City of Kodiak trying to lower its staff turnover

In July, the City of Kodiak joined the City Wage and Compensation Study to find ways to lower its turnover rate. The study will compare Kodiak City government compensation to that of 12 other communities, including Ketchikan, Seward, Cordova, Homer, Kenai and Petersburg.

These locations were grouped together because they had comparable characteristics, such as population, geography and climates, according to Bahnke.

The survey is being conducted by the management consulting group Halcyon Consulting.

“We wanted to lend credence to this survey, and we wanted something high quality that would look at the good, the bad and the ugly,” Bahnke said. “We trust Halcyon.”

The survey is part of a larger effort to reform the city government structure.

Since January, Bahnke and Nanci Sharratt, the city’s human resources manager, have been reading through and rewriting rules and personnel regulations. During this process, they have been discussing the value of incentives, such as longevity bonuses, to motivate people to stay on staff.

On top of this, each department director has updated job responsibilities and descriptions to reduce inefficiencies. The city is also studying what motivates employees to stay on the job, with hopes of raising the employee retention rate.

“I like the four-pronged approach,” Mayor Pat Branson said during a work session discussing the topic. “It’s a full-scope of looking at all of this.”

In rewriting rules, introducing incentives, updating jobs and participating in the study, a.k.a. the “four prongs,” Bankhe and Sharratt have been looking at exit surveys. The primary reason that people leave their government jobs is because they are moving off-island, according to Bahnke. Sometimes they are retiring, and sometimes they are pursuing better work opportunities with higher pay, she said.

Councilmember Terry Haines believes that the city loses a large part of its workforce to states with better retirement benefits. 

“Essentially, what we have right now are people who come to the state to work during their prime,” Haines said. “Then they move out of the state and move somewhere else where they can get benefits for the rest of their retired lives, which we don’t offer right now in Alaska.”

The Alaska State Legislature has discussed expanding retirement benefits for employees who work for the state for an extended period of time. A few months ago, the state Senate discussed RIP for Public Employees/Teachers, legislation that would offer retirement incentives for certain public employees and teachers. The state is also considering expanding retirement benefits in the Public Employees Retirement Systems’ Tier IV program.

It’s addressing the same problem that the City Council is trying to — low retention rates among government employees.

If the State Legislature improves its employees’ retirement benefits, Haines said he is worried that it may complicate the city’s reform efforts. After he voiced his concerns, Branson pointed out that the state legislature may not revisit debate about Tier IV improvements anytime soon, let alone implement any changes to the program.