector agencies, and the critical role that the HR function plays in keeping public sector organizations safe from growing cyber threats.

Dr. Milton J. Perkins – known to many simply as Dr. P - is the senior vice president with ActOne Government Solutions, which designs and provides workforce solutions for private and public sector entities.

At ActOne, Dr. Perkins spearheads the delivery of people-centric solutions to a diverse range of clients, developing HR consulting content, research and implementation strategies. One of Dr. Perkins’ areas of expertise is diverse, equity and inclusion. Dr. P recently joined the Public Eye podcast to discuss how recent developments around DEI in the workplace are impacting the public sector.

Work for America recently introduced Civic Match, a platform designed to help displaced government workers find their next career opportunity at the state and local levels of government. Caitlin Lewis, executive director of Work for America, recently joined us on the Public Eye podcast to provide an overview of the Civic Match initiative, its origins, why it exists and why its so critical at this moment we’re in.

Andrea Cutler is the head of AAC Consulting Services, the HR and risk management consultancy that she has run in the Las Vegas area since retiring after a 30-plus year career in public sector HR.

And, as of Jan. 1, 2025, Andrea is also the current President of PSHRA®’s Executive Council, playing a crucial role in helping lead the Association and fulfill its mission.

Public Eye sat down for a Q&A with Andrea in early January, to get her insight—as a consultant and as PSHRA® President—on what she sees around the corner for public sector HR in 2025, and what sort of goals she has for PSHRA® as an organization over the next 12 months.

Michele Dempster, human resources director and character coordinator with the City of Owasso, Okla., recently joined Public Eye for a chat about the City's increased focus on mental well-being benefits for its 300 employees. In addition to sharing examples of how the mental health resources the City is offering is saving employees' lives, Michele filled us in on some of the mental health-related initiatives that she and the City's HR team are prioritizing in the year ahead.

Anni Evans, director of human resources with the Town of Bluffton in South Carolina, recently wrote an article on the Town’s recently implemented parental leave policy for the September/October edition of PSHRA’s Public Eye, the Association’s bi-monthly digital publication available only to PSHRA members.

On the heels of that article, Anni joined our Public Eye podcast to discuss that policy a bit further.

In July of this year, the Town of Bluffton received approval from the town council to offer paid parental leave to its 140-plus full-time employees. And Anni told us a little bit about why Bluffton wanted to offer paid parental leave to all of its new parents, the role that she and her HR team played in designing that leave policy, and the advice she would offer other agencies looking to do the same.