UTICA, N.Y. — Oneida County is looking to fill empty positions within the county utilizing a state program, Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. announced.
The program is the Hiring Emergency Limited Placement (HELP) program, implemented by the New York State Department of Civil Service, Municipal Services Division. It is designed to help local governments and other agencies facing challenges in filling positions due to the tight labor market, competition with private-sector employers, and lists of eligible candidates that have been exhausted.
“Like all local governments and other employers across the state and country, Oneida County has many vacancies and is struggling to find people to fill them,” Picente said in a news release. “By receiving approval from New York state to waive the civil service test requirement, we are gaining access to more candidates and can hire them faster. As more types of positions are added to this list, I am hopeful that we will be able to reinforce our workforce and service to our residents.”
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Job titles included in the program have the civil–service exam requirement suspended for one year. Those hired through the HELP program would gain competitive status at the end of the program year without having to further test. At the completion of the program, civil–service exams for the approved titles resume as normal.
On April 29, the state approved the county’s request to add case managers, caseworkers, caseworker assistants, probation assistants, probation officer 1, probation officer 1 trainee, public health technician 1, public–safety telecommunicators, social workers, code enforcement officers (village and town positions), and code–enforcement officer trainees (village and town positions).
Oneida County can hire candidates for these positions through the HELP program until April 28, 2025. Open positions are listed on ocgov.net/departments/civil-service/.
The state recently announced an expanded version of the program called NYHELPS that will qualify even more types of positions, and Oneida County is actively working to get approval to hire for more job titles.
