Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Cities work to get, keep employees
Region’s municipalities face private sector competition
Come pay a water bill, leave with a job offer.
Cities in Northwest Arkansas have had difficulty finding people to work for them. The “great resignation” associated with the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 has a lingering impact. Cities are trying to keep up staffing levels so services don’t suffer.
The unemployment rate for the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metropolitan area is 2.4%, below the national average of 3.8%.
Private companies tend to pay more than cities to do the same jobs. Cities tout their benefit packages as superior to those offered in the private market.
Most of the open positions listed online for Northwest Arkansas cities are blue-collar jobs, such as maintenance workers, certified drivers, police officers and firefighters. Human resources staff say those jobs are the most difficult to fill for cities because of demand on the private side.
People’s idea of what makes a good job changed during the pandemic, said Christine Baker-Smith and Mike Bartlett with the National League of Cities, a national advocacy organization that specializes in municipal policies. Baker-Smith is director of research at the league’s Center for Research and Data. Bartlett is the group’s program director for post-secondary and workforce success.
The private sector was able to replenish its workforce faster than the public sector, Bartlett said. Public sector jobs tend to have higher requirements than those in the private sector and the process to hire someone generally takes longer, he said.
Having better benefits than private sector jobs doesn’t go as far as it used to, Baker-Smith said. In addition to pay, people generally care more about flexible hours and child care options, she said.
Cities can partner with schools to set up an apprenticeship program that enables high school students to earn money and experience, the pair said. People coming out of the criminal justice
system often want to work and are good workers, and cities can provide them jobs. People with disabilities often just need a little support to be productive workers. Cities also can emphasize skills needed in job listings, rather than filling descriptions with jargon.
Employers across the country are figuring out employees have more leverage post-pandemic, Bartlett said. The federal government recently put out guidance on what a “good job” means across different professions. The guidance places emphasis on empowerment, representation, job security, working conditions, organizational culture and skills advancement, in addition to pay and benefits.
“The days of just putting a job posting out there and great candidates walking through the door are over,” Bartlett said.
AN INTENTIONAL APPROACH
Fayetteville started hosting job fairs at City Hall in August. Twice a month, representatives of different departments set up tables and hand out information about open job positions to people coming in to pay water bills or do other business. Tracy Shepard, senior Human Resources generalist for the city, said the effort has proven successful.
“We like to sell our benefits,” Shepard said. “You can go to any job fair or you can go to any job, but you probably won’t find a great retirement plan like ours.”
Recruiting and retention is a challenge for every employer, public or private, but the pandemic exacerbated those challenges, said Missy Cole, Fayetteville’s Human Resources director. The pandemic changed the nature of where and how people want to work, she said.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recognizes the “great resignation” that took place during the pandemic. A record-setting number of people quit their jobs in a short time span. Mandates to return to the office, attractive job offers from competing employers and a desire for a better work-life balance all contributed to the movement, according to a study cited by the bureau.
Staff have made a concerted effort to tout the benefits of working for the city on social media and at job fairs throughout the region, Cole said. The city also has developed partnerships with the Fayetteville Public Library, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and other entities to offer certification opportunities for some positions, she said.
The city does salary surveys every year. Uniformed personnel receive raises in odd-numbered years and nonuniformed personnel get raises in even years. The pay increases are based on what comparable regional cities pay their employees and take into account what private companies pay, Cole said.
City administrators try to avoid creating compression, which is when there is little difference in what employees earn among various experience and skill levels. That means starting pay can’t be too high and maximum earnings can’t be too low.
The Fayetteville City Council recently approved a pair of contracts with temp agencies to fill vacant driver positions in its recycling and trash division. The city regularly contracts with temp agencies to fill certain positions anyway, but the two new contracts will help hire drivers specifically, Cole said. The city announced in September some households would have to go without curbside recycling pickup some weeks because of a lack of certified drivers on the payroll.
The region’s low unemployment rate poses a challenge in hiring, Cole said. More people have been applying for jobs in the last few months compared to the last few years, so perhaps the trend is changing, she said.
“We’ve just got to make sure we’re out there, that we’re an employer people are aware of, that they know what our total compensation package looks like, and really highlight our benefits,” Cole said. “That does separate us from the private sector, especially when you look at retirement.”
Springdale also has seen more applications come through recently compared to last year and 2021, said Colby Fulfer, chief of staff to Mayor Doug Sprouse. The city adjusted post-pandemic to increase wages and benefits and is closing the gap with private markets, Fulfer said.
Fulfer said he suspected the federal government injecting massive amounts of cash into the economy during the pandemic contributed to a reduced workforce and rising inflation. Employers, cities included, had to drive up wages to keep up with the inflated economy, he said.
The point of a local government is to return services to its residents, Fulfer said. A reduced workforce means reduced services, he said.
“This is why we’ve been very intentional to be proactive in raising our compensation and benefits,” he said. “When we saw the federal government injecting money in early 2020, we knew what we would be facing in 2021 to 2023. The steps we took in 2020 allowed us to mitigate the hiring issues many places are facing today.”
CREATING A DRAW
Thomas Dunlap, the city of Rogers’ Human Resources director, said today is the most difficult hiring market he’s seen in more than 20 years of working in municipal government. He said the city posts job listings, but he’s not sure there’s anyone available on the receiving end.
Some positions that have no private market competition get filled easily enough, such as library positions, Dunlap said. But when it comes to truck drivers, maintenance workers and parks ground crews, some positions have stayed open for years, he said.
“In my mind, it’s because there is so much construction around this area, and they can get a job so easily at a higher hourly rate,” Dunlap said. “Contractors can offer them a lot more up front because they don’t have the type of benefits we have. If we can get people and convince them of our benefits and the security they’ll have, we tend to keep them for a long time.”
The pandemic unsettled the job market, Dunlap said. He estimated a solid one-third of any workforce is looking for other opportunities. The city has tried to appeal to specific groups of people when listing open positions, such as establishing a website just for police recruiting. The problem is, most of the people the city is seeking already have jobs, he said.
The other wrinkle is housing, Dunlap said. The city gets lots of applications from people living in Fort Smith, Tulsa, Joplin, Little Rock and Dallas. Even if a candidate is qualified, there’s no guarantee the person will be able to find an affordable home in the city or region, he said.
“Every time I see an apartment complex go up, I do a little fist bump — I don’t care what city it’s in. Those structures are where our workers are going to live,” Dunlap said. “Not everyone’s going to be a homeowner. It’s not how a normally functioning market works.”
Most of the openings in Bentonville are in utility areas, such as electric linemen and technical systems operators, service coordinators and distribution operators in water utilities, said Debbie Griffin, chief of staff to Mayor Stephanie Orman. The city recruits people through local job fairs, the city’s website and social media, she said.
“It is a tight job market, but our city benefits are a draw as we offer insurance and also a state retirement plan,” she said.
Fort Smith has had difficulty filling some positions, such as certified drivers, civil engineers and Information Technology staff, said Rick Lolley, chief Human Resources officer. However, the city has had success in some other areas, he said.
The city has had a presence at job fairs, contracted with temp agencies and posted open positions on online job boards and social media, Lolley said. Social media advertisements are targeted to specific geographical areas, he said.
“Through various social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, we highlight job openings and our excellent benefits package to bolster our recruitment efforts,” Lolley said.
“Additionally, we have a social media series in which we highlight newly hired employees by asking them why they chose to work for the city of Fort Smith.”