By Kim McDarison
Struggles with employee recruitment and retention have become high on the list of challenges facing local public entities such as municipalities and school districts.
Dodge County Interim Administrator Jon Hochkammer told Fort Atkinson Online Thursday that similar struggles exist at the county level, and, he said, the position of finance director is one of the hardest to fill.
Hochkammer serves as an interim administrator, contracted through Public Administration Associates (PAA), the recruitment firm which has been working with Dodge County to help fill two positions: county administrator and finance director.
The county administrator position has been filled, Hochkammer said, noting that Whitewater City Manager Cameron Clapper will be taking the administrative helm in Dodge County on Aug. 21. Clapper’s last day as city manager is Aug. 12.
Four months ago, Hochkammer said, the county began its search for a new finance director, and two months ago, after the county discovered a lack of applicants, PAA was asked to step in and help.
“The county didn’t have much success with their recruiting process and we (PAA) have found the same thing,” Hochkammer said.
The county interviewed a candidate for the position of finance director who had initially applied for the position of county administrator, he said, adding that the candidate had some background in finance.
Hochkammer said, when asked, the candidate expressed interest in the position of finance director. After an initial interview, he said, the county’s Finance Committee decided the candidate did not have enough credentials in finance.
A second candidate was interviewed, he said, but the candidate and the county could not come to an agreement regarding salary and benefits.
In both cases, he said, the candidates did not apply for the finance director position, but the county reached out to them.
After an agreement could not be reached with the second candidate, Hochkammer said, “the county board (of supervisors) chair and I recommended to the Finance Committee that we take a step back to allow us time to work on the annual budget.
“We can do that with the staff we have, and we will have Cameron on board. Then we can regroup in two months and attempt to do another recruitment, but for now, we wanted to wait.”
Having the new county administrator in place also was advisable before another recruitment round was undertaken, Hochkammer said, because it will be the county administrator who appoints the finance director. The Dodge County Board of Supervisors will then approve the appointment, he said.
“So right now, the process is at a stand-still. We will wait another month or two and see if the timing might be different for an individual or two,” he said.
When the process resumes, interviews will take place at the Finance Committee level, he said.
“We have no candidates at this time. We anticipate filling the job when we have a qualified candidate. If we find the right candidate, we are ready to fill it,” Hochkammer noted.
Currently, there is a lot of movement between private-sector entities and jobs, Hochkammer said.
Still, he noted, “recruitment is difficult because more people are retiring than there has been in a long time, so there is just a shortage of people at the different levels with the different kinds of experience.”
A lack of qualified candidates is further complicated by stress and burnout in the workplace, he said.
In the private sector, those working in the field of finance struggle with ever-dwindling operational and improvements budgets.
The stress and burnout is causing a lot of public-sector professionals to seek opportunities in the private sector where often they are offered more lucrative compensation packages, he said.
Stressors such as COVID also have played a role.
”Recruitment and retention is becoming more challenging like we’ve never seen it before,” he added.
Hochkammer said he was aware of other counties that also are in the market for a finance director, and some of them had been searching for even longer than Dodge County.
County-level work is specialized, he said. With 72 counties in Wisconsin, he described the pool of resources as “limited.”
When Dodge County resumes its search for a finance director, he said, the county will work through the Finance Committee to conduct interviews.
“We will keep working on the process, but the last thing we want here is to get behind on the budget process,” he said.
Hochkammer noted that PAA has a contract with the county that stipulates that if the company is not successful in finding a finance director within the first recruitment round, PAA will continue the recruitment process with no additional cost to the county other than the cost of ads for recruitments. He estimated that cost at about $2,500.
“We are still working on it,” he said.
An earlier story about the search for a finance director in Dodge County is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/musical-chairs-walworth-county-ties-to-dodge-county-searches/.
Dodge County Wisconsin Administration Building, Wikipedia. Created March 12, 2008. (Attribution/Sharealike.)
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Jefferson County also has hiring challenges, but they’re not compounded by a dysfunctionable board.