Custody, Corrections and Other County Facilities*

Salary ranges and ceilings for County positions do not provide incentive to recruit and retain dedicated and qualified staff. Positions remain unfilled and require upgraded salary incentives. Partially Agree. The Human Resources department partially agrees with these findings. Compensation is a component to attracting and retaining qualified and dedicated staff; however, it is not the only component. This is routinely raised as the main issue related to staffing and it is not always the case. The Board of Supervisors provided very generous compensation increases to all of the employees at the County of Humboldt in the last round of labor negotiations. This did not necessarily remedy all areas that have staffing issues, but this action did increase recruitment, retention, and staff morale in many areas. Other components that must be considered when determining effective recruitment and retention can include management and leadership style, physical working environment, cultural working environment, and work life balance flexibility. In some cases, employees are willing to take less compensation based upon these other factors. Human Resources agrees that there are still areas that need to be addressed from a compensation perspective, but to look at it only from a compensation perspective would be short sighted; thus, the reasoning for a partial agreement.