County considers options for employee recruitment, retention

As Marathon County looks for ways to recruit and retain more employees, county officials are considering everything from offering more paid days off to establishing a four-day work week for some workers.

Molly Adzic, director of human resources, spoke to the Human Resources, Finance and Property Committee last week Tuesday about the county’s ongoing efforts to attract new workers and hold onto existing ones who tend to leave their jobs much sooner than in the past.

Adzic said close to 40 percent of the county’s employees have been working for the county for three years or less, so the goal is to get as many of them as possible to stay long-term to avoid a high turnover rate and loss of “institutional knowledge.”

“If we don’t get them to stay over that mark, we are more likely to lose them,” she said.

At the same time, with the state’s unemployment rate under 3 percent and inflation driving people to seek higher pay, she said there’s extra pressure on the county to compete for workers.

Despite these challenges, Adzic said the county has recently managed to fill most open positions, dropping its job vacancy rate down to 6 percent – the lowest in over a year. Resignations have also “gone down significantly,” she said.

“Our numbers really are looking very good, but that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down,” she said.

To continue attracting workers, she said the county has increased its presence at local job fairs, reached out to potential employees on social media and created a new website, joinmarathoncounty. com to advertise job openings. The county also started posting its available positions on the popular job-seeking website, Indeed. com, which is where 44 percent of this year’s applications have come from, she said.

Adzic noted that the new payroll structure adopted by the board last year, based on a compensation study, resulted in the average county employee’s wage going up 5 percent.

“That was a big leap for us,” she said. “That certainly helped us become more competitive in the market, but it can’t stop there.”

For both recruiting and retaining employees, Adzic supports a “total rewards strategy,” which focuses on more than just pay rates and includes both “traditional and non-traditional benefits,” along with flexibility and opportunities for education.

Besides health insurance, the county has introduced a new “wellness portal” that gives employees access to exercise videos, fitness trackers and free, 24/7 telehealth providers who can diagnose illnesses and prescribe medications. The county also offers a discount program for county employees, providing them with reduced rates on vacation packages, air flights and rental cars.

Flexibility is also a key factor in retaining employees, she said, with 52 percent of U.S. workers considering it to be the most important factor when choosing a job or career. More employers are experimenting with fourday work weeks, she said, and those employers are reporting increased productivity, better morale and more teamwork.

County administrator Lance Leonhard said shorter work weeks are starting to take hold in Wisconsin’s public sector, with Price and Chippewa counties allowing some of their employees to work 4.5 days per week.

“The idea of a four-day work week, in terms of hours of operation open to the public, is certainly something that is being discussed, and some government entities are moving in that direction,” he said.

Supervisor John Robinson wondered what could be done for jailers and highway workers, who aren’t necessarily able to work a shortened week due to the nature of their jobs.

Adzic said offering shifts with a variable number of hours is one way to increase flexibility, but a shortage of workers in any given department makes that difficult.

“There are absolutely ways to be flexible and staff a 24/7 operation with shorter work weeks,” she said. “You just need more employees, and more employees means less overtime and higher morale.”

Adzic said paid time-off is another factor to consider. She noted that Marathon County is “slightly behind,” offering nine paid holidays compared to 10 to 13 in most other counties.

Lastly, she said education and training is a big deal for employees, with 94 percent of workers saying they are more likely to stay at their job if their employer invests in their professional development. She said the county offers a tuition reimbursement program, but it hasn’t been updated in awhile. The average annual cost of an undergraduate program is $15,000, but the maximum reimbursement is $1,500, she noted.

After hearing from Adzic, the committee directed county staff to come up with recommendations for improving the county’s employment practices.

“Certainly there are some things we can do differently,” Leonhard said. “They all contribute to this idea that employees have some level of autonomy, and it looks differently in each of our departments.”