Council hears exit‑interview findings as personnel strategy focuses on retention and career ladders
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Summary
City HR and managers told council exit interviews cite supervisory problems, safety concerns and dissatisfaction with positions; council discussed career ladders, reclassifications and overlapping hiring needs as tools to retain staff and reduce vacancies.
City HR and department leaders told the Dover City Council that exit interviews, while voluntary and completed only by a subset of departing employees, repeatedly flagged supervisory concerns, safety worries in the field and dissatisfaction with pay and duties as reasons for leaving.
Why it matters: Personnel costs and retention were a central theme of the budget review; council members pressed for data on turnover and asked departments to tie reclassifications and career ladders to clear retention and recruitment outcomes.
What HR reported Naomi Poole, the HR staff member who answered questions at the meeting, said exit interviews are optional and “we request it,” and that completed interviews are routed to department managers and the city manager for follow up. Poole summarized common themes: supervisory problems, some employees “not satisfied with the position itself,” statements that “I feel unsafe in certain circumstances” and pay concerns.
Quantified turnover and follow up City Manager David Hugg and department heads said the number of completed exit interviews this fiscal year was “a handful” — roughly half a dozen by Hugg’s estimate — even though more employees had left. Planning and building staff reported higher turnover: one department head said building inspections had seen roughly a 67% turnover rate after two retirements, and code enforcement lost four of six staff over about 18 months.
Retention tools in the budget Council and staff described a package of non‑salary and salary measures aimed at improving retention: career ladders, reclassification tied to certifications (for example, ICC code updates), succession hires to overlap retirements and targeted regrading to create advancement opportunities. Department heads said some roles are hard to fill because specialized credentials — for example, plan‑review certification for a chief building inspector — are scarce in the market.
Ending: Council members asked for more granular competitive‑pay benchmarking and for staff to report back with measurable metrics linking reclassification and career‑ladder steps to retention improvements.
