Human Resources

Ottawa County Offers a Strong Benefits Package

Your benefit package will depend on your benefit status and employee group. You will discover the extensive selection Ottawa County has to offer during orientation.


  • For Your Health
    • Medical: We offer two medical plans through Priority Health for our benefitted-employees, including a high-deductible health plan. To help cover the cost of the deductible, Ottawa County will deposit a portion of the deductible into your Health Savings Account (HSA). You may also direct deposit funds into this account every pay period.
      View our medical plans, including the cost to the employee, here.
    • Dental: Our dental insurance provider is Delta Dental of Michigan. We offer both a basic and an enhanced plan.
    • Vision: EyeMed provides the vision insurance for Ottawa County. We offer both a basic and an enhanced plan.
    • Wellness: Ottawa County is committed to creating a culture of health. The Health Management Plan ensures that insurance rates remain affordable and that you and your family live a healthy lifestyle. We have workout facilities available at different locations for you and your spouse.
  • For Your Work/Life Balance
    • Vacation: Ottawa County provides a generous amount of vacation days to benefitted employees, so you can spend time with family and friends.
    • Holidays: The County is closed to the public for eight days a year to celebrate holidays. Beyond these eight days, as a benefitted employee, you will receive five floating holidays to use at your discretion.
    • Sick time: As a benefitted employee, you will be given sick time to use when you feel under the weather, or when you have an appointment with your doctor.
    • Laundry/Dry Cleaning service: A local dry cleaner picks up and drops off your dry cleaning at your work location.
    • Cell phone discount: Select retailers provide a discount on your cell phone plan.
    • Employee Assistance Program: The program can help with any life problem through counseling sessions or referrals. This is provided by a well-recognized third-party agency and remains confidential.
  • For Your Protection
    • Life Insurance: Benefitted employees automatically receive life insurance. Affordable dependent life insurance plans are also available to cover your family.
    • FMLA: We comply with federal regulations to allow you up to 12 weeks of time off when you have a serious health condition, or when you need to care for a family member with a serious health condition.
    • Wage Continuation: To help you through a time when you cannot work due to a disability, we offer short- and long-term disability coverage.
  • For Your Development
    • Talent Development: Your professional development is a priority to Ottawa County. Our talent development program fosters a culture of life-long learning and growth for every employee. Some courses offered are:
      • The Ottawa Way: Providing excellent customer service is a core value. This training will examine the values and vision for customer service at Ottawa County as well as explore practical skills for providing excellent customer service within the public sector.
      • Continuous Improvement - The Toyota Kata Method: Using scientific thinking methodology, learners gain a fundamental knowledge of the Improvement Kata approach and how it supports the County’s Creativity initiative.
      • Emotional Intelligence: Experts have shown that Emotional Intelligence is critical to success in the workplace. Participants in this interactive class will explore the general concept of emotional intelligence, as well as their own strengths and development areas within the categories of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.
      • And many more! IT trainings are also available on an on-demand basis to excel at your use of technology.
    • Tuition Reimbursement: Take advantage of Ottawa County’s tuition reimbursement program so you can further your education. Through this program, you may be reimbursed for courses taken at any accredited college or university.
    • Public Student Loan Forgiveness: Ottawa County is a qualified employer for this Federal program. Click here for more information or to see if you might qualify.
  • For Your Future
    • Retirement: A defined-contribution plan is available through MERS, and we will match 100% of your contributions, up to 6% of your salary.
    • 457 Plan: This optional plan is available, and we will match a portion of your contributions.


NOTE: All information on this page is summary information. Consult your Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), Benefits Manual, or the County Policies for more information. Should there be an error or omission in this summary, the CBA, Benefits Manual, and/or County Policies will always govern. The benefits above may be a cost to the employee. The benefits may be pro-rated for part-time employees.