New data shows that King County continues to make progress towards its goal of a County workforce that truly reflects the communities we serve.

Since 2016, King County has had the stated goal of ensuring its workforce is racially diverse and culturally responsive at all levels of the organization, consistent with the region’s demographics, with a particular focus on positions within the top 20 percent of pay.

“King County is rapidly changing,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said. “More people are choosing to live and work here because of everything this region has to offer. Having a county workforce that is truly reflective of the racial diversity of the communities we serve – particularly in leadership and management positions – is critical in helping us understand the needs of those residing here, but also how we can best meet those needs.”

King County has almost doubled in size over the last 50 years and has become much more diverse. The needs of our residents have also changed, as has the way they want to interact with their county government. In order to provide equitable, high-quality services to all residents, we need to truly represent the racial diversity of the residents we serve at all levels of our organization.

The County monitors demographic data to track how representative we are in relationship to the diversity of our region, and for some time, King County’s total workforce has largely tracked the racial diversity of the communities we serve. However, similar to other large employers, racial diversity has been underrepresented in higher-paid positions.  

As we set out to do in our 2016 Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan, new data shows King County has made progress in increasing the diversity among higher-paid positions:

• Since 2016, the racial diversity of employees within the top 20% of pay by department has increased, with employees identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color rising from approximately 29% to 41%.
• The percentage of executive branch department directors identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color has jumped from 11% to 60%.

Note: the “Not Specified” group may contain various demographics.

These advances are the result of thoughtful and intentional efforts and a multi-pronged strategy across county government to be more deliberate in how we recruit and develop employees. And they come at a time when many long-serving employees began retiring and leaving county employment, opening new recruitment and advancement opportunities; in fact, almost one-quarter of current King County employees started their careers since the beginning of the pandemic.

King County saw this period of transition as an opportunity to not only attract new staff to county positions, but also to develop existing staff, by expanding opportunities for mentoring, learning and development, leadership training, and special duty assignments.

Recruiters also built networks to allow for broader outreach to people of color and worked to remove obstacles and make the recruitment process more inclusive and welcoming. The county launched a centralized marketing campaign to expand recruiting efforts across the region using billboards, local and streaming radio, and working more closely with community partners at job fairs, all aimed at building stronger recruiting connections in the community. Continuing to align department recruiting efforts with best practices rooted in equity and supported by data is a priority for 2025. 

Since 2012, employees serving on interview panels have taken a video training called Countering Bias in Hiring before the start of candidate interviews to minimize the effects of bias in hiring. The Department of Human Resources (DHR) is currently developing an updated Anti-bias in Recruiting training for all staff involved with hiring to launch in 2025. A centralized training was also developed for recruiters to standardize the use of hiring systems more effectively and embed equitable recruitment best practices.

The County also recognized the importance of offering a welcoming, inclusive workplace culture for all employees and launched Employee Affinity Groups to build community, and a True North and values to define the type of organization we are and strive to be.

A required training called We Are Racially Just: Our King County Values at Work was launched in 2023. It has helped build a more inclusive work culture, with almost 14,500 employees completing the training, or 81.5% of our workforce. Several other Equity, Racial and Social Justice (ERSJ) trainings have been attended by thousands of employees.

The County’s Nondiscrimination, Anti-Harassment, and Inappropriate Conduct Policy was updated in 2021 to set clear expectations for behavior in the workplace, and mandatory training on the policy for Executive branch employees was launched in 2022. Existing county policies continue to be updated to ensure they are reflective of our ERSJ goals.

DHR continues to develop new ERSJ-focused workshops such as the latest ERSJ Fundamentals: Planting Seeds of Belonging, which was beta-tested in December and will launch in February 2025. And a 35-minute eLearning Equality and Equity: Building an Inclusive Future for All in King County, launched in August 2024, was created in response to requests from employees attending other ERSJ workshops.   

The county is also centering racial equity in performance appraisals by embedding the True North and values, including equity and racial justice, in a new performance appraisal tool. Some departments already include ERSJ competencies in performance evaluations, and a pilot is underway in two departments to create alignment and a culture of feedback for the organizations participating in the pilot. 

While advances have been made in some demographic groups, others remain underrepresented in higher pay ranges, particularly among Hispanic/Latinx and Asian & Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander employees.

“We have made improvements, but we know we have more work to do to become a truly representative and racially diverse employer,” said Monisha Harrell, Director of the Office of Equity, Racial and Social Justice. “What we’ve learned is that by being intentional and strategic, we can deliver positive results. Our goal now is to continue to innovate, to try new things, to be intentional, and do what we need to do to continue to advance our equity, racial, and social justice goals.”