Stouffville CAO says town can't fill vacancies due to 'brand problem'

YorkRegion.com
Dec. 10, 2017
Simon Martin

It’s no secret that the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville has encountered major staffing issues in recent years.

Last year it was revealed that 32 staff had left the town since January 2015. As the town has scrambled to fill needed positions in various departments including development services and human resources they have run into a problem: nobody is applying for the job.

Roman Martiuk, who was hired this summer and is the town’s fifth CAO in three years, was blunt in his assessment of why the town can’t fill these positions. “We have a reputation brand problem.  We’ve had too much notoriety and it hasn’t been positive,” he said at the Dec. 5 council meeting. “Prospective staff members are not applying because we are known as a troubled municipality.”

The town has resorted to hiring headhunters to help fill the needed positions and they’re not cheap, Martiuk said. “There is a lot of arm-twisting we need to do to get people to come here.”

Earlier this year the town posted a human resources position for hire and received no applications from qualified candidates, Martiuk said. The position has subsequently been reposted through a recruiting agency and the town has received a number of qualified applicants who they will interview later this month.

Martiuk made the comments in relation to a report that showed the town is running a budget surplus of $1.5 million through nine months in 2017. Development Services was more than $1 million under budget as the town struggles to hire a senior planner.

The report said seven new positions were approved in the 2017 budget, two contract positions and six conversions. All new positions were expected to be filled by April which hasn’t been the case. That has led to roughly a $1 million surplus, which the report said is favourable numerically but not operationally.

Martiuk said he believes the town is making inroads in making the work environment more conducive for employees but said negative media about the town certainly has effect.

Last year, now departed HR manager Pavlina Thompson outlined major concerns regarding staff departures. “The level of trust in this organization is so low,” she told council.

At the time Thompson was the town’s fourth HR manager in a 12 month span. Thompson had contacted 12 individuals who had resigned to assess their motivations.

She found that dissatisfaction with the immediate supervisor and leadership, lack of trust, being disrespected and undervalued, lack of follow-up, lack of concern for employee issues, feelings of vulnerability due to staff exits and conflicts between council and staff and compensation dissatisfaction as major reasons for staff departures.

Unlike HR departments in most municipalities, including Thompson’s prior posting in Clearview near Collingwood, Whitchurch-Stouffville’s HR department is part of the office of the CAO, placing the CAO as the direct supervisor.

“In this organization, HR is not a stand-alone department, it reports and has to make decisions through the CAO,” Thompson told council.

“I cannot make high level decisions, I don’t even get to sign job offer letters,” she added.