Syracuse City HR seeks more staff, highlights safety training and roughly $1.2M in workers’ comp savings

At a Syracuse City Council budget hearing, the Department of Personnel and Labor Relations presented staffing gaps, safety initiatives and a requested administrative hire while reporting a drop in lost work days and an estimated $1.2 million in workers’ compensation savings from recent risk-management efforts.

The department’s presenter, identified in the hearing as a staff member from the Department of Personnel and Labor Relations, told council members that lost work days have fallen from “over 2,500 lost days at work down to about 800,” and directly attributed an estimated savings of “about $1,200,000 in savings by actually managing our workers' comp.” The presenter also said recordable injuries fell about 29% from 62 in 2023 to 44 in 2024.

Those figures were presented alongside details of ongoing safety and training work. Lisa Schmidt, the department’s risk and safety manager, has led a suite of trainings including monthly CPR/AED and defensive-driving sessions, a monthly “stop the bleed” training, and a train-the-trainer approach that sends staff to state training opportunities (for HAZWOPER, silica, traffic control and confined-spaces training) and brings that instruction back to city worksites. The department also launched a safety handbook and is developing emergency action plans and a system of fire wardens for city facilities.

Why it matters: the…