Hiring systems are in transition in Minnesota. Managers are still dependent on a lot of paper, sending out printed job bulletins and transmitting applications by mail. But the state is moving toward better use of automation and new employee-selection techniques. Many agencies have done their own work-force planning, but more centralized effort is needed. That isn't easy in Minnesota, where agencies' insistence on autonomy can hamper statewide management efforts.
Training is good and there are interesting experiments at measuring and rewarding performance.
The administration used hundreds of citizen advisory groups to help shape the document. The Big Plan sets direction for individual department plans, now required for the first time in Minnesota government. More than in many other states, these agency plans are clearly tied into the entity-wide effort. If they don't fit, they get rewritten. The Department of Revenue, for example, spent some of last fall revising its plan to better reflect the governor's initiatives.