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Photo Credit: Adobe Stock
Von Howard has been thinking outside the box.
Last year, Fort Lauderdale embarked on numerous infrastructure projects within the city, a necessary course of action considering the growing amount of flash floods and rising sea levels that have wreaked havoc throughout downtown and its surrounding area. The projects, which include stormwater and drainage upgrades and water treatment facility renovations, plan to impact 25 neighborhoods and have been estimated to cost around $700 million over the next decade.
Howard, an administrative supervisor for public works, knows how valuable his department is in these plans. He also knows how difficult it is to ensure they have the right people leading and collaborating on them. With a majority of employees nearing retirement (and close to 100 open roles that need filling), he’s worried about the dearth of public works and municipal workers ready to take the baton and keep crucial projects on schedule.
“When they leave, there’s nobody there to replace them, or there’s a lack of interest,” Howard says. “Experience is one thing, but sometimes you might need that extended operating procedure where there’s a playbook for the next person.”
How is he trying to solve this? Along with their own recruiting methods, partnering with the chamber of commerce, and attending job fairs, the city has started implementing apprentice programs throughout the Broward County school system, targeting students who don’t have specific career ambitions but want to engage in something productive. “We’re trying to establish our own school of public works, so to speak,” Howard says. “Maybe that does inspire some more people to engage.”
It’s just one step Fort Lauderdale is taking to address what’s become a pressure point for the vast majority of cities across the country. Thanks to post-pandemic structural changes to the nature of work and an increasing number of sexagenarians retiring or moving to the private sector, municipal governments are struggling to attract and retain young talent. Only eight percent of government employees are under the age of 30. According to a survey by the Missions Square Institute, applications for state and local jobs dropped 32 percent between 2019 and 2021, with many municipal employees citing poor salaries, burnout, and poor work-life balance as reasons for changing jobs.
To halt these trends, local government officials and human resources departments have started examining the recruitment process and experimenting with new outreach and engagement methods. Competing with private sector pay, benefits, and remote opportunities is challenging these days, but many cities are challenged to cater to a new generation and rethink what municipal work can look like.
One way HR departments are adapting? Overall outreach. In addition to building out and investing in apprenticeship programs, Howard notes Fort Lauderdale and its strategic communications team have created hype videos—including snapshots of wastewater plants and employees in the field—to post on social media and share with high school and trade school students, highlighting the public works opportunities available to them. At on-site visits, city team members then hand out brochures that list the requirements and types of training needed, so they can plan accordingly. “We’re getting that traction when we see these young people face to face,” Howard says.
Salt Lake City has been taking a similar approach. According to Jennifer Jeppson, a Salt Lake recruitment program manager, the city’s Department of Public Services has been communicating with trade schools (like Salt Lake Community College) to get students interested in taking positions such as plumbers, electricians, and HVAC specialists, roles that have been difficult to hire. The city then offers to pay student apprentices working to get their certifications and acquire their journeyman license. “They’ll work for us, and then once they get that [license], the hope would be that they complete their apprenticeship and we can offer them a full-time, permanent position,” Jeppson says.
Jeppson also notes her department’s strategy to underfill roles they’re looking to hire. When searching for an airport worker with three years of experience, she explains, the specific job listing will include less-experienced tiers for the same role. “That way, we’re able to place whatever applicants we get with varying experience into the level they qualify for by using one job ad,” she says. The city has also modified its job requirement language, which now includes expanded offerings for education. “Nearly all of our job descriptions in the city now say ‘bachelor’s degree or the equivalent number of years of experience can be substituted,’ and that’s opened up our pool of applicants immensely,” Jeppson adds.
In states like North Dakota, it can be trickier. The state and local government have to sell not only the municipal work but the location itself, especially to college students who might be interested in leaving for greener or more lucrative pastures. As one countermeasure, the state has enacted North Dakota Career Builders, a scholarship and loan repayment program that pairs employer funding and state funding for students once they start working in-state. “The student has to agree to live and work in the state for three years after they graduate—and so there is buy-in from the employer and the student,” says Katie Ralston Howe, director of the state’s Workforce Development Division. “It’s helping to kind of play matchmaker between students, employers, and communities, and has been a great tool for us.”
Still, one of the main obstacles facing HR departments as they look to attract municipal workers is government work’s perception. According to Stacey Richardson, chief of staff for the National League of Cities, “many people—especially younger people—see the hyper-partisan rhetoric happening at the state and federal level becoming increasingly localized, and think public service is not a worthwhile endeavor,” she told Tennessee Town and Country. “They may feel like they can make more of a difference in the private sector—either for a non-profit or mission- driven for-profit organization.”
As Howe notes, it’s tough to compete with the private sector’s higher salaries and increasing benefits packages, but there are still creative ways to maneuver around that. Though most cities won’t be able to match private sector salaries, Salt Lake has been working to put together a total rewards or compensation calculator with its IT team. “Salt Lake City pays 95% of medical premiums, and that’s huge—you don’t see that often in the private sector,” Jeppson says. “It’s a big benefit to our employees but they don’t always see that, because people tend to focus on the exact dollar amount they make rather than the whole picture of what their employer is paying for.”
The need for a transparent, consistent message is also critical in branding local government as an efficient, positive force. Howard is aware that many people, especially in his South Florida community, don’t think of municipalities as helpful or potentially life-saving entities, too often bogged down by red tape. He hopes his department and others can help tell a more cohesive narrative about why the trucks and construction stationed throughout neighborhoods rebuilding infrastructure are time-consuming, but vital to the city’s future. “You may not like it right now, but in another year and a half, the flooding you had on this particular date two years ago won’t occur like that,” he says. “We have to kind of spin it in that manner to show that the story is being written.”
There are plenty of other ways to engage with the community, retain top talent, and make municipal jobs more attractive opportunities. As a variety of cities are already doing and advocating, it’s crucial to leverage social media and meet candidates where they spend most of their time, provide ongoing training and mentorship that provide better pipelines to higher-level and leadership jobs, and build inclusive and positive work cultures that allow for employee recognition in city-wide newsletters and media. “People like to see their names in the lights for a minute,” said Howard.
Howe agrees, but adds an important point. Because municipalities are using tax-payer dollars, “you have to be able to track the impact and gather as much data as you can related to that investment because it’s your responsibility to the public,” she says. That’s why providing testimonials and gathering real stories to explain the impact of government work is just as important. “When it comes to filling jobs and attracting the talent that you need, you do need to take some calculated risks,” Howe says. “Having champions who can support the work that you’re doing and can talk about the impact you’re making is huge.”
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