It’s hard to find good help these days, and Guilford County Manager Mike Halford knows that as well as anyone. He recently told the Guilford County Board of Commissioners that, of 2,900 positions in Guilford County government, over 15 percent are currently vacant.
“Right now, we’re sitting at about 450 vacancies,” Halford told the board at a work session in the county-owned Truist Bank Building in downtown Greensboro.
“That’s created challenges for operations; that’s created challenges for our employees.”
He added, “This doesn’t account for how long it takes for somebody to be able to fully perform that job, particularly if they are new to the position.”
The county manager also stated that the number of vacancies had gone up from 435 – and thus was moving in the wrong direction. He pointed out that those remaining 2,450 people are serving a county population of well over 500,000.
Guilford County, Halford said, has one of the lowest ratios of employees to residents of any county in the state.
“When we talk about compensation,” Halford told the board, “realize that your employees are serving more residents per employee than almost every other county government in North Carolina.”
One of Halford’s favorite solutions to the problem is extremely straightforward: raise the salaries of county employees. Guilford County already gave every employee, including well-paid directors, a 5 percent raise near the start of 2022, and the new 2022- 2023 fiscal budget adopted in June provided county employees with a lot of other attractive benefits as well.
Halford said he would like to see the county move much higher up that pay ladder.
He said that not all areas of Guilford County government were suffering from the lack of workers to the same extent. He said new Emergency Medical Technicians recruitment programs had reaped benefits.
“It’s actually a success story,” Halford said of that particular category of employees.
Any employer that didn’t give a cost of living raise of 5% in the beginning of 2022 gave their employees a reduction in standard of living given the current inflation….including a 30% increase in property taxes!
That’s what happens when you vote democrats into power
I agree Chris. Council and city manager try to say they gave police a 5% raise in September. However they did not get the cost of living. So the “raise” to try and recruit and hire was actually 2% with a maybe something in May promise. This is while Winston got over 10% Durham over 10% Raleigh at almost 20%. And they all have take home cars.
I’ve given up. This council does not care about public safety. Until a crime personally touches one of them they will not act to make GPD competitive. So get used to the 100 vacancies and counting. One day they will not have enough officers to answer calls. And definitely not to solve crimes.
Only 99 jobs posted on Guilford County website. Maybe that would help. Also lots of these positions have tons of barriers to entry with lots of specific designations and certifications, etc. Most are just window dressing and do not make possible candidates that didn’t go straight in to government jobs decades ago.
Scott…. when will your recommendations for the November election be available??
Thanks Mason
The managers of Guilford County just don’t get it. It is not the compensation. It is treating your employees RIGHT. Management by persecution went out with the Middle Ages except at Guilford County. Admittedly I am bitter for not being recognized for my value to the county. Instead they recognized directors that don’t do anything much less come to the office and those that lied to county management. Is the county any better off since I retired. No I think not. But I will tell you, retiring from Guilford County government was the best decision I ever made.
Another signal…more taxes needed!
A better signal would be. It’s time to eradicate all the democrats move them all to Mexico or Martha’s Vineyard
It matters “WHO” we work for and with!!!! I would NEVER work for the present City Manager!!!! HE is probably WHY the ACC left Greensboro too.
The first vacancies that need to be filled are City & County Police officers. How obvious can that be? Nary a peep from the city or county govts.
Another reason for the vacancies are also just as obvious. Just go downtown to see who is running it, and how it is being run. Anyone on the ball want to work there?
Perhaps operations would not be so “challenged” if county employees spend less time “working” from home and more time working in the office. This applies to line staff and management as well. And another thing, quit wasting millions of dollars on software and systems that don’t work and end up being replaced by other systems that don’t work either.
Kyle Keton pointed out one of the issues with not being able to fill jobs for the County. Another is the mandate of having a specific vaccine that many do not want to have, which also led to many taking early retirement or leaving their jobs. Additionally, employees don’t have the benefits packages that they were offered years ago due to the financial burden it was putting on the County and State, so retirement offers from private companies looked much better than those of local government. The last consideration is the public attitude toward government employees which has been stated often even on this platform. Many often have a less than positive attitude towards those who work for the County assuming that they get paid to do little or nothing each day which is far from the truth. Most County employees are caring people who work hard and do their best under adverse conditions with outdated equipment, incompetent supervisors, little ability to advance, stupid pay grades with ridiculous increases in wages, increasing duties with no compensation, the constant stress of losing their jobs due to budget cuts, and a public that is constantly waiting to find fault with your work so they have a reason to sue you. Working for the County (and City) is not easy and over the years has become a less than desirable option for people looking for work.
Money is NOT going to fix his problem. It is all about the culture he has helped create and foster. Let’s hire more and more “management”. Before I left there were either in existence or planned, 4 levels of management above me in a department with less than 40 employees that do the actual WORK. That place is so top heavy with people that have nothing but “credentials”, I’m amazed it still stands. Let’s just say delegation due to incompetence is an acceptable management style at GC. Casual conversation in this place sounds like talk you hear in a prison yard. Hey, I’ve got 2 years 1 month and 7 hours. In some departments it is truly like working in a prison camp. Mr Halford’s biggest problem, the new generation of workers will NEVER work in these conditions. I didn’t let my “time served” stop me from getting out of that place, my health and sanity were too important. Remember EVERYONE deserves to be treated with respect. Good luck, you’ll need it.