Company Profile
Minnesota Department of Human Services
Company Overview
The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) helps provide essential services to Minnesota's most vulnerable residents. Working with many others, including counties, tribes and nonprofits, DHS helps ensure that Minnesota seniors, people with disabilities, children and others meet their basic needs and have the opportunity to reach their full potential.
While the vast majority of human services in Minnesota are provided by our partners, DHS (at the direction of the governor and Legislature) sets policies and directs the payments for many of the services delivered. As the largest state agency, DHS administers about one-third of the state budget.
As a steward of a significant amount of public dollars, DHS takes very seriously our responsibility to provide Minnesotans with high value in terms of both the quality and cost of services.
Our largest financial responsibility is to provide health care coverage for low-income Minnesotans. We are also responsible for securing economic assistance for struggling families, providing food support, overseeing child protection and child welfare services, enforcing child support, and providing services for people with mental illness, chemical dependency, or physical or developmental disabilities.
Through our licensing services, we ensure that certain minimum standards of care are met in private and public settings for children and vulnerable adults. DHS also provides direct service through our regional offices for people who are deaf or hard of hearing; through DHS Direct Care and Treatment, which provides direct care to people with disabilities; and through the Minnesota Sex Offender Program.
Company History
Known as the "welfare agency" since its beginning in the mid-1800s when the first state hospital opened in St. Peter, Minnesota, the department's focus always has been on helping people make transitions and overcome obstacles in their lives.
In 1868, the department began working with Minnesota's county employees to create what is now the state's county-based social services system. Today, employees in the department's central office in St. Paul work closely with employees from Minnesota's 87 counties who provide most of the direct services to Minnesotans.
Since the late 1800s, DHS has always served Minnesotans in need. From its beginning as the state Board of Correction and Charities in 1883, which evolved into the state Board of Control in 1901, the Minnesota Department of Social Security in 1939, the Department of Public Welfare in 1953, and finally to the Department of Human Services in 1983, it is here to help people make transitions in their lives and live as independently as possible.
Benefits
We offer a variety of benefits to meet the needs of a diverse group of employees:
• Generous paid vacation leave starting at 13 days a year, which rolls over and continues accruing each year.
• 13 days of paid sick leave a year, which rolls over and continues accruing each year.
• Many other types of paid and unpaid leaves of absence, including educational and parental leave, prorated vacation, and sick leave.
• Comprehensive, low-cost health and dental insurance, with affordable family and dependent coverage.
• Life insurance
• Disability insurance (short and long-term)
• Deferred compensation plan
• Medical savings account
• Prepaid medical and dental expense accounts
• Prepaid child care expense account
• State retirement plan
• Credit union member affiliation
• Full-time, part-time, permanent and temporary job openings
• Opportunities for promotions, transfers and mobility assignments
• Flexible work hours and a compressed work week option
• Fully equipped nursing mothers' room
• Telecommuting program
• Competitive salaries and benefits
• Continuing education opportunities