Human Resources Director Patricia updated the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners on Nov. 6 about staffing, wellness programming, safety and labor negotiations.

Patricia said HR and risk teams have consolidated into the Government Services Building and described key staff roles, including Mikayla Moreno (assistant HR manager/risk manager) and others handling leave processing, benefits and records. She emphasized a renewed focus on employee wellness and preventive care to reduce leave and worker-compensation costs.

Patricia told the board the county has a new employee assistance program (EAP) provider, Canopy, and said the county is "looking at almost a 7% engagement" with the new provider while noting prior utilization figures; she described the EAP's broad services, including mental-health counseling, legal help and pet insurance. Patricia reported roughly 15% of the county workforce was on some form of leave of absence and estimated about half of those employees were using Paid Leave Oregon benefits.

Other topics included recruiting improvements (increased applicant volumes and more re-hires), risk-management work that helped secure a workers' compensation dividend, defensive-driver training, and updated OSHA training and safety inspections at the new building. Patricia also described quarterly safety newsletters, leadership-training adjustments, and plans for several bargaining-unit contract negotiations in 2026 (AFSCME, YC DDA and juvenile detention workers).

Quote: "Human resources is here to take care of the human folks that work for the county," Patricia said. "In order for those folks to be able to do what they need to do on a daily basis, we need to be able to support our employees."