Elmore County Commissions Efforts to Improve County Government Continues
Bart Mercer
Over the last two years the Elmore County government has seen a 38% turnover in workforce with replacement and training costs for new employees running between 16-21% of the annual cost for those jobs. This commission realized measures had to be taken to reduce employee turnover, ensure continuity of daily operations and retain experienced personnel. This was essential to maintain critical services and the efficiency of their delivery.
After the current County Commission took office the last part of 2016, the Commission identified the need to review operational policies and our organizational structure. By the spring of 2017, the Commission began the task of evaluating the daily operations and organizational structure of our county departments.
There were personnel related policies that needed review including the County Personnel Job Classifications. Some of these policies had not been reviewed or revised in more than 14 years. The County Employee Pay Scale had not been revised in over 10 years and the County Employee Personnel Policy in 14 years. To manage the review and revision of these policies individually, the Commission brought together a Policy Review Committee. The committee consists of county department heads (EMA, Operations and Highway), our countywide elected officials (Sheriff, Probate Judge and Revenue Commission) and Commission representatives. We tasked the committee to conduct a page by page review of the personnel policies, county employee job classifications and pay rates.
This Policy Review Committee evaluated 230 county employee positions with close to 100 job classifications being either rewritten or created. The county employee pay rates have also been revised using wage comparison data from nine other counties in Alabama. The nine counties used for comparison fell into one of the following categories; Neighboring counties that compete for our workforce; Counties similar in size to Elmore; and larger counties with similar population growth as Elmore County. The adjustments in the pay rates did not have a major impact on the general fund and did not require additional funding sources because they were attained through a combination of reducing current expenses and streamlining services.
The job classification and pay plan revisions received their final review and adjustment by the Policy Review Committee and were adopted as a part of the FY19 budget passed in September. The revised personnel policy is currently awaiting final review by the county’s legal counsel and self insurance counsel before the Commission considers it for adoption.
The personnel policy review and revision process should be completed by mid-December. During the process over 30 meetings of the Policy Review Committee took place with each resulting in additional inter-department meetings to allow for thorough review. Upon adoption of the policy, the Commission will focus its attention over the next year to implement the necessary training and evaluations for each department to implement a merit-based reward system for county employees.
Our very common-sense approach in evaluating and revising the policies didn’t cost tens of thousands of dollars and resulted in achievable recommendations. Often times an outside firm is hired and paid large sums of money to recommend unachievable actions. Our process relied on the best experts, our own people. This process will result in the best outcomes for our employees and our citizens. All of this work is part of an overall focus to improve and modernize county operations and to deliver the most efficient services to the taxpayers of Elmore County.