A Focus on Our Workforce
As we came out of the pandemic, like many organizations, Johnson County Government was experiencing significant pressures on our workforce. Our turnover and vacancy rates remained higher compared to pre-pandemic years. In a time of historically low unemployment, fewer people were applying for open positions, and many parts of the organization, including those areas that rely on front line workers to provide direct support, were feeling significant pressure.
In 2023, the BOCC made it a priority to invest in and support a forward, thinking, diverse and high performing workforce, and the investment has paid off for the benefit of the community we serve as well as our organization.
Before we shed light on what we did, it is important to note that we achieved very positive results! In 2023, our turnover rate was 11.6% compared to 16.01% in 2022. In the first half of 2023 we had an average of 16 applicants per open position, but the end of 2023 that number was up to 40.4.
Lighting the Way by…
…studying the market and adjusting salaries accordingly
A comprehensive salary and benefits study, presented to the BOCC in February 2023, revealed most of the county’s jobs were paying below market, and our salary structure was below market by and average of 6.1%. The BOCC started taking swift yet strategic action to address this, beginning with the areas of the organization that needed relief the most.
Human Resources conducted an organization-wide compensation analysis to determine the sharpest pain points. Based on that analysis, in April, the BOCC approved pay adjustments for targeted positions including correctional officers and supervisors, case management supervisors and direct support providers. They allocated more than $1.6 million for 2023 salaries that was paid for by vacancy savings, department savings and reserves.
In June, we addressed the rest of the organization, with the BOCC approving the modification to pay tables and market pay adjustments totaling more than $7.6 million to get the organization’s salaries more aligned with the market.
With the August approval of the county manager’s proposed 2024 budget, the Board fully funded implementation of the salary and benefit study ($18.9 million), the MED-ACT step plan ($2.6 million) and transitioned the Sheriff’s Office step plan to on-going funding ($13.2 million). The budget also included a 5% pool for market and merit increases for most regular employees.
…doing more to promote our career opportunities
Much progress was made in 2023 to ensure our open positions were reaching as many people in as many different areas as possible. We increased the amount of job fairs we attended, put more resources towards posting jobs on social media and online job boards, and reached out to passive candidates who had not yet applied for a position, but we identified as a potential good match. We made a concerted effort to reach diverse, hard-to-reach populations such as veterans or people from different backgrounds.
…launching a new and improved job application portal
In 2023, we introduced a new application system to make it easier for candidates to apply for positions. The new system dramatically decreased the time it takes to apply for a job from 35 minutes to three minutes. The new portal provides applicants with technical prompts and even sends text messages to remind them to complete their applications if they leave the system before the last step.
…always reinforcing our benefits and our culture
We have such a strong culture as a High Performing Organization that our work in this area was recently featured in a nationally-renown magazine for city and county managers called Public Management. Throughout the year our own Human Resources training and development team provided more than 5,000 training opportunities to our workforce. This is in addition to the 575 employees who took advantage of educational workshop or training powered by our Voices of Inclusion, Belonging and Equity initiative.
New in 2023, after a hiatus of more than a decade, we once again participated in the Kansas City Corporate Challenge. More than 300 employees representing nearly all of our departments competed, and we updated our wellness program so coordinators and competitors could earn wellness points along with their medals.
Also in 2023, the BOCC adopted the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (more commonly known as KPERS) Deferred Retirement Option Program. This allows Kansas Police and Fire members who are eligible for full retirement to earn their salaries and retirement benefits at the same time through a deferral plan. By providing this incentive to eligible staff, it allows the county to potentially retain experienced staff a bit longer, so they are available to guide and mentor less experienced staff before they retire.
Did You Know?
- Vacancy rate decreased from 452 open positions at the beginning of 2023 to 264 at the end of December 2023.
- Nearly 70% employees earned the wellness incentive while over 91% earned the tobacco incentive.
- 73 employees received educational reimbursement assistance for both degree and non-degree seeking programs.