CADILLAC â The COVID-19 pandemic presented quite a challenge for health agencies like District Health Department No. 10 related to staffing.
District Health Department No. 10 Human Resource Coordinator Julie Hilkowski said they saw many older employees leave or retire during the pandemic.
Factors like age, health concerns and the stress of working during the pandemic are some of the reasons why people were leaving, she said.
As a result, the health department has tried to replace those staff members. District Health Department No. 10 Health Officer Kevin Hughes said that has been a challenge as theyâve seen fewer applicants with less experience.
While there is still a challenge to find people, Hughes said things have been improving.
âWeâd like to think maybe weâve finally hit some stability both in retention, as well as the ability to bring new folks,â he said. âTime will probably tell if weâre going to be successful or not.â
Historically, the health department has been stable with its staffing numbers and retention, according to Hughes. He said employees would stay for a considerable amount of time, while around 30 new people would come on board during a normal year.
The pandemic seemed to disrupt the trend. Hughes said some people looked elsewhere for jobs with similar pay but fewer responsibilities.
Another factor couldâve been peopleâs distrust of the health department. Hughes said with some of the mandates they had to implement during the pandemic like facemasks and vaccines, that distrust grew amongst people.
This may have discouraged some from pursuing jobs at the health department. However, the attitude toward public health departments seems to be improving, Hughes said.
âThe pandemic, unfortunately, kind of expanded that number and so now our challenge is to get away from that, and I think we have made some pretty significant strides in trying to work on that and do that,â he said. â
âWe still have work to do and our challenge will be to continue to do that work, but I think weâre moving in the right direction at this point.â
One of the challenges the health department has faced is the number of people applying for jobs. Hughes said they used to see between 20 and 30 applicants for different positions, whereas now they may only see 10 to 15.
Hilkowski said one possible explanation is the population size of the generations following the baby boomers. She said with many baby boomers retiring, they donât have the same number of people in the next generation to take their place.
Another challenge is the work experience of applicants. Hughes said not a lot of people have the experience the health department is looking for.
This means they have to invest time and money into training those individuals in certain positions.
For example, Hughes said it takes about a year before their food inspectors can function in the field on their own and a few more years before they feel comfortable doing so.
When a staff member has to train a new employee, he said this also takes away time from their work responsibilities.
Hilkowski said some of the positions that have been more difficult to fill include school counselors, nurse practitioners, accountants and information technology technicians. While these positions do eventually get filled, it may take a little bit longer than the health department wants, she said.
While positions are waiting to be filled, other staff members have to step up and do extra work. Hughes said some of their programs have state requirements that have to be met to get funding.
Due to these requirements, he said thereâs no option to cut back or reduce the services they offer.
This means some staff may have to work longer hours or travel more. For example, Hughes said instead of covering one of the 10 counties the health department serves, someone may have to cover three.
Filling leadership positions like supervisor, manager and director roles presents a unique challenge.
Hughes said it can be difficult to bring in someone from outside the health department to fill those positions because of the size of the departmentâs jurisdiction. District Health Department No. 10 is the largest geographic health department in Michigan, covering 10 counties over 5,796 square miles.
Familiarizing oneself with the departmentâs coverage area and all the responsibilities that come with that can be daunting for some, Hughes said. This is why the health department tries to promote from within because their employees know the area and are familiar with the agency as a whole.
âWeâre fortunate that we have staff that are interested in advancing and moving up,â Hughes said. âWeâve been able to do that for most positions, but not all because there are some where nobody wants that position. At some point, there will be a challenge to fill that position.â
The appeal of working from home seems to be another obstacle the health department has to contend with. Hughes said they have to compete against peopleâs desire to work from home.
Many of the services the health department provides require people to be in the office. While there are some opportunities for remote work at the health department, Hughes said they also have requirements related to Internet connectivity.
These requirements may cause an applicant to look elsewhere for work, he said.
The health department has taken steps to draw in more applicants and retain current employees.
Hughes said one significant advancement they made was adopting a nine-step salary scale to offer competitive wages. However, he said the challenge will be to sustain that scale and avoid falling behind what other agencies are offering employees related to wages and benefits.
The availability of funding to cover the health department operating costs along with employee wages plays a role in all that, he said.
The health departmentâs board also increased the number of personal days to three to give its employees breaks. Hughes said employees can earn an additional personal day for every five years theyâve worked at the department.
One opportunity Hilkowski said sheâs happy they offer is paid maternity and paternity leave. If an employee is on leave for 12 weeks, she said the department pays 50% of their salary between weeks five and 12.
Employees use their paid time off during the first four weeks they are on maternity or paternity leave.
Hilkowski said they are continuing to look at other options, but have seen more consistency with employee retention since the pandemic.
One issue that still remains prevalent is the responsiveness of applicants. Hughes said there are still times when they try to schedule an interview and donât hear back from them.
Other times, he said they have had people come in for their first day of orientation and never hear from them again. Why this continues to be an issue is unknown, Hughes said.
Education is one of the main focuses as the health department continues seeking out new employees.
Hughes said they want to talk to people about the essential services they provide while moving away from what was done during the pandemic.
The goal is to re-establish relationships with the community and develop new ones to build trust for the health department, he said.
âUltimately, we are tasked with maintaining and improving the health of a community,â he said.
âRegardless of whatever else you want to do, if you donât have a healthy community youâre not going to be successful. Weâre just trying to showcase that and trying to convince people this is really what weâre trying to work on.â
