Career Compass 104 - Workforce Trends You Can’t Ignore

Career Compass No. 104: Workforce Trends You Can’t Ignore

Six workforce trends are too big to ignore or resist. Local governments need to embrace these new realities and help their organizations adapt.

By Dr. Frank Benest | Nov 01, 202 3 ARTICLE

I am the assistant city manager of a large Midwestern city. In the post-pandemic, we are struggling to maintain services to the public much less respond to city council priorities. There is a lot of staff churn; many older, seasoned employees have retired; we have significant vacancies that are hard to fill; and our employees seem exhausted and less engaged. Due to these workforce challenges, we are dealing with customer service and productivity problems across all departments.

Our police and paramedic response times have worsened; we don’t have the staff to reopen our libraries full-time; and the processing of key development projects lag. To attract new employees, we have raised salaries, begun to offer hiring bonuses for certain hard-to-fill positions (police and engineers), and provide employee referral incentives. The better compensation, bonuses, and referral incentives haven’t made much of a dent in our vacancy rates…

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