SUDBURY - The Sudbury health unit, which oversees the delivery of public health programs and education in the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts, said it is facing a challenge to keep qualified employees.
Details were revealed last week during the monthly Board of Health meeting for Public Health Sudbury and Districts (PHSD) where a formal presentation was made, and plans were laid out for a market salary review along with exploring the idea of using employment search firms to find qualified candidates.
The board members were told that the health unit, like many other public agencies, is facing a shortage of qualified and skilled employees, especially as a generation of older workers retire.
"Many employers are experiencing skill gaps as Baby Boomers retire and exit the workforce, taking vast amounts of experience and knowledge with them," said Troy Haselhurst, PHSD manager of human resources (HR).
"Often there is insufficient talent filling for positions which can impact services, growth and innovation."
It was also mentioned that many public health employees experienced burnout and exhaustion during the pandemic and decided to quit their employment earlier than expected.
Another issue is the increased level of competition.
"There is greater competition for resources in the labor market. Candidates have more places to choose from," said Haslehurst. She added that qualified individuals can choose workplaces that are a better fit for their own preferences related to compensation, career advancement and workplace flexibility.
She said there is the added challenge of being a publicly funded agency because this can limit the funding available for salaries.
"Budget constraints also impact recruitment, making it more challenging as organizations struggle to offer competitive compensation packages to attract high talent," she said.
The pandemic put added pressure on the health unit as there were greater demands on staff to look after vaccines and prevention programs over and above regular duties. There were also many temporary hires and a large staff turnover, said Haslehurst.
She said PHSD is only now returning to pre-pandemic staffing levels, but there are new challenges as the health unit is facing additional responsibilities due to increased mandates and expectations from the provincial government.
"This includes the COVID-19 response, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination, and new expectations for emergency preparedness," said Haslehurst.
Also speaking in the presentation was PHSD human resources officer Julia Demianiuk who said the health unit is facing competition for health care professionals from long-term care homes, hospitals and other agencies.
"Our agency has faced notable delays filling senior level I.T. positions and several management-level positions," she said, adding this was usually due to not being able to match compensation packages from other organizations.
"A total compensation package can include items such as base salary, bonuses, allowances, retirement plan, professional development and benefits, just to name a few," she said.
Demianiuk said one of the strategies the HR department has set out to help attract new people has been to update the PHSD website recruitment page -- Join Us.
She said the idea is to showcase the health unit's competitiveness in attracting better qualified people, by outlining the salary, the benefits and the pension plan.
"We do continue to utilize our social media platforms and online job search platforms to promote and advertise current job opportunities."
She said her department has used executive search firms to help find qualified individuals and that PHSD keeps in contact with certain retirees to fill temporary gaps and specific project work that those retirees are qualified for..
Demianiuk added that a request for proposal process was issued for a market salary review.
"This will hopefully help us be more competitive in the future."
Haslehurst said the use of "head hunters" is not done routinely, but it has been done in the past.
One of the questions put forward by the board was whether PHSD had any sort of policy of professional development for existing employees and for promoting from within.
Haslehurst said yes.
"We have a really strong professional development program, and we definitely do look through internal staff, through succession planning, through opportunities for staff development, and early identification of individuals that are interested in promotions like that," she said.
Len Gillis covers health care and mining for Sudbury.com.
