Competitive job market prompts Spartanburg County to get creative with retainment measure

Spartanburg County Council approved a policy waiver that will enable county employees to carry over unused vacation time into the next year.

County Administrator Cole Alverson said currently, the county requires all unused vacation days to be forfeited at the end of each year.

"This results in many employees, particularly those with long tenures, losing earned annual leave hours," Alverson said.

But because of a competitive labor market locally, combined with dozens of job vacancies in the county, Alverson said allowing employees to carry over their unused time into 2022 would help retain them.

"Employee recruitment has become much more difficult and competitive," Alverson told County Council Monday. "Employee retention has become much more operationally imperative. Consequently, we have been working to constantly re-evaluate our strategies, marketing, offerings and our unique qualities as a top employer."

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With the end of the year fast approaching, he asked for a one-time waiver to give his staff time to come back to council with a "firm recommendation to consider at a future meeting.

"In the interim, this will provide flexibility to departments and employees in scheduling leave," he said.

Of the 1,420 authorized full-time positions in the county, 156 of them are vacant, according to the most recent personnel vacancy report. The department with the most vacancies is the Detention Center, 50; communications operations, 17; sheriff's, 12; and roads and bridges, 10.

Seeking to fill more than 50 of the openings, the county held a job fair last week at the Cleveland Park Event Center. It was held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 9.

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County spokeswoman Scottie Kay Blackwell said the event drew more than 100 potential applicants.

"Just from observing, it appeared that our Sheriff's Office/Detention Center, 911 and Assessor's Office were some of our most popular tables, but every table was visited quite a bit and there was never really a lull at any point," she said. "We had a line waiting outside the door at 9:45 a.m."

How many jobs to be filled remains to be seen, but Blackwell said department heads were optimistic.

John Burgess, recruiting officer for the Sheriff's Office, said there were more than 20 job seekers who were interested in openings, with many seeking employment at the Detention Center.

Blackwell said the county plans to hold more job events, perhaps on a quarterly basis.

"All of the departments that participated this time said they'd be back next time, and we hope to add more departments to the list," she said.

Contact Bob Montgomery at bob.montgomery@shj.com

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Spartanburg County OKs waiver for employees to carry over unused PTO