Staying on Top of Recruitment and Retention Will Take More Than Just More Job Ads

May 1, 2022

By Rob Carty, ICMA

Recruitment and retention are on top of everyone’s minds these days given a combination of factors: more retirements have opened up the job market, and pandemic-related flux has added to the job-seeker’s opportunity: more opportunity means more departures. There’s also burnout, and sometimes poor supervision or management decisions lead to employees looking for greener pastures sooner than they might have otherwise. It’s an employee’s market.

But there are things we can do to attract, and also retain those critical public servants needed to keep our communities not just operating but also thriving in these uncertain times. Below is a selection of ICMA’s Career Compass articles that offer a variety of ideas to help steady the rocking workforce boat. Even when some of the content is directed to staff, read it with your management empathy hat on: get inside the mind of your team to help uncover some of the factors that may be contributing to higher than normal turnover. Some of the strategies will be easy, but others may take a top-down and bottom-up evaluation of organizational culture, and a willingness to make drastic changes.

• Career Compass No. 95: Use Return-to-Office as Your Opportunity to Reset Culture

• Career Compass No. 91: Post-Covid, What is your Leadership Narrative?

• Career Compass No. 85: To Thrive in Post-Pandemic, Enhance Employee Experience

• Career Compass No. 80: To Retain Your Talent, Use Stay Interviews

• Career Compass No. 54: How Do I Position Myself for Advancement?

• Career Compass No. 29: Forget Work-Life Balance...Re-Energize at Work and at Home!