The City of New Westminster is continuing to face “considerable service delivery challenges” and is now operating at 15 per cent below its normal staffing capacity.
A Dec. 12 report to council states the city has high number of vacancies. The current 71 vacancies represent about 10 per cent of the city’s total staff complement.
“Departments are also faced with gaps due to having a number of employees on leaves of absences (currently at 34 employees or approximately five per cent of staff complement,” said a staff report. “That means that the city is currently operating at 15 per cent below normal capacity.”
The senior management team is developing a plan to address these challenges.
At Monday’s meeting, council directed the senior management team to report back on a comprehensive staff recruitment and retention strategy for council’s consideration.
Monday’s update followed up on a May 30 report to council in which the chief administrative officer informed council about staffing resources challenges and impacts on department’s work plans.
The Dec. 12 follow-up report stated that the City of New Westminster continues to face staff challenges, an experience that’s similar to other public and private sector employers. The report noted the attrition rate of regular positions had remained at five to eight per cent annually from 2017 to 2019 (with a low of five per cent in 2019.)
“In 2022, the attrition rate is trending towards 10 per cent by the end of the year,” said the report. “This increasing rate of attrition year over year presents considerable service delivery challenges for a medium-sized organization such as the Corporation of the City of New Westminster.”
Coun. Tasha Henderson said it’s really important for the community to hear about the staffing challenges as it helps explain why some things have not been moving forward.
“It also really highlights the need to really think holistically and strategically about current workloads and what we're asking staff to take on,” she said.
Henderson noted there were a number of motions on Monday’s agenda from councilors, as well as some notices of motions that would be considered in January. She said council needs to really consider the lack of staff resources and the projects and work that’s already underway, so it can focus on key priorities.
“I also just wanted to have an opportunity to thank staff for really hanging in there. … These are very trying circumstances, and we're still seeing work get done in the city, which I think is pretty incredible given the state of affairs,” she told staff. “So thank you for doing an excellent job or jobs — plural at this point.”
Follow Theresa McManus on Twitter @TheresaMcManus
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