Commission hears staffing, retention risks; HR urges adding FTEs and pay adjustments

City HR and utility staff presented recruiting and retention information on Aug. 5, warning that Wausau’s utility faces operational risk as a number of long‑tenured employees approach retirement and overtime costs mount.

Lisa, the HR director, told the commission she is preparing formal recommendations for September that will include pay adjustments and requests for additional full‑time equivalents (FTEs). She said she examined tenure distribution and noted that a concentration of longer‑tenured employees are nearing retirement age; losing them would erode “tacit knowledge” — the practical know‑how that is difficult to transfer by written procedures alone.

Lisa told commissioners, “Tacit knowledge is... the kind of knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing or verbalizing.” She said the utility has paid about $67,000 in overtime so far this year (about 1,600 hours) and that, by extrapolation, overtime could total about $130,000 and 3,200 hours for the year. Lisa said adding FTEs will bring overhead but also helps preserve institutional knowledge and provides capacity the utility lacks in middle management.

Staff said the packet includes budget estimates from 2022 and proposed numbers for 2026 that break out drinking‑water and wastewater enterprise funds; staff characterized the overall operating impact as roughly 1% and an additional 1.5% when adding positions, but said those figures are preliminary and will be updated. The director said the utility will bring specific recommendations next month and will work with finance on operating budgets. Commissioners asked for copies of the annual operating budgets; staff agreed to provide them.

No formal personnel actions were taken at the meeting; staff will return with a formal recommendation and supporting budget details in September.