One of the additional expenses in the 2020- 021 Budget is the implementation of an External Market Review.
As Chief Administrative Officer Geoff McKnight noted, the town is facing challenges when it comes to attracting and retaining employees.
The review looked at ways to deal with a shrinking and more complex labour market.
“We’re actually one of the largest employers in the municipality,” noted McKnight – but the town has been hit by global trends, including a multi-generational work force. “Those different generations have different aspirations,” and different requirements, he said.
A high turnover rate is one of the issues to be addressed – about 6.5 percent turn-over in full-time staff, 25 percent in part-time staff. “That’s a lot of turnover,” said McKnight. “That’s a lot of corporate knowledge and experience and ability we’ll be losing.”
The study develope a Talent Management Strategy, to help the municipality become an ‘employer of choice,’ looking at everything from salaries and benefits to the corporate culture. As a first step, a consultant identified a number of positions that were “below that market point” – resulting in a number of salary adjustments, upwards.
The upwards adjustments total $305,300 for a number of tax-funded positions, and $97,600 for user-pay positions.
The cost of the salary revisions will be split between the 2020 and 2021 budgets.
“Not a huge hit, but it is a new cost for us,” said McKnight, even with the increases spread over the next two years.
