The city of San Antonio has streamlined its recruitment process and significantly reduced the length of time and cost involved with hiring employees.

Within the San Antonio Office of Management & Budget, an Innovation Group was tasked with streamlining the recruitment process in response to the primary complaint of executives in the city: it took much too long to fill a vacant position – ranging anywhere from two to nine months. During its initial review, the group encountered many obstacles, including little documentation of the process and, as such, no baseline or resources for hiring managers; a lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities; and no single group or department “owned” the entire process.

The San Antonio's Office of Management & Budget Innovation Group's process is documented in the case study “Faster, Better, Cheaper,” which reports that by applying “LEAN methodology, implementing alternative recruitment methods, and fully implementing existing technology, the city of San Antonio can now identify and hire the best candidate 75% faster and at almost half the cost.” Read the four-page case study for an in-depth look at the methodology employed to achieve these comprehensive and sustainable results.

In addition to this case study, the city of San Antonio has published an article discussing more ways the Office of Innovation has made an impact on the city’s budget. “Asking the Right Questions with the Right People: Successful Process Improvement in San Antonio,” is available on the Alliance’s website.

“Faster, Better, Cheaper” is just one of 93 case studies available on the Knowledge Network, each originally submitted for the Alliance for Innovation's 2013 Transforming Local Government Conference. Released this month in partnership with the Alliance, these documents are readily accessible and searchable by topic. Take advantage of this exclusive member benefit and learn from the challenges and successes other local governments have experienced.