Riverside County officials to examine ways to improve recruitment, retention of employees
Riverside County officials plan to search for ways to boost retention among county employees in several departments that struggle to keep their offices fully staffed.
The county's commitment to boost employee retention rates, as well as recruitment efforts, follows a report from Riverside County Supervisors V. Manuel Perez and Kevin Jeffries that found a countywide vacancy rate of more than 20% and an employee turnover rate of more than 12%, with some departments losing more than 30% of their staff annually.
"At the same time, recruitments repeatedly fail to find qualified candidates, and the lengthy process causes many candidates to take other jobs before receiving an offer from Riverside County," the report states.
Riverside County CEO Jeff Van Wagenen noted during county’s Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday that the trend is playing out nationwide with Americans leaving their jobs at a record pace in recent months.
“We're seeing more folks decide to retire early, or to change careers entirely, for a variety of reasons,” Van Wagenen told the board. “Riverside County government is no exception to that.”
“We are seeing higher than usual numbers of folks in the last few years of their career in the county, and those in the beginning few years with the county, leave county employment to go do something else, and so that causes us challenges both with experienced individuals leaving, but also with the next generation of county employees leaving,” he added.
Despite the vacancies, Van Wagenen said Riverside County has more employees today — roughly 20,500 — than at any time in the past decade. But with U.S. Census figures showing the county’s population growing at a steady rate, up 10.4% from 2010 to 2010, the demand for county services “continues to increase,” Van Wagenen said.
While the retention rate is linked to nationwide trends, Perez and Jeffries highlighted several findings in their report specific to Riverside County.
For example, over 70% of county residents over the age of 25 lack a college degree, “yet many/most job listings either require a degree outright, or strongly suggest a degree is mandatory, with a very complicated explanation of experience that may qualify in lieu of a degree,” the report states.
Jeffries said the issue involves “a bunch of little things that need to improve,” noting concern from some department leaders that some applicants are lost due to pre-screening technologies that rely on exact key words to vet qualified applicants.
The issue is also more pronounced in certain departments, with Jeffries noting a 30% annual turnover rate in the county's Department of Public Social Services, which has been under past scrutiny for its handling of child abuse cases.
“It's significant, and it's serious, and a lot of the departments that are front and forward-facing with the public are really struggling to maintain their ranks," Jeffries said.
The report, which the supervisors approved unanimously during Tuesday’s meeting, asks the county executive office to work with department leaders and human resources officials to evaluate the retention issues and return to the Board of Supervisors in 90 days with a preliminary report for possible further action.
“This is an issue specifically as it relates to county government — How can we attract and retain the best individuals? How can we develop a hiring and onboarding system that brings those folks on as quickly as possible and makes them feel at home and welcome? And then, how can we keep them so that they spend their career with me? So I think that's really the purpose,” Van Wagenen said.
Anyone with interest in applying for a Riverside County position can learn more about available job openings at the county's human resources web page, rc-hr.com.
Tom Coulter covers politics and can be reached at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: County officials to look at how to better recruit, retain employees
