California executive branch

The California executive branch consists of elected officers and other offices and officers. The elected executive officers are:

Total number of employees is 227,536 excluding California State Universities. In 2004, there were 4,462 job classifications, many of which had no employees occupying the position, as a workaround for certain hiring practices. As part of a civil service reform initiative beginning in 2013, 700 job titles were eliminated.

The California Department of Human Resources primarily oversees the state's civil service system, with some additional functions handled by the California State Personnel Board.

In 1979, then-Governor Jerry Brown requested a report on the State's personnel system from the Little Hoover Commission, an independent government oversight agency, which resulted in several recommendations of which some were implemented, including the creation of the Department of Personnel Administration but other recommendations such as the dissolution of the California State Personnel Board were not. In the 1980s, a recommendation to decentralize hiring to departments was implemented.

In 2012, California Department of Human Resources was created by combining the functions the former Department of Personnel Administration (DPA) with most of the operations of the State Personnel Board, largely implementing recommendations by experts in the prior decades.

In 2012, the California Government Operations Agency was created under Governor Jerry Brown. Its director, Marybel Batjer, launched an initiative of civil service reform intended to make state employment more attractive to talented employees relative to the private sector.

In 2015, the first engagement survey of state employees was conducted using a sample of 5,000. The survey showed that employees largely believed that their work was important, but did not strongly believe that workers were held accountable or that they received proper recognition for good work.

In 2016, the state rolled out a new hiring website, for the first time allowing for electronic job applications for state jobs. Unusually, it was programmed by state employees rather than an external contractor.