Florida struggles to hire state workers who are overworked, underpaid
TALLAHASSEE — Amid a national worker shortage, state agencies are struggling to fill vacant positions and retain employees, including those who care for some of Florida’s most vulnerable citizens.
Many employees are leaving state government jobs because they’re overworked and underpaid, according to a recent presentation to a Senate committee.
A flood of better-paying positions in the private sector that have opened up following widespread shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic has compounded hiring problems, officials from several state agencies told the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee on Wednesday.
Applicants responding to state-government job advertisements dropped by nearly 35% over the past three years, while the number of job postings increased by 7%, Department of Management Services Secretary J. Todd Inman said.
The state is receiving 11.6 applications on average for each job posting, compared with an average of 37 applications per advertisement in September 2020, Inman said.
Meanwhile, searches for employees continue to skyrocket, with advertisements for state jobs jumping by more than 62% over the past six months, Inman said.
The secretary said his agency, which handles many human-resources issues for the state, is among the departments scrambling to fill vacant posts.
“I know we are trying everything we can . ... We are recruiting actively on LinkedIn. We’re trying to make referrals within our own people and agencies. But we’re trying to use every tool in our toolbox,” he told the panel.
Florida has the country’s leanest state employee workforce, with a ratio of 85 full-time employees for every 10,000 residents
Among the agencies being hit hardest are those that care for the state’s most-dangerous or vulnerable people.
The Agency for Persons with Disabilities has vacancy rates between 20% and 46% at its four facilities in North Florida, Rose Salinas, the agency’s deputy director for budget and planning, told the Senate panel.
The agency has been forced to sign contracts with private companies as it struggles to hire and retain direct-care workers, Salinas said. Wages are the main problem, but job retention and recruitment have become even more challenging as demands on existing employees balloon.
As an example, Salinas said that, before the pandemic, the agency’s Sunland Center in Marianna had 15 vacant positions. As of Friday, the facility had 131 vacancies, she said.
Direct-care employees working for the state make about $14 per hour, but the agency is paying between $47 and $67 an hour to private contractors to fill vacant slots, Salinas said.
“We’re offering the job for $14 an hour and yet we’re paying potentially $65 an hour, so they’re probably making $40, $45 an hour?” committee Chairman Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, asked.
Salinas said she did not know how much the contractors are paying employees but that nurse assistants in hospitals generally earn at least $16 per hour.
The Department of Children and Families is experiencing similar challenges, agency Secretary
Shevaun Harris told the Senate committee.
Front-line jobs at the agency are “some of the hardest jobs in state government,” she said.
“So it may not be hard to fathom why, coming out of the pandemic as most industries are having recruitment challenges, we’ve seen increased vacancies and turnover and a shortage of qualified or willing candidates for many of our critical class positions,” Harris said.
The pandemic also has increased the workload for DCF employees, Harris explained.
“As you can imagine, declining workforce numbers combined with an increase in workload only exacerbates the turnover rate. I want to assure you that enhancing recruitment and retention strategies is at the forefront of our strategic plan,” she said.