As the CEO and leader of your organization, one of your largest responsibilities is building and developing your staff. The needs and desires of the workforce are constantly changing, and local governments across the state have been struggling to fill positions at every level.
The Recruiting for the Future session at the 2015 MLGMA Summer Workshop was an opportunity to share ideas from a manager, state administrator, private sector professional, university, and student perspective on what managers can do differently to recruit talent. The panel was comprised of April Lynch, Ferndale city manager; Heather Seyfarth, senior advisor OHM; Brittney Hoszkiw, Michigan Main Street Center organization specialist; Dr. Jennifer James-Mesloh, MPA program director, Northern Michigan University; and MPA student representatives: Chloe MacBeth, Cindy Paparelli, and Ryan Poupore.
Here are a few quick take-aways from the panel:
- Tell your story. Emerging professionals are looking for jobs that fit their passions and allow them to make a difference. Our panelists, particularly the students, emphasized the need for a connection to a mission or set of values in deciding where to work. Basically, job advertisements that only list a set of tasks or required skills are no longer effective in attracting a talented person to apply. Instead, focus language on what makes your community and organization unique and share guiding principles. Tell your story. You should also think through how the position can (and will) impact the organization and community and make that clear in the posting. What is the total package offered by your community and why should someone come work with you?
- Be flexible and creative. As managers, too often our initial reaction is to simply replace the person who left with someone as close to them as possible. If you can afford the time to develop a less experienced, but talented, individual, do not be too rigid with the previous experience requirements and recognize transferrable skills. Find opportunities based on the various skills in your applicants and employees. Be willing to change titles, job descriptions, and culture in order to encourage and develop talent in your organization
- Think differently about creating a diverse, inclusive workplace. Many organizations are focusing on long-term planning to increase diversity in the office. Ferndale is starting a program to recruit and train future police officers at the high school level in order to have a police force that reflects the diversity of the community. For more information about this program, contact April Lynch alynch@ferndalemi.gov. OHM is an organization of engineers, architects, and planners, which, like local government management, are male-dominated fields. Recognizing this, OHM has a program to develop leadership ability for female staff members. Programs like these make organizations more attractive and accessible place to all applicants.
- Pay attention to the way the private and nonprofit sectors are addressing organizational culture and employee appreciation. Crain’s Detroit Business publishes a annual listing of the cool places to work, decided on by a survey of employees, which reflects the organization’s flexibility and diversity, and programs and amenities to show appreciation for employees. Not everything applies to local governments, but you can get some great ideas and inspiration from what the competition is doing. In a lot of cases, it is more about the culture of the organization than the hard, tangible benefits. Having a reputation as being a “cool” place to work, especially one that allows employees to grow and develop their skills, can do a lot of your recruiting work for you.
- Leverage community involvement and recognize potential. Take a close look at your election workers, board members, and other volunteers to see if they could be recruited for employment with your organization. Your volunteers already are passionate about and dedicated to the community and could be a great addition to your staff. Also, continue to offer and expand volunteer opportunities in your communities! Many emerging professionals are looking for rewarding experiences and it could be a way to get them interested in local government as a career.
- Rethink your internships. Opportunities for students to break into local government are limited – even more so than in the past. A survey of Michigan-based MPA students we conducted for this session showed that 70 percent had full-time jobs while in school. They are not going to leave a paid job for an unpaid internship, but they might be able to work on a project-specific internship much in the same way you would use an outside consultant. Northern Michigan University has moved to a format similar to this model. If you have projects for these MPA students, please contact Dr. Jennifer James-Mesloh at jjamesme@nmu.edu.
- Want to get new talent off to a good start? Use the buddy system. We heard from OHM Advisors about how they assign a “work buddy” to all new employees to make sure they have someone other than a supervisor interacting with the new employee regularly. It also gives the new employee a resource for asking questions and making introductions to other employees.
This is not a full list of the information shared during the session, but we hope to continue the discussion moving forward to identify innovative ways in which local governments can recruit and retain new talent. Interested in participating in these discussions? Please contact either of us.
Jessica Reed, Program Coordinator, Michigan Municipal League
Christian Wuerth, Village Manager, Village of Milford