Winning in a competitive workforce environment

The “great resignation,” or the “big quit,” saw more than 50 million people quit their jobs in 2022 for a variety of reasons, but among the leading ones were wages, child care issues, limited opportunities for career advancement, lack of benefits and inadequate flexibility, Heminover said. 

Additionally, the abovementioned silver tsunami is translating into the possibility of losing large swathes of people with deep institutional knowledge. On top of that, between 2000 and 2019, participation in the workforce among 16- to 24-year-olds dropped 10%, attributed to more of that age group pursuing education than employment, according to a 2021 Pew Research Center report. 

Simultaneously, we have four generations of employees working together now (i.e., baby boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z). Each has different motivations, skill sets and communication styles, introducing various challenges for employers trying to retain and/or recruit them. 

It is important to understand those differences, though, since identifying what is important to each generation gives an organization the opportunity to have a great workplace, Heminover said. 

Because recruiting leadership positions has become increasingly competitive, many organizations outsource the hiring to recruiting firms.  

If an organization has the budget, the benefits are obvious. Recruiting firms have the experience of proactively recruiting candidates using their large databases/networks of candidates with relevant skills. They can offer a more comprehensive hiring process while absorbing responsibility for finding a replacement if their initial candidate does not work out within a certain amount of time.  

Not every organization can afford that service, though, and instead uses internal resources to pursue new employees.  

If an organization chooses to go that path, there are a few steps it can take to improve its hiring process, regardless of the position, Heminover said.  

First, the organization should simplify its job application. According to a survey from CareerBuilder, 60% of potential employees have quit completing a job application because it was too long or complex. Organizations can increase completion rates by reducing the length of the process to five minutes.  

The second step should be to review the minimum qualifications on the job listing. Sometimes, organizations use the same listing year after year without revising the qualifications to remove anything outdated or unnecessary. 

The third step is to be receptive to applicants with transferable skills who may not have municipal experience. If an organization feels someone will fit well within its ranks, but doesn’t have exactly the right skills, they can offer training to bridge the gap.  

That said, when advertising a position, an organization should amplify its brand, ensure its website is current and provide information in such a way as to appeal to all generations of potential candidates. It should use social media like LinkedIn for outreach in addition to its own employees as referral sources. 

Most importantly, the organization should stay current on compensation and benefits trends and other talent retention solutions​ if it wants to be competitive. 

When an organization needs to fill a role, it typically has a few options: look to a competing organization, look outside the public sector or hire within the department. These aren’t bad options, but certain things have to align for them to happen.  

With the first option, there has to be a good fit at the competition who is willing to make a move, but the organization will have to offer a better compensation package. For the second, the organization will have to provide training while understanding it will take time to bring that person up to speed on the position as well as the differences between the corporate and government worlds. The third option relies on having the right person with enough experience to replace the outgoing employee. In certain departments, especially smaller ones, that is not always a possibility. 

For some organizations, the key is to consider less traditional options. That may mean hiring back retiring employees as part-time contractors.  

It could also be hiring short-term interim replacements who are contracted for specific functions (e.g., bank reconciliations, budget preparation, monthly reporting and employee mentoring), Hart said. When the work is limited to functions that require certain processes, experienced contractors don’t need training, so organizations see immediate returns at a lower cost while bridging the gap between off-boarding an employee and on-boarding a replacement.  

Strategic workforce planning may help organizations avoid these hiring issues altogether since it doesn’t just look at succession planning for leadership roles but also at roles across the organization’s workforce, LeMay said. 

For the process to work, the organization must ascertain which positions are critical to maintaining operations. It can then identify high-potential employees throughout the organization who can be evaluated for skills and abilities gaps. Using that information, the organization can target them for training and development. Based on their progress throughout the years, the organization should eventually have an internal pool of candidates to pull from before having to look externally. 

While it may not work for every vacancy, LeMay said this type of planning offers organizations an intentional way to dedicate their limited time and resources to build the skills they need in their workforce to preserve business continuity. 

Once implemented, organizations should see several benefits, including: 

• Alignment of staff planning with strategic goals and priorities 
• Meaningful training and development opportunities for employees 
• Foresight to addressing future staffing shortages before they become issues 
• Identification of gaps between future job requirements and available workforce 
• Proactive, targeted recruitment efforts and increased employee retention 

Strategic workforce planning allows organizations to analyze and determine potential vacancies within the next five years, using data to look for potential retirements and areas of high turnover. It can help assess whether an organization’s workforce possesses the necessary skills and abilities. If it finds gaps, it can prioritize where the organization should be spending its training dollars to ensure the best return.