The Habersham County Board of Commissioners voted Monday night to contract with Evergreen Solutions, a Florida-based business consulting group, to complete an employee pay study.
County Manager Alicia Vaughn has spoken on multiple occasions about the importance of a pay study, with herself and the county commission agreeing that the reason for the county’s many open positions and high turnover rate is because of pay. The county currently has a slew of open positions, from public safety to public works.
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The county had originally planned to contract with the Carl Vinson Insitute of Government (CVIOG) at the University of Georgia to complete the study, but due to staff shortages at CVIOG, they were unable to complete the study.
The study will cost the county a total of $34,500 and will investigate current county employee pay and benefits, how they compare to other surrounding labor markets and look internally at employee opinions. The organization will help the county understand how to keep their pay and benefits competitive, create a comprehensive report on pay, benefits and employees and recommend employee recruitment and retention strategies.
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Habersham County Human Resources Director Ann Cain says that having a third party look into the county’s pay scales, benefits and employee concerns will give the county a better understanding of their current challenges.
“They look at it [objectively],” Cain tells Now Habersham. “They do the research, they’ll go around to other [surrounding] counties, our competitors, and then other counties in the state of Georgia who are our size, who are governed like we are, and then they’ll get all the information from them and combine it.”
Cain says that overall, the third-party investigation will be more in-depth and thorough than what the county could do internally.
“It’s important because, if you look at our retention, are [our employees] being paid for what they’re supposed to do, and are we competitive?” Cain says. “I know you know about the great resignation that they’re talking about, and it really is the truth. People are not wanting to work, and so we have to be very competitive.”
She says that while the county may not be able to meet the same pay amounts as other counties, they can work towards making other things better than other counties, like benefits and workplace environment.
“We need to know what the people around us are paying their people, and how can we be [competitive],” Cain said. “We may not be the same, but what else can we do to make it better and make it a place they really want to work?”
SEE MORE:
Current county employee pay compared to surrounding counties, municipalities
