County mulls more staff working remotely

EL CENTRO – Responding to difficulties recruiting for specialized jobs, Imperial County is considering a pilot program to allow certain workers to work remotely.

The matter is on the agenda for today’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

The “pilot telecommuting” program was engineered and designed to attract and retain certain specialties of the workforce, said Gilbert Rebollar, country public information officer. If approved, the program would run through Nov. 30, 2022.

Eligible positions include social workers, therapists/counselors/ psychologists, information technology, non-supervisory attorneys, public works engineers and physicians/psychiatrists.

“This program can make it possible to recruit from a larger talent pool of those who may have not previously considered relocating to the Imperial Valley,” Rebollar explained.

“With certain specialized positions being difficult to fill regardless of location, this program can now make it possible to recruit individuals to hire for positions that were once nearly impossible to fill,” he added.

The program also provides an opportunity to save costs on supply overhead, energy and space for personnel usage. Cost savings will be evaluated during this trial period, he added.

Asked if there are any increased security concerns with potentially more employees working from home, Rebollar added, “Although cyber security is a major concern and focus of the county, we do not believe there to be any security issues due to the safeguards and practices of our IT Department.”

Remote connections are severely limited and require multiple factor authentication, he explained. These are some of the security practices and, to date, the county has not had an incident regarding telecommuting.