Help Wanted!

This chart, above, was provided to commissioners late last week by staff.  It shows the stark challenges we face with staffing multiple county departments......

Late last week HR Director Crystal Dadura sent commissioners the above table and additional information on vacancies throughout the county.

This report will be coming to commissioners monthly going forward.

Like so many communities, cities, counties and industries nationwide--we are hamstrung by a HUGE number of vacancies.

And as you can see from looking at the table above--this is impacting multiple county departments.

Next month, March, we are going on the offense to combat this issue, with an advertising campaign aimed at recruiting citizens to come and work for the county.

The item is on this week's agenda.

I look forward to its approval.

Major Tug-of-War Over EMS Workers Leads to Attempts at Poaching.......

 

Prospective employees for whom Escambia County had paid for training and certification recently received written offers to "pay the county back the tuition" and several dollars per hour in higher pay to leave our training pipline and join a private ambulance firm instead of going to work for Escambia County....The kicker:  This firm actually does business with Escambia County, works in Escambia County, and has historically made huge profits here....

It was brought to my attention yesterday afternoon that a local, for-profit ambulance service with offices nearby attempted to “poach” a soon-to-graduate class of entry level EMT’s who are currently finishing their coursework to be certified to work for Escambia County.

Yes---due to the ongoing, nationwide phenomenon of folks not wanting to work in this field and labor being extremely scarce--Escambia County has cultivated a group of 9 entry level personnel and agreed to pay for their coursework and certification in exchange for them to commit to working for the county upon graduation.  A good deal, and the BCC recently approved the payment of $2000 sign on bonuses to boot.

But now that this group of 9 is just about to graduate and be eligible for hire on as EMT’s in our EMS department---I’m told this other company has made written offers to each of these students---offering to pay the County back on their behalf if they come to work for this private company instead of the county.  Additionally, I’m told this company offered $2 Dollars per hour over what Escambia County would be paying them.

Apparently 8 of the 9 future EMT’s were poised to take this offer as of yesterday.

And then the staff sprung into action with a plan that came before the board earlier today.

We’re going to match the per-hour pay of this competitor to keep these EMT’s here in Escambia County.  This will be paid for within EMS’s current budget, as explained to the board this morning by