This section lets the department hire necessary personnel and requires it to create and maintain several personnel management programs and policies, including evaluations, equal employment opportunity procedures, and employee information sharing.
Sec. 40.032. PERSONNEL. (a) The department may employ personnel necessary to administer the department's duties. (b) The department shall develop an intradepartmental career ladder program that addresses opportunities for mobility and advancement for employees within the department. The program shall require the intradepartmental posting of all positions concurrently with any public posting. (c) The department shall develop a system of annual performance evaluations based on measurable job tasks. All merit pay for department employees must be based on the system established under this subsection. (d) The department shall provide to the department's employees, as often as is necessary, information regarding their qualifications for office or employment under this chapter and their responsibilities under applicable laws relating to standards of conduct for state officers or employees. (e) The department shall prepare and maintain a written policy statement to ensure implementation of a program of equal employment opportunity under which all personnel transactions are made without regard to race, color, disability, sex, religion, age, or national origin. The policy statement must include: (1) personnel policies, including policies relating to recruitment, evaluation, selection, appointment, training, and promotion of personnel, that comply with Chapter 21, Labor Code; (2) a comprehensive analysis of the department's workforce that meets federal and state laws, rules, and regulations and instructions adopted under those laws, rules, and regulations; (3) procedures by which a determination can be made about the extent of underuse in the department's workforce of all persons for whom federal or state laws, rules, and regulations and instructions adopted under those laws, rules, and regulations encourage a more equitable balance; and (4) reasonable methods to appropriately address those areas of underuse. (f) The policy statement required under Subsection (e) shall: (1) be filed with the governor's office; (2) cover an annual period; (3) be updated at least annually; and (4) be reviewed by the Texas Workforce Commission civil rights division for compliance with Subsection (e)(1). (g) The governor's office shall develop and deliver a biennial report to the legislature based on the information submitted under Subsection (f). The report may be made separately or as a part of other biennial reports made to the legislature. Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 920, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995. Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1022, Sec. 13, eff. Sept. 1, 1997. Amended by: Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1 (S.B. 219), Sec. 4.190, eff. April 2, 2015.