Today’s Morning Buzz is by Caitlin Lewis, executive director of Work for America in Brooklyn, New York. Connect with Caitlin on LinkedIn.
- What I’m watching: “The Black Rabbit” (so far – 4/10)
- A hobby I enjoy: Trail running
The average time to hire in local government is 130 days. That’s over four months of unfilled classrooms, understaffed emergency services, and burnt-out employees. When you compare that to 36 days in the private sector, it’s no wonder that half the candidates drop out before the finish line.
The cities of St. Louis and San Francisco saw these patterns, and decided that enough was enough. By modernizing their hiring systems and centering people in the process, these cities took steps to prove that governments can hire faster, smarter, and better; and the results are already transforming how these cities serve their residents.
St. Louis: From Red Tape to Results
Picture these as elements of your hiring process today: typewritten forms, physical mail, and a system that crashed if more than eight people logged in, all leading to critical vacancies going unfilled and a nearly year-long hiring process. Until recently, that was the case for the City of St. Louis.
Previous efforts to modernize the hiring process and improve the system had gotten mired in bureaucracy and resistance to change. Enter Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellow Krizia Lopez. Instead of leading with tech, she started with listening; Krizia sat side-by-side with representatives of every city department and mapped out the 96 steps of the hiring process (yes, 96). Once that process was complete, no one could deny the truth: The system was broken and needed reform.
While St. Louis identified many internal and external reasons that hiring was broken, they focused first on the pieces in their control: the operations behind the hiring process. With a cross-departmental team, clear roles, and hands-on training, St. Louis moved from its outdated system to its first modern Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
The impact:
- Hiring four times faster, filling jobs in two to three months instead of up to a year.
- More jobs filled: 881 positions in one year, versus previous averages of 510.
- $250K+ saved annually, thanks to eliminating paper and postage.
Not only did this hiring modernization project save taxpayer dollars and fill roles efficiently, but the City of St. Louis team grew from the inside out. HR clerks moved up into recruiter roles, leaders leaned on real data, and staff took pride in a system that actually worked. St. Louis didn’t just uptake a new software, they changed their culture of hiring.
San Francisco: Turning a Contract Renewal Into Real Reform
San Francisco’s challenge was a little different: Their ATS contract was expiring. Instead of rubber-stamping the old system, they seized the moment to rethink hiring from the ground up.
Like St. Louis, San Francisco started by listening to understand the current process and the pain points within it. The Department of Human Resources kicked off the Hiring Modernization Project with workshops across their HR staff, hiring managers, and other city workers involved in hiring. Pain points poured in: endless email chains, clunky scheduling, and inconsistent candidate communication. Until then, no one had seen the full, cross-functional hiring journey, and each team only worked within their own piece of it.
The team tested small fixes first, including self-scheduling for interviews, visual candidate timelines, and clearer cross-team communications. Next, they redefined procurement itself; rather than dictating features, the city asked vendors to deliver outcomes, cultivating a faster, fairer, more transparent candidate experience.
In the end, San Francisco selected a new partner for their ATS system, one that didn’t traditionally work with local governments. Early data showed that with the newly designed tool, SF achieved:
- Nearly 50% increase in applicants for vacant city positions.
- Almost a 30% decrease in the vacancy rate of roles in SF.
- Measurable time savings for HR staff.
- A permanent Hiring Modernization Team built to keep improvements going.
San Francisco proved that through understanding the pain points, buying into a modernized hiring system, and dedicating a permanent team to ensure functional improvements continued, they could build a hiring process ready not just for today’s workforce, but for continued growth into the future.
What Other Cities Can Learn
St. Louis uncovered 96 steps in their hiring process. San Francisco uncovered disconnects no one had ever seen. Hiring modernization doesn’t require perfect conditions, but it requires leaders who are willing to start small, listen deeply, and put people first.
Governments can take these first steps to modernize their hiring systems by:
- Starting small: Whether it’s one unused tool or one broken process, small wins unlock greater change.
- Dedicate leadership: Progress doesn’t happen without intention.
- Prioritize culture: Sometimes the hardest changes aren’t technical, they’re human.
- Celebrate progress: Every step forward matters.
At the end of the day, this isn’t just about HR; it’s about delivering for communities. Every vacancy filled means a teacher in a classroom, a firefighter on call, or a planner shaping safer streets. Faster, more human hiring means stronger public services and stronger trust in government.
St. Louis and San Francisco show what’s possible. Now it’s time for more cities to follow their lead, because when government puts people at the center of hiring, everybody wins.