Sheriff and HR cite vacancy pressure; county outlines 10‑year hiring and turnover data

Human Resources presented a detailed recruitment and hiring review for the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office at the Feb. 19 Human Resource Committee meeting, citing long‑term turnover patterns, recruiting steps taken and operational constraints that slow hiring.

Human Resources staff said the county uses continuous job postings for sheriff’s office positions to build applicant pools, and listed multiple steps where the hiring timeline can slow: manual requisition processing, application review backlogs, panel interview scheduling, in‑house background checks completed by detectives or jail administrators, and required pre‑offer meetings with the sheriff and undersheriff. Lisa Pohl, the HR generalist who supports the sheriff’s office, described those operational constraints and said she balances those duties with responsibilities across 19 departments.

HR staff presented 10 years of data (2015–2024). Highlights summarized by HR included 35 retirements on the sworn side over 10 years and similar sizable turnover in corrections and communications; the presentation also showed that continuous postings produced many applicants but relatively few qualified hires (example: one sample year produced 69 applicants that yielded 10 hires). HR described changes already made to speed hiring: eliminating written and certain written exams as pilots, moving suitability (pre‑psych) testing to occur immediately after interviews, lateral‑hire language in the labor contract to give experienced recruits expedited vacation placement, paid and unpaid recruiting advertising, and new cohort hiring for communications training.

Sheriff (name not specified on the public record transcript) told the committee the Sheriff’s Office has 219 positions authorized and, at the time of the presentation, about 28 vacancies with more retirements expected in the coming months. The sheriff said county government agencies are competing for a limited pool of candidates; he urged the committee to give “strong consideration” to wage and benefit increases during the upcoming wage study and collective bargaining negotiations, and asked the board to consider approaches such as larger shift differentials, vacation recognition for lateral hires and stronger post‑retirement insurance offerings as recruitment incentives.

The sheriff also asked the committee to consider whether the agency could have a full‑time dedicated HR person assigned to the sheriff’s office to speed requisition processing and hiring; HR staff confirmed Lisa Pohl serves multiple departments and that shared responsibilities can slow the hiring pipeline. Committee members discussed other ideas raised in the meeting — ride‑along programs, a Citizens Academy, explorer posts and targeted post‑secondary scholarship programs — but the sheriff noted training, vetting and certification requirements mean volunteers and interns cannot be directly substituted for certified deputies or correctional staff without completing required training and background checks.

County participants also noted recent contract changes intended to aid recruitment, such as lateral‑hire provisions that allow experienced officers to enter the pay and vacation schedule at a higher step (limitations on maximum credited years apply). Committee members and staff said contract negotiations are ongoing; the committee avoided detailed discussion of bargaining positions in public and acknowledged closed‑session options for labor negotiations when appropriate.

Human Resources captured the presentation and a multi‑slide packet (pages 14–52) with advertising, outreach metrics, hires and separations by category, and suggested next steps for recruitment and bargaining.