By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
In the current workforce environment, many businesses are struggling to
find employees and Barton Community College is no different. As of Tuesday,
Barton Vice President of Administration Mark Dean said the college had 65
openings. Some of those vacancies have been open for over three years.
Barton has seen an increase in applicants since adding job descriptions to the
job-advertising website of Indeed. The college is also looking at an incentive
package to promote the recruitment of potential qualified applicants.
"We're providing a little more flexibility as far as remote work," said Dean. "Some of those positions can work remotely (at home) part of the time. Some of the applicants that contact us, that's one of their main questions. How much am I going to be able to work remote?"
One of the most stated problems to filling and retaining the college’s hourly
positions is low wage. Dean said he does have budgeted dollars to hopefully
raise hourly rates in hopes of making Barton’s jobs more attractive.
Barton Board of Trustees member Gary Burke said something needs to be done before
the college’s quality of services drop.
"I was on an airline last month, and one of their workers told me they were 6,000 positions short of being fully staffed," said Burke. "It showed in their service. We don't want that to happen to our end of it if we have that many open positions. Sooner or later, that has to affect the quality of our product. People notice that."
Dean said recent retirements of employees, with many years of service, have
added to the employment challenges. Current employees are also testing the job
market looking for higher wages and increased flexibility.
A wage increase for all employees will likely come before the Barton Board of
Trustees next month.