The Mississippi State Personnel Board is the human resources management agency for state government. MSPB is charged by the Legislature to administer Mississippi’s personnel administration system.  In other words, MSPB’s goal is to equip state agencies with the tools they need to achieve their missions through their employees. 

According to state law (Miss. Code Ann. § 25-9-103), MSPB's role in state government is:

• To competitively recruit, hire, and promote employees on the basis of their knowledge and skills, not their political connections. (This is called a merit system.)
• To provide equitable and adequate compensation for employees.
• To offer training for employees. 
• To administer a performance review system. 
• To assure fair treatment of applicants and employees without regard to political affiliation, race, national origin, sex, religious creed, age or disability. 
• To assure that employees are free from coercion for political purposes.
• To establish job classifications to be used by state agencies. 

One common misconception is that MSPB’s role is to tell state agencies who to hire and fire, and who should be awarded or denied pay increases. However, specific personnel decisions are made by each agency.   

Learn more about MSPB’s history and its role in state government today.