Louisville wants to get to the bottom of its job vacancy problem. Here's how

Louisville Metro Government will pay a consultant $150,000 to analyze its hiring process in hopes of helping the city combat its approximately 26% job vacancy rate, according to documents obtained by The Courier Journal through an open records request.

The vacancy rate includes the hundreds of open Louisville Metro Police positions, Deputy Mayor Dana Mayton said. Some positions have been vacant for several years and may need to be cut. Other jobs might have been posted under different titles, filled and had vacancies left on the books.

While the data may be inexact, the city's government's vacancy rate is still far from what Mayton would like it to be. Louisville's government employs about 5,800 people and is looking to hire hundreds more.

To improve "the talent acquisition and recruitment process," the city sought out a partnership with Deloitte, a consulting company that is contracted by the state. State procurement rules allowed Metro Government to use state contracts, Mayton said, which has "streamlined" this process.

Still, city government — not the state — is paying the $150,000 for Deloitte's services.

The city is struggling to compete with private companies for employees, Mayton said. She knows the length of the hiring process and pay are significant factors in this.

"Last February of 2023, it was taking us as long as 287 days on average to get someone hired," Mayton said. "Well, you're going to lose all your candidates in that process. Now we have it down to 89 days. That is still too long, in my opinion."

Louisville Metro Council President Markus Winkler said he knows from his experience in the private sector that if the hiring process doesn't move quickly, people move on.

"Our speed to hire is way too slow and we often hear from applicants who think they go long periods of time between steps in the process," he said. "In a highly competitive hiring environment, employers cannot afford to be slow to interview and make decisions."

The government is competing for highly sought-after employees, like nurses and engineers, Mayton said.

The base salary for a Metro engineer is $53,726 and can go up to over $90,000, according to the government's hiring website. Some available nursing positions for Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness have hourly rates ranging from $18.68 to $24.14. Others have negotiable salaries.

With the loss of defined benefit pension plans, it has been harder to compete with the private sector, Mayton said.

"While that didn't equalize it for everyone, it certainly was an incentive for people to work for government at a lower salary knowing you were going to have a robust pension," she said. "Those things are gone, so that does not give us the competitive edge that we once had."

The first step of Deloitte's 12-week plan will be an analysis of the current problems with recruitment and retention. This will include conversations with eight members of "city leadership and HR personnel" and meetings with staff hired within the last six months, according to the contract. It will also include documentation of the current vacancy rates. There will then be a "transformation workshop" followed by a "talent acquisition and transformation action plan."

A year from now, Mayton said she would love to see the vacancy rate "in the single digits."

"I want people to know that this is a great place to work," she said. "I made the choice to come here as did many of my colleagues."

But on Feb. 14, a former city employee filed a lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Government claiming wrongful termination under the Kentucky Whistleblower's Act. In the lawsuit, plaintiff Samantha Ricketts claimed to have been treated in "condescending" and "demeaning" ways in her job within the Mayor's Office.

Greenberg has pushed back against these assertions, calling Ricketts a "disgruntled former employee" and saying the allegations have "no legal merit." He also said Ricketts was offered another position in the government after she was laid off.

When asked if city officials are concerned whether the lawsuit might impact application rates to government jobs, communications director Scottie Ellis said they were focused on moving Louisville forward.

"We're taking every single second of every single day to focus on that work and for getting the job done and we're delivering results together," Ellis said. "We hope that other people see those results and accomplishments and join the team and be a part of the solution with us."

This talent attraction and retention analysis will not apply to appointed positions, like directors, Mayton said.

"I'm talking about people down in the agencies, whether it's engineers in public works or IT professionals — those sorts of folks out in the agencies," she said. "I don't think that this is going to have a very intensive focus on those higher-level appointed positions."

Some departments have been without a permanent leader for long stretches of time — like an executive director for the Parks and Recreation Department.

The government has been searching for a permanent parks department executive director for more than a year, even undergoing a national search and coming up empty. It is being led by interim executive director Ozzy Gibson, who is also the interim director of the Transit Authority of River City and will eventually become the permanent director of Louisville Metro Animal Services.

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"We are very committed to moving Louisville in a positive direction and finding leaders who have the right experience to drive these very important agencies that are essential to our city and our success," Ellis said. "If it takes a little bit more time to identify those leaders, we will do it. ... We want to make the right choice."

The work with Deloitte is set to commence within the next couple of weeks. The money to pay for its consulting services will come out of the Office of Management and Budget's $20.6 million budget.

To see the Louisville government's open positions, visit its job portal. Some listings have multiple open positions under one title, like the ones for police officers.

Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@courier-journal.com or at @ellie_mccrary on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville city jobs going unfilled; consultant to examine vacancies