Human Resources & Risk Management
420 South Imperial Ave
Imperial, CA 92251
Office: (760) 355-3807
Fax: (760) 355-4314
Human Resources Manager Kristen Smith
Kristen Weekes Smith joined the City of Imperial as the Human Resources Manager on October 31, 2022. Born and raised in Imperial County, Kristen brings over fifteen years’ experience in public sector, with over ten years’ experience in Human Resources. She excels at program development, process improvement, recruitment and staffing, and employee relations. She is passionate about helping others and providing service to the team. Kristen holds a Master of Public Administration with an emphasis in Human Resources Management from National University, and is a certified SHRM-SCP professional. Kristen enjoys activities that provide opportunity for leadership and growth and giving back to the community.
Recruiting and hiring new employees, as well as managing the employee onboarding process. This includes developing job descriptions, posting open positions, screening applications, conducting interviews, and making hiring decisions. Ensuring that the City's hiring practices are fair and objective is essential for creating a high-performing workforce.
Providing training and development opportunities for employees. This includes both mandatory training, such as on workplace safety and voluntary training, such as on new skills or technologies, helping to improve the City’s workforce productivity and efficiency.
Developing and administering the City's compensation and benefits programs. This includes setting salaries, determining benefits eligibility, processing benefit claims and providing a variety of benefits that employees value.
Handling employee relations matters, such as resolving disputes, investigating complaints, and enforcing workplace policies quickly and fairly to help create a positive and productive work environment.
Developing and implementing risk management programs to identify, assess, control, and monitor risk to the City’s capital and earnings. This includes protecting the organization from financial losses by identifying opportunities for improvement and growth, helping to improve the organization's efficiency and productivity.
Ensuring that the City complies with all applicable employment laws and regulations to protect the organization from legal liability, helping to ensure that the organization is operating in a fair and ethical manner while building trust with leadership, employees and the community.
Personnel Policy development to ensure that the City is operating in a consistent and predictable manner, guiding decision-making, reducing the risk of mistakes, and creating a culture of compliance.
