Summit County officials have taken a modern approach to hiring as the nationwide labor shortage continues.
The Great Resignation doesn’t seem to be happening locally like in other parts of the country, but the summer slowdown paired with Utah’s ranking as a state with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, high housing costs in the Park City area and the lingering coronavirus pandemic have made it challenging to fill vacancies at the County Courthouse, according to Summit County Manager Tom Fisher.
“I don’t know that Summit County has started to experience [the Great Resignation] yet. It’s still a great place to work, it’s still a great community to be involved in. We are certainly seeing the pressures of land prices affect people being able to live here – that’s probably our longer-term problem,” he said.
There were 15 open positions on the county government’s job board as of Monday, which is just a handful more than in January. While some of the positions, including deputy sheriff, victim services coordinator, corrections nurse and seasonal summer work were posted more than 30 days ago, other jobs like a building inspector, administrative assistant and deputy public works director have been listed for about a week.
“I’m not alarmed by the number of positions we have open. It runs very consistent to where we’re usually at, but my human resources director tells me that we continue to see less and less applications over time for some of these positions, which tracks with the tightness of the employee market everywhere,” Fisher said.
The county prioritizes hiring positions to provide basic services, such as those related to public safety. These types of positions include deputies, jail staffers and snowplow drivers. Fisher said it’s been particularly difficult for the county to hire and retain law enforcement dispatchers because of how challenging the duties can be. Staffers are considering new ways to improve and to attract candidates.
“We like to keep those positions filled,” he said.
There’s also an increased need for temporary help in the county’s special service districts during the summer, particularly for recreation or road maintenance. Fisher said there’s typically a lot of demand for seasonal work and applications continue to be received.
However, hiring in the summer tends to slow down because of differing schedules and more people taking vacations. Despite that, Fisher said, the county has an emphasis on recruitment year-round to help keep the ranks full.
The county utilizes platforms to reach candidates such as websites and advertisements, but Fisher said they also consider the process someone must go through to apply. Staffers strive for simplicity and try to contact a potential employee as soon as possible.
Over the past year, the county has also eliminated pre-employment drug testing outside of safety-sensitive positions to attract more workers.
“That, in our experience, we have seen cases where folks have self-eliminated out of processes because of that. So that’s a place where we have adjusted our policies,” he said.
Another change that’s helped recruit and retain employees is allowing for a hybrid work environment. Fisher said the new policy has been encouraging and the county’s experience during the coronavirus pandemic showed that people working remotely part-time or full-time are still productive. Now, most county employees can do their jobs from home if they choose.
Despite the short supply of workers and the amount of work that needs to be done, Fisher maintains that operations are running smoothly.“The workforce here at the county is continuing to reprioritize as the County Council looks at oncoming challenges. The perfect example is the emphasis to be working on the short-term rental issue within our community, so we’re going to fit it in,” he said.