Official website of the
City of Vancouver, Washington

Human Resources Home page

Greetings from City of Vancouver Human Resources

Vancouver's Human Resources Department provides consulting and support services for the City and its diverse workforce.  We are responsible for managing the legal, compliance, equal employment opportunity and workforce diversity efforts through a variety of programs.

The City of Vancouver has a population of more than 145,000 and our workforce includes more than 1,700 individuals working in regular, seasonal and temporary positions.  We interact with a total of 11 labor unions and a variety of benefit and service vendors as we 'take care of the people who take care of Vancouver'.  Our service areas within the Human Resources department include: employment (recruitment, selection and retention), policy development and administration, training and development, employee benefit programs, job classification and compensation, labor union and employee relations, compliance with labor and civil rights laws, unemployment insurance and employee records management. 

Our Department Mission Statement

To provide customer-driven, service-oriented services which respond to the organization's need for a diverse, well-qualified workforce.  Our guiding standards as a member of the Support Services team affirm that, in all that we do, we will strive to be Accurate, Consistent, Credible, and Helpful. Our goal is to ensure that the City of Vancouver is an Employer of Choice in the Region.

Our Employee & Labor Relations Philosophy

The City of Vancouver endeavors to create and maintain effective working relationships with our labor unions. In partnership, our goal is to create a workplace that allows the organization to meet its stated goals and our employees to be successful.

Our managers and supervisors have the responsibility to establish and maintain a climate of mutual respect and open communications with individual employees. The City of Vancouver and its employees can derive the greatest benefit from this type of employment relationship.  We believe that a relationship is most effective when it is allowed to directly function between employer and employee.  For those employees currently represented by a union, the City is committed to working cooperatively with union personnel to achieve our common goals.

The Human Resources (HR) department has the overall responsibility for managing the labor relations activity of the City.  This includes the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, the development and communication of City employment policies, and the on-going administration of employee relations and labor-management issues. Together with the employees and labor partners, we work together to achieve collaborative and effective labor relations.