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County HR reports aging workforce, plans career development and succession programs
Summary
St. Charles County HR presented workforce data showing an aging employee base and lower turnover; the department outlined recruitment, training, and a new career development program to address retention and knowledge transfer.
St. Charles County's human resources department reported to the county council on July 28 that the county employs about 1,143 people with an authorized FTE of 1,279 and that a large share of staff are near retirement age.
Samantha Shadrach, an HR presenter, told the council the county's workforce is 58% male and that "the bulk of our workforce is at retirement age close to 64%." She said HR's recruiting activities include a countywide career fair attended by about 150 job seekers this year and participation in roughly 20 higher-education career events.
Shadrach outlined HR's training and evaluation programs: new hire orientation every two weeks, mandatory anti-harassment training at onboarding, and an annual performance evaluation cycle in November with a reported 98% participation rate and an average score near 4. She said the county requires an overall performance score of 3 or higher for merit increases.
To address turnover and looming retirements, HR plans a career development program launching next year with two main components: career planning for employees and succession planning for leadership. The program will use the county's tuition assistance, the HR learning library and a newly created job-mapping tool. Shadrach said the county also added an "HR senior generalist whose primary focus is to be a face in the field and to act as a liaison to our departments."
Shadrach presented other metrics the council may consider: time to fill vacancies has fallen from about three months to one-to-two months, turnover has decreased year over year and benefit enrollment among eligible employees is about 99%.
This presentation was informational; no council action or vote was taken. Council members thanked HR for the report and had no formal objections on the record.
Key discussion points: retention of top talent, competition with private-sector pay, knowledge transfer ahead of anticipated retirements, and efforts to increase HR visibility across departments.
Next steps: HR intends to implement the career development program next year, continue internship and recruitment partnerships with colleges and sustain the job-mapping and succession initiatives described in the presentation.
