STATE OF LOUISIANA

DEPARTMENT OF STATE CIVIL SERVICE

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA

 

General Circular No. 001447

To: Heads of State Agencies and Human Resource Directors

Subject: New HR Handbook to Replace State Personnel Manual

Issue Date: August 13, 2001

We are happy to announce that, as part of the Ascend 2020 initiative, we have begun replacing the State Personnel Manual. We are replacing it with the HR Handbook, the first Sections of which are now on the HRinfo! website.

The HR Handbook is intended to be a single unified source document for Human Resource professionals. It will be your guide for complying with Civil Service Rules. It will incorporate information from General Circulars, Precedent Letters, and other sources so that you can have one updated, easy access, easy-to-read reference to Civil Service regulations and procedures.

The HR Handbook is a guide for following the Civil Service Rules—not a substitute for reading them. Some Rules or parts of Rules may not be mentioned in the HR Handbook, but you are still required to know and comply with them.

Like everything else in HRinfo!, the HR Handbook is not confidential. Some of the information in the HR Handbook may also be available on our public website. However, HRinfo! has information that is aimed specifically at people who work in Human Resources. Each Human Resource Department may decide which staff members need access to the HR Handbook or other HRinfo! Information and distribute passwords accordingly.

We cannot replace the entire Manual at once, so we are going Part by Part.

The following Parts are outdated and should be removed immediately (per Transmittal Sheet No. 375).

Part 3 Guides for Determining Nature and Scope of Agency Personnel Programs

Part 11 Records and Reports

Part 12 Service Ratings

Part 13 Layoff Avoidance Measures, Layoffs, & Employment Rights after Layoff

(Part 13 should already have been removed, per Transmittal Sheet # 374.)

Part 15 Turnover Controls

Part 16 Employee Orientation

Part 19 In-Service Placement

Please keep the other Parts until we tell you to remove them.

We do not plan to replace Parts 3, 15, 16, and 19 at this time.

Part 11 "Records and Reports" has been replaced with "Documentation and Reporting Requirements for Personnel and Position Actions," which is already in the HR Handbook. If you need a hard copy of this Section, contact Cheryl Venable at 225-219-9437 or cvenable@dscs.state.la.us.

Part 12 "Service Ratings" is outdated and should be removed. Updated information and job aids are available as part of the HR Handbook as well as on our public website at www.dscs.state.la.us. If you need hard copies of this information, please contact Teresa Persick at 225-342-8274 or email her at tpersick@dscs.state.la.us.

Part 13 "Layoff Avoidance Measures, Layoffs, and Employment Rights after Layoff" has been replaced with "Layoff Avoidance Measures, Layoffs, and Post Layoffs," which is now in the HR Handbook. If you need a hard copy of this section, contact Pam Capell at 225-342-8274 or pcapell@dscs.state.la.us. If you have Microsoft Word, she can e-mail you a copy.

Part 18 "Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Program" will be eventually replaced with "Guidelines for Preparing Affirmative Action Plans." A draft version of the new Guidelines is now in the HR Handbook. These new guidelines will go into effect in January, 2002. All Affirmative Action Plans submitted after January 1, 2002 will be required to follow the new guidelines. Agencies submitting plans prior to January 1, 2002 may choose to follow the new guidelines or the old Part 18 of the State Personnel Manual. If you need a paper copy of the new AAP Guidelines, please contact Cheryl Venable at 225-219-9437, or, for a copy in Microsoft Word, please e-mail her at cvenable@dscs.state.la.us. Please do not remove Part 18 until we publish the final version of the Guidelines in the HR Handbook.

You will find a link in the HR Handbook that will let you e-mail your comments to us Please take advantage of this link if you have any suggestions, comments, compliments, or complaints. We welcome your input on how we can make the new HR Handbook best serve the needs of the Human Resources community.

If you do not have access to the HRinfo! website, please contact the webmaster on our website (www.dscs.state.la.us) or e-mail Jackie Ferguson at jferguson@dscs.state.la.us.

Sincerely,

 

 

Allen H. Reynolds

Director